Lovely Weather For A Desert Sleigh Ride Together

June 1963, Kodachrome by Laurence K. Marshall

Yep, this is the classic National Geographic you know and love. Nearly naked barefoot bushmen covered in dust. And while their bellies look distended, the author asserts that is due to swaybacked posture, and neither gorging nor starving. At any rate, the toddlers seem to be enjoying the ride on a discarded cape, making due with what they had and using their imaginations to create fun. Such is life in the veld.

veld: wide open rural landscape in Southern Africa

New North

Nat Geo Aug ’47

Back when this photo was taken in the summer of 1947, Penasse, Minnesota was the most northerly post office in the US. Nowadays, it’s Barrow, Alaska. I’m pretty sure we’re done acquiring new states, so Barrow will probably retain the title.

The man  who looks like The Skipper from “Gilligan’s Island” is actually Captain Young, a veteran skipper of the mailboat Resolute (not the S.S. Minnow), which had just arrived on the 50-acre island from Warroad, just shy of Canada. The poor-postured woman with her pelvis tucked beneath her is postmistress Mrs. Fran Cole. The two men beside her, one of which appears to be leering menacingly, are Chippewa Indian fishing guides for summer visitors.