It’s been a long and fun year. We’re counting down to LDOC with Duke University Archives photos of Duke students having a good time!
The photo above comes from Trinity College student Charles Bagley’s scrapbook, which documents school life from 1907 to 1913. You’ll find a digitized version of the scrapbook on the Duke University Archives’ Flickr photostream.
(Thanks to University Archives student assistant Crystal Reinhardt for helping with photo selection!)
So, I see there’s not much context given to this image…
I see one young man in the foreground aiming a gun at another card-playing youth, and in the back there is what appears to be a scuffle involving forced laryngeal obstruction (strangling) between two youngsters.
Could this be a theatrical endeavor of some sort?
Thanks for your comment, Jon. Unfortunately, we don’t know a great deal about this photo, although we can glean a few clues from the scrapbook it belongs to (available on our Flickr site at the link provided in the blog post).
One of the students in the photo appears to be wearing a piece of fabric that refers to Tombs, the honorary athletic fraternity known for their zany antics (which often included baby buggies, pacifiers, and bell-covered anklets) and even zanier posed photographs. Charles Bagley, the creator of the scrapbook, was indeed a member. You can see more pictures of Tombs on our Flickr site.