I had a very busy day with a nice surprise at the end. I opened a box that someone else was using and I found this picture of long-time German professor Max Freund taken on the occasion of his hundredth birthday in 1979:
(Side note: what do you make of that scale on his desk?)
As I’m sure you remember I wrote about Freund back in 2014 when I found a neglected box of glass plate negatives of photographs that were made in 1929. Here he is having his picture taken for the Campanile:
He died in 1980, a year after the first picture was taken. He had quite a career:
We have not one but two collections Freund’s papers in the Woodson, here and here. He actually taught classes in philology at Rice–I’m a big fan!
Bonus: They started removing the art installation between Sewall and Rayzor today. I’m kind of disappointed. I’d been looking forward to explaining it to parents who came in for commencement.
Postal scale, perhaps? I’m going through a box of glass plates I picked up over the weekend and am having a similarly fun time identifying subjects and scenes
I’m going to guess that he used the scale to weigh letters to get the right postage. I would imagine he sent a lot of mail to Germany.
I like the symmetrically-organized pictures on the wall.
Freud was a professor emeritus for 32 years. Did anyone else hold an emeritus title for that long?
Interesting question. I don’t know how to even start figuring it out.
The face of the scale appears to be very similar to that of this 5-pound-capacity Hanson postal scale said to have been made in 1925: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-hanson-brothers-lb-postal-469098474
🙂
Unfortunately, I don’t recall – and have not yet found any info online about — Shrine Circus performers joining in a MOB halftime. Or much info at all about MOB halftimes not already documented in the online archives (https://web.archive.org/web/20130901233616/http://mob.rice.edu:80/history/scripts/)
The Nov. 18, 1965, Thresher did feature a photo of two Shrine circus clowns who visited Jones College on Nov. 16 … as well as a review of the circus, which was performing at the Sam Houston Coliseum (https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/66424/thr19651118.pdf )
BTW, the Stancliff’s Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration was mentioned on page 29 of the Jan. 2, 1978 issue of “Circus Report” (http://www.circushistory.org/Publications/CircusReport02Jan1978.pdf) … and Florence’s request for early editions of circus publications appeared in its Sept. 19, 1977, edition (http://www.circushistory.org/Publications/CircusReport19Sep1977.pdf).
Also, Bert Roth became band director in 1967 (https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/66473/thr19670921.pdf and https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/88464/wrc04752.pdf) … not in 1969, as said in this 1979 Thresher article about his retirement: https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/67331/thr19791129.pdf).
Yep, it’s a Hanson postal scale, I have it sitting on his desk in my home, and still use it to weigh envelopes when mailing, although can’t use the chart — it’s a bit dated. It says a 1 oz. letter costs 2 cents! We still have the lamp too!
Edward England – one of his grandchildren!
a little more clarification from the family :
the 1st picture is definitely professor Freund – however a very reliable source says the 2nd picture
is not him but is a professsor from the French department who looked a lot like him –
also a small error in the article which states his daughters as “Heidl” & Grete – they were actually
Heidi & Grete –
another interesting fact is the bullet from WW1 missed his heart by only 1″ – we are all very
grateful he managed to survive that wound !
also the picture to the left of his beard is his wife & the one to the left of that is his older sister
who he greatly admired & who helped him on many occasions with his educational finances in his
earlier years –
on a personal note he was a very big believer in staying fit & kept himself in excellent shape
by walking every day along with other exercises he did religiously – on more than one occasion
he would ehaust his grandchildren by walking them around Rice Stadium at a quick steady pace
with cane in hand – it was quite a workout for the times –
his key to longevity was a single glass of Sauterne wine every evening after dinner –
he was a remarkable man.