JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
This is a photo from a small archive that we have here that once belonged to Alexander Uhl, a New Yorker (CCNY and Columbia School of Journalism) and a Major League Old-School reporter of a high order. This photograph is not identified except for Uhl’s name and date (May 1922) on the back, but my references for Uhl start only in 1935 when he began covering Spain for the Associated Press, where he remained to cover the war until 1938. Uhl went from there to Europe where he covered the war and post-war from 1940 to 1948–this for the famous Leftie newspaper PM, which vowed never to take advertising money and to survive on subscription and daily sales. They packed a lot of news into relatively small tabloid formats. In any event, I do not have the info of where the photograph was made, though it is Uhl in the middle with H.L. Mencken eyeglasses and cigar. It is a great scene, and shows the folks in the newsroom at work–if they weren’t on the phone, they were writing; if not writing, then typing. At middle-left is an office boy either sending or retrieving a morsel from a pneumatic delivery system.
Amidst the ties and suits, there is remarkably little clutter, and very little paper. There is a fair amount of grime, though.
It is also worth noting that Uhl’s wife, Gladys (Beauchamp) Uhl was Jackie Kennedy’s press liason in 1960.
This seems like a privately-held photograph, and probably has not been published before.
Also, here’s another Old-School bit: a pamphlet for the Associated Press:
