Port Elizabeth of Yore: Photographs of William Alcock

In 1891, William Alcock displayed his penchant for photography by attending the inaugural meeting of the Port Elizabeth Photographic Society on the 27th July held in the Algoa House Hotel in Western Road. Alcock was appointed its first Chairman. 

This is an eclectic collection of photographs taken by William Alcock.

Main picture: July 1902. The first motor car to successfully negotiate Van Stadens Pass – a 4.5 hp Benz owned by W. Alcock

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Oddities Portrayed in these Unusual Photographs

Oddities prevail everywhere. Whether it is people with too much time on their hands who design the most exquisite but odd creations to an ape grooming a buck as if it were a fellow ape, the world has seen it all. Some are just happenstance – chance in modern parlance – being in the right place at the right time, such as a ship crashing into a pier or due to exquisite timing when a fish eagle catches a fish. 

All in their own way are highly unusual.  This blog reveals forty such eclectic oddities.

Main picture:   Who would want to cycle around on a toilet? Clearly the designer / builder is not out to impress the females but rather his own ego.

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Lost Photographs of Berlin between 1939 & 1940

These photographs were taken between 1939 and 1940 in  Berlin and were lost for over 50 years  because the American photographer  disappeared at the beginning of the war, along with his Roliflex camera.

Shown here are the originals (Used at that time in the production of  magazines). The majority are 6″ X 9″. They were found by a nurse in a Berlin  hospital, who kept them stored away during  all these years.

After her death her  daughter returned them to the current editors, who retain the copyrights to Life Magazine, which has not been published since the early ’70s

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Earliest Photographs & Photographers

This was another first for Port Elizabeth. By all accounts, the first photographic studio in the Cape Colony was established in Port Elizabeth using the first viable photographic process. This was known as the Daguerreotype process, introduced worldwide in 1839. For the following nearly twenty years, it was the most commonly used photographic process internationally. The first photograph using this process in Port Elizabeth was on the 17th October 1846.

Main picture: The Beach at South End in 1878

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