Dr. Robert Bowling Barnes on a Steamer Heading for Berlin
When George Barnes visited us in Belfast, he handed me a wooden box of black and white negatives that belonged to my father. The notes say they relate to his graduate studies in Germany. Some were 35mm film rolls, the rest were 2.25 X 3.25 inch flat negatives. I’ve started to look into all this. My dad bought a 35mm Leica camera when in Germany (which he gave to me when I was 15 and I still have it). So the flat film predates that and I started at what I think was the beginning.
Here is one of the very first images:
That’s Dr. Robert Bowling Barnes on a steamer heading for Berlin. Note the three-piece black suit, gentleman’s hat, pressed trousers, well-shined shoes and the Phi Beta Kappa key at the forefront. He even has his head tilted in a sort of Jimmy Stewart fashion. The very picture of an American scientist on his way to study infrared physics at the University of Berlin. At the time, that university had five Nobel Prize-winning physicists who met every Thursday for tea and to argue physics theory, in German of course. This is, in part, how my father learned the language he used to court Mommichen.
Jamie, your Mom tells me that you were a tremendous help to your Dad during the “terrible move.” Thanks for your assistance in salvaging and storing his personal things. That meant a lot to him, he told me so. She also said you and he worked on keeping the research materials on the Barnes family genealogy together. There was no such thing as ancestry.com back in the day, but I imaging that all those family records you two protected would give ancestry.com a big head-start.
Leo, you and your Dad picked up an interest in the genealogy information that old Paw amassed. We have clear lineage to Pocahontas on my father’s side. Perhaps if we look deeper into my mother’s side we can find a connection to Atilla-the-Hun as you imagined.
My work continues.
The bulk of his first images in Germany were of the university, glorious public buildings, statuary, churches, railroad stations, and his laboratory. Remember he was from Montgomery, a very small city with a short history. Berlin must have been a feast of things to see. Peeking ahead, I see trips in the winter down to the snowy Alps and in fact to Garmisch-Partenkirchen where Nonni and I went on our honeymoon. The other gentleman on many of these outings is no doubt Professor-Doctor Czerney, his mentor and colleague. Together, they wrote several of the first technical papers written on infrared spectroscopy. I can't resist showing one more picture. That's Czerney on the left.
