One day last week I was poking around in there and noticed that a photograph had gotten separated from its identifying material. I wasn’t worried about figuring it out where it belonged–there isn’t much in the box, and trial and error would have quickly matched the picture with the right identification–but where’s the fun in that? The photo itself wasn’t much to write home about, but what was written on the back was pretty intriguing:
I wanted to see if I could get it just from the clues on the picture. It turned out to be so easy, I’m nearly embarrassed. I just went over and got the 1949 campus directory, which is shockingly small, and looked around until I found the right office. Here’s the front of the directory (which includes no staff at all!):
And here’s the page with my guy on it: It was Edward Hake Phillips of the History Department, who I wrote about here. Luckily, this all adds up. The History Department was, in fact, in Anderson Hall in 1950 and Phillips’ office was on the corner of the second floor. There was also an envelope in the box with several other photos that were sent to us by Professor Phillips’ son. Case closed.
Bonus: Note the last name on the directory page–J.K. Risser, Associate Professor of Physics. Risser seems to have been a good friend of Phillips, and among the other photos from Phillips’ family was this one of Risser on his sloop in Galveston Bay.
I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time on sailboats and I believe this is the only time I’ve ever seen someone sailing in stocking feet.