German drivers license - Bain (LOC)

    Bain News Service,, publisher.

    German drivers license - Bain

    [between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915]

    1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.

    Notes:
     Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards.
    Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).

    Format: Glass negatives.

    Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

    Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

    General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain

    Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.10640

    Call Number: LC-B2- 2425-10

    Comments and faves

    1. ★

      sonolisto and yarnzombie added this photo to their favorites.

    2. sahwise (59 months ago | reply)

      It looks like a passport. I wonder if they could use this in place of a passport in some cases.

    3. ★

      Branddobbe added this photo to his favorites. (58 months ago)

    4. stumblng.tumblr (58 months ago | reply)

      I decided to do a bit of digging into the LOC photos posted here, as well as into some other materials, to see what I could find relating to the Bain News Service.

      This photo is a good start, because it shows us George Grantham Bain himself. You can see his signature in the bottom right hand corner of the document, which is from 1912.

      Here's a brief Wikipedia page about him: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Grantham_Bain

      I should also mention this page that has information about the Bain collection:

      lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/ggbainhtml/ggbaintips.html

      It contains two GG Bain images that I couldn't find uploaded to Flickr:

      hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.15074 (a photo of GGB undated) and hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.06606 (a caricature of GGB undated).

      Next, comes three photos that are a set:
      www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/216 3811426
      www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/216 3011685
      www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/216 3010885

      They all show the same man (is he GGB? I don't think so) at the same machine.

      The first of the three shows the machine facing in a particular direction and also shows some menial peering out of a store room at the photographer.

      The second of the three shows the machine facing in a different direction and no menial. Someone has written across the top of the photo "Printing the Bain News Service photos" and has also written on the machine "Bain-McDonald auto-printer" (could the man in the photos be McDonald perhaps?). There's also an "X" placed over the store room area.

      The third of the three photos is the second photo again with bits blanked out.

      Next comes www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/216 3507966
      which is a 1910 subscription to GGB's service by a Canadian newspaper.

      Finally, there is www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/216 3813254
      which shows firemen on the roof of the Bain News Service Building in 1912, putting out a fire. (Was the building, perhaps, at the address shown in the preceding photo?)

    5. ★

      jf laborde added this photo to his favorites. (57 months ago)

    6. BobMeade (56 months ago | reply)

      ^thanks, that's good information.

    7. ★

      memos to the future added this photo to their favorites. (54 months ago)

    8. memos to the future (54 months ago | reply)

      interesting to see mr. bain, a new york photographer from chicago, getting a german driving license. I suspect he had to be fluent in german to get it.

      the license isn't issued by an equivalent to the modern DMV (or KBA in germany) but the local Hamburg police. the stamp with the three turrets, similar to the official sign of the free city, is noteworthy as it has been in use since 1412 until today. I've only seen one other handwritten german document of the time and that's a german passport hanging in the visitor area of the german embassy in new york city. it's dated from a similar or possibly even earlier time and authorizes the document to a gentleman with the expressed purpose of travelling to the united states (aka "Amerika").

    9. ★

      tracy_mueller, edvia6, bunkerspreckels, m-caple, and cousin fuller added this photo to their favorites.

    10. This photo was invited and added to the Old Drivers Licenses group.

    11. ★

      Timor Kodal added this photo to his favorites. (5 months ago)

    keyboard shortcuts: ← previous photo → next photo L view in light box F favorite < scroll film strip left > scroll film strip right ? show all shortcuts