Say Cheese!

Space in archives is a constant concern: we are always going to run out of shelf space for holdings at some point. One way of not using up space too quickly is to try to avoid adding duplicate materials to our collections. The more complete our catalogues, the easier this becomes, which is one reason we have been prioritizing getting our online catalogues as comprehensive as possible. A large part of our photograph digitization project was identifying duplicate images and only sharing one photograph online, as far as we are able.

Back in January we received a donation of a photograph of a 1950s baseball team made up of employees from Stephens-Adamson, the Belleville manufacturer of conveying equipment.

The team included Gordon Cooney (fifth from left at the back) and the photograph was taken in front of a fountain that used to stand at the Quinte Exhibition grounds in Belleville.

Today another photograph arrived at the Community Archives, and at first sight it seemed to be the same image.

Neither image is perfect: one has a crease across it, and the other is slightly marked with a stain. A closer look showed that they are not actually prints from the same negative.

Compare the photographs of this man, standing in front of the fountain in both images:

Undoubtedly it is the same person, but with a very different expression on his face. Looks like we will be keeping both of these photographs, after all!

We don't know exactly when this photograph was taken, or the identities of any of the people in it, apart from Gordon Cooney. Please let us know if you can identify any of the players, or if you have any information about the team.