I’d run across these images a couple of times in the past and just set them side as hopelessly enigmatic. None are dated and only one has any label at all, which is written so sloppily it’s impossible to make most of it out. All I can be sure of is that the first name of the gentleman is Fred. Here he is:
It occurred to me when I saw them again today that one of you might be able to tell me something about this. I don’t know if the computer is for the library or for something else, if its purpose was research or administration. The file folder only says “Fondren Library Computer Project.”
The clothes suggest late ’50s or early ’60s, clearly sometime before the world went crazy, which I would put at about 1965 (at least clothes-wise).
There’s something else interesting here, in my favorite picture of the bunch:
Where’s that door?