JF Ptak Science Books    Quick Post

I’ve posted probably 100+ images from a stash of WWI News Photo Service photographs that I have here (you can find some of them by clicking on the WWI Photos link at the top of each page, located just under the blog’s banner, and read about the photo services) and the one I’m hosting today is one of the few sport-centric images in the 550 item collection. This is a “championship” bout being held at Camp Upton (Long Island, NY) in ca. late 1917/early 1918. The photos usually came with a typed description of the event that was used for a caption by the newspaper or magazine that published it, and this one (reproduced below) describes the scene. I’ve tried to enlarge some of the areas of interest in the image, but the original isn’t sharp enough to allow for more than about 250% increase. But that is good enough to give the viewer a sense of the density of the crowd, and the makeshift atmosphere surrounding the event.  

And the detail: