The Lost Photos of the 1940's
by: Donald Derrick and Wendell Page

1935 - KODACHROME Film was introduced and became the first commercially successful amateur color film initially in 16 mm for motion pictures. Then 35 mm slides and 8 mm home movies followed in 1936.

In 1936,  Argus Camera Company marketed one of the first 35mm cameras using the newly developed color slides. Dr. Cunningham, the Professor of Geography at Florence State Teachers College purchased one. This was probably the Argus Model "A" camera.  Prior to 1938,  the exposed rolls were sent to Kodak for processing. Around 1938,  you could develop your own exposed rolls and make color slides. In the black and white process you could have a small wattage red light bulb as you developed. With the new color film, no light of any kind could be used . You had to work in total darkness during the developing process.  

In the fall of 1941,  Dr. Cunningham telephoned a young teacher in the Scottsboro city school system to see if he would do a large job for him in Jackson County. It would not be a quick job.  The young man had worked as an assistant for Dr. Cunningham while earning his teaching degree from Florence State Teachers College.  The Jackson County Board of Education contracted Dr. Cunningham for color photographs of each school building in the Jackson County school system. Dr. Cunningham would furnish all of the equipment including his newly acquired  35mm camera. The young teacher from Scottsboro would be working under the supervision of  the attendance officer, Miss Adella Rivers who also provided the automobile. The young man accepted the job and went with Miss Rivers all over the county making color pictures.  On their way to a school, Miss Rivers would have the young man take a shot of anything that she thought  would be historical or beautiful. They photographed for several Saturdays in the fall of 1941 and spring of 1942.

The exposed film was returned to Dr. Cunningham in Florence for processing. More than 100 photos were made during this project.  Dr. Cunningham also provided a projector as part of the contract. Miss Rivers showed the slides all over the county until she retired in the mid-1950s.  The young man never knew what became of the photos after the retirement of Miss Rivers.  He once inquired about the photos and he was told they had burned in a fire.

      The pictures were to never be seen again until the year 2000.  The Jackson County Board of Education was in the process of relocating offices and came across some old color slides at the courthouse.  They were found  in a closet by a Woodville High School graduate and board member Dale Evans Cain.   The slides were labeled according to the town in the county in which they were made, with the month and the year.  The slides contained a picture of every school in  Jackson County.  It was decided  the slides of the schools would be sent to Chattanooga so prints could made and displayed at the Board office. The slides of the school buildings sent to Chattanooga were eventually lost and were never recovered.  The remaining slides were kept in storage for three more years in Scottsboro.

      In late 2003, Debbie Manning sent each town's slides by mail.  Fortunately, there was more than one slide made of Woodville High School. Faye Cook received the 11 slides for the Town of Woodville. She passed them on to Bill Pockrus who scanned them on his computer into a viewable format.  Mr. Pockrus phoned Donald Derrick, who runs the Town of Woodville's website,  and said he had some old pictures of Woodville that he had to see.  Donald Derrick passed them along to Mr. Wendell Page, a friend and fellow historian who lives in Scottsboro.  Mr. Page just also happens to be a retired school teacher from the  Scottsboro city school system who had been wondering for close to 50 years whatever happened to those color slides he made when he was young!