JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
This image–a part of this blog’s longish series of posts on The History of Blank, Missing and Empty Things–shows military band instruments left where their players last put them. I’m uncertain if the instruments were left as a (perhaps) temporary monument to the band members going off to war, or if it was more permanent (judging from the fallen leaves), or, well, I’m not sure. The picture comes from The Illustrated London News for November 1941, at perhaps one of the lowest points in the war. It is a stark photograph which strongly drives the point of sacrifice and possible loss.