To celebrate Kansas Day, I scanned some photos from Our Town on the Plains: J. J. Pennell's Photographs of Junction City, Kansas, 1893-1922. (978.129 Shortridge)
John Welsh and catfish, 1901. Welsh's catch is surely worthy of this photographic record. Pennell used a backdrop that suggests that Welsh and the fish are still outside, not in Pennell's second-story downtown studio.
Second Battery gun squad, 1907. The U. S. Army defines artillery as any gun that uses ammunition greater than one inch in diameter and that is not fired from the hand or shoulder. This piece, although it was known as a "light field gun," certainly qualifies. The weapon was one of the first to incorporate a hydropneumatic recoil system, which allowed it to remain relatively stationary after firing. The "trail" (where the dog is sleeping) contains a spade at the end. This would dig into the ground to help keep the weapon in place during recoil. The barrel could be adjusted to shoot at angles up to nineteen degrees above the horizontal, useful in attacking an enemy hidden behind a ridge. A caisson, a specialized cart, is on the left. It was used to haul the heavy three-inch shells.
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