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Nothing like the smell of ink early in the morning
By adamg on Wed, 09/13/2017 - 10:55am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
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Comments
Boston Printing Department
circa the end of Menino's tenure - 2010?
(incredibly they were still in operation as a jobs program until shortly after the financial crisis)
In all seriousness - looks like a trade school - was it the Bennett that used to be in the North End (which was near the city's printing facility?). I'll go with that and based on clothes I'll say 1930ish originally thought later - but I think I'm seeing some knickers there..
North Bennett Street Trade School
is still there
Printing Plant.
So I think you have this right. This is the old City of Boston printing plant which was still in operation in 2010 but had all its stuff auctioned off in early 2011.
It's now used as part of the North Bennet street school that moved into that building and the old police station next door.
Ceiling
The panslab ceiling is usually a 1950s thing.
My guesses:
1) Hyde Park High
2) East Boston High
3) South Boston High
Bizarro Vocational High
Bizarro Vocational High School, where things are printed backwards.
Bizarro
That would be if the things used for printing were readable.
Um ... you do realize
Um ... you do realize printing plates have to be mirror images, right ?
One clue
That appears to be Hebrew on those signs.
Not Hebrew
Just backwards (mirror-image) English. Put the photo in Preview and select "Flip Horizontal".
LOL
Thanks! It looked kinda Hebrew to me.
Cyrillic
My odd brain initially interpreted it as cyrillic, but then I quickly realized that it was a negative.
l
Martin Milmore School
Dad's Alma Mater
Since I don't have a better guess, I'll go with the High School of Commerce (became Boston English), where My Dad went to school.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
they
are working on their book reports
Don Bosco Technical School
Rockland Street, JP...around 1955
THE CIELING
IS similar to the old armory building on com ave.
much earlier than 1955.
but I like the don bosco guess
Boston Trade High School for Boys
In Roxbury.
Graphic Arts Union Local 5247
5247 in the back in the center of the photo might be
Graphic Arts Union Local 5247.
Neck trouble
I keep hearing about a recent affliction called "Smartphone Neck" or "Text Neck". Was "Typesetters Neck" a thing back in those days?
So that's what
...the Globe's new printing press room looks like...
The Art Deco Typefaces
Would indicate probably the 1930's. And despite what the background sign says, they don't appear to be doing anything really specific to printing. There's no press equipment or letter blocks in the pic. So they may also be sign making. (The voc school theory is a good one.)
The Answer
Thanks for playing folks!
This is an Interior Design class at the Washington Irving School in the 1936-1937 school year. The photo is tricky, because it was taken in the same room that was used for the Printing Class - but as you can see, they're drawing, not setting type.
We don't think the photo is backwards, we think that instead we're looking at type (which is backwards)
At least 4 of the students appear to be left-handed
Not impossible. But maybe the photo is backwards . .