I've been waxing nostaligic over some of the stuff I got from my grandfather when he passed away.  Fortunately, he was a prolific horder of stuff, and a very good photgrapher to boot.  He served in the US Army in the '20s in the Panama Canal Zone where he was a backseat photographer in a DeHavilland DH-4 biplane.  During WWII, and the Korean War,  he was an officer in the Transportation Corp.  He kept his camera handy.  

Here's a few of the hundreds of pictures he left us...

My Grandfather, going to work

USS Los Angeles, Panama Canal Zone

HMS Renown going through the lock in the Panama Canal.  This ship  hunted the Graf Spee in WWII, and engaged the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

Another view...

USS Saratoga, survived WWII, sunk in an atomic blast...

Old airplanes...

Head of the US Army Air Corp in the top photo..

I have hundreds more photos like theses.  Some takes of ships that never survived WWII.  Many pictures of submarines.   Some of Admiral Byrd's ship passing through the Canal.  Many aerial photos of the harbors.  

My Grandfather was present when Lindbergh visited Panama and I have very many unique photos of Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis.   These have never been seen before, and never published.  

He also had a penchant for the indians living in Panama and went among them photographing them (lots of boobie shots  ;D), as well as the flora and fauna (snakes, lizards, other critters).  He kept an ocelot as a pet.  

He left me a dinner menu from the China Clipper.  Currency from every country he was in.  He left me old Stars and Stripes News papers from VE day.  A newspaper from when Lindbergh's baby was found dead.  He left me photos of trains in England, france and German.  He left me a piece (a chunk really) of a V-1 flying bomb that went off near his depot in England.  He left maps for tracks, and photos of trains in Korea.  He had a fascination for prisoners of war and photographed them in Korea.  He left me many color photos he took of North Korean and Chinese prisoners that came and went on US trains.  

I've had this stuff since 2001 and I've scarely scratched the surface.  

I'm going to start to scan this stuff to the net.  If anyone is interested, I'll post more stuff as a I do.  

(I'm sorry I have to mark the photos as "copyright" but I've encountered theft of some of the few pictures I've put on the net. )

really cool, I love stuff like this. I would be interested in seeing more if you post it.

Now I understand where you got the photography from...

Nice pics, Rowland. That is some pretty cool stuff.

man those pictures are priceless  they make you wanna grab a magnifying glass and study each one.what a neat collection to have.

The cool part is is that he didn't just leave photos.  He left a treasure trove of other stuff, too.

Stars and Stripes newspapers

His Marlin 1893 .30-30 Rifle

He was the last known surviving member of the Lone Scouts - founded by W. D. Boyce, the same man who founded the Boys Scouts of America

Membership card

I don't know how I will even beging to archive the stuff he left behind.  

He left behind more than 1,000 photo slides.  No telling what is on them.

That is some great stuff and I love the rifle. Can you do some more posts each week?

Great pictures!  You have enough to publish a book.  Maybe a few.

That is too cool.

I have a Japanese flag that was flying over a garrison that my great uncle and his Rangers took. It is signed by his platoon/squad/group/whatever. Also have his entire uniform including wool trench coat, a huge amount of his war correspondance to and from home, a few pictures, and an Arisaka and officers Katana that he brought back with him.

He spent 6 months in a POW camp before escaping. An amazing man.

Thank you for sharing those wonderful pictures.

i know everybody is in their fishing mode still but can you imagine come winter when most of us have nothing to do you have all this collection to study.how great.

Very cool.

Wow... awesome!

Thanks for sharing.

For military, naval, and aviation buffs, this collection is priceless!  Assuming you can retained rights to the images, you ought to make these photos available/accessible to museums, history authors, etc.  I'm sure they are always looking for new/fresh images to publish, etc.  It's great that you shared them with us!  Take good care of these photos!

Absolutely awesome stuff to have! Probably tough looking at pics with him. My gramps left me a mess of stuff from WWII. Think of him everytime I look at them.

Good stuff Micro!

Awsome!! I love history