USA WW1 photo Motor Transport Corps training camp Valparaiso IN

$27.50 CAD

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Long line of military trucks with passengers, all drivers standing in front of each vehicle hand crank-starting. Photo taken at Motor Transport Corps (MTC)  training camp located at Valparaiso University Indiana by local photographer Charles Beam.

Written on negative ‘M.T.C. VALPO  Photo Beam

Stamped ‘Y54-‘ on back.

Small, light creases LR.

3 ⅜" x 5 ¾”

(Red text is an electronic watermark that is not physically part of the photo for sale)

 

M.T.C. is the acronym for Motor Transport Corps, United States Army, which had a training camp located at Valparaiso University during World War I. Nearly 2,000 men were housed and trained at Valparaiso University for the Motor Transport Corps.  The majority of the members of this particular corps were discharged from service by mid-December 1918.

Charles W. Beam (1882-1933)

The subject matter of Charles Webster Beam's photographs and postcards were generally of community events taking place in Valparaiso, Kouts, and Hebron. Known dates for Beam photographs range from 1909 to 1918. Beam may have been an amateur photographer who sold his postcard photographs to local retailers. Beam owned and operated a book and stationery supply store on College Hill in Valparaiso. At some point between 1920 and 1930 moved from Valparaiso to Los Angeles where he would own and operate a bookstore and become the first official photographer of the Hollywood Bowl.