“Archeology” continues to be a fascinating way to mine data from old photographs. In this particular instance, we have what appears to be the portrait of a family gathering to welcome home two soldiers from World War I. In 2009, one of the authors found this large photograph in a handmade wooden frame at a Central Virginia flea market. At the time he was working on a book about the American Occupation of Germany after WWI by the U.S. Third Army.
What made it particularly interesting was that the two soldiers in the image were wearing easily identifiable shoulder patches. One had the Third Army “A inside an O” (signifying Army of Occupation) patch, and the other had the 3rd “Marne” Division patch, one of the major units in the occupation of the German Rhineland. And so this photo was used in “In a Strange Land: The American Occupation of Germany 1918-1923.” to represent the happy homecoming of the soldiers
