JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I'm not sure that I understand this photograph and what is going on in it. I do know that it was made in 1918, and that the back is stamped "Photo by/Central News Photo Service/26-28 Beaver St., N.Y....", a product of not-very-discrete control of war images. The vast majority of photographic efforts of WWI were very deeply controlled, with little left to chance and uncontrolled. This lively image may be Doughboys inspecting female volunteers for lice--perhaps that was a job performed by these volunteers. Or something else, though I can't see what--the soldiers aren't using clippers, and they seem to be separating the hair.... So the subject matter isn't scrumptious, but the faces are--a break in the not-routine routine business of war.
[Doughboy: The origin of the term "Doughboy" is unclear, or varied, or rich, but it is at least pretty oldm beginning around the time of the Mexican American War in 1846-1848--evidently when the soldiers marched through dry, tough terrain they wound up being covered by earth with the color of dough. Doughboy.]
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