“Two Unidentified Men – Back Bay boat building. 19XX”

That is all the information there is from this photo from the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. 19XX is used when the exact decade and year are unknown.

from MDAH

I spent some time speculating about these men. Who were they? How old were they? What did they do?  I didn’t get far. There are certain facts about the picture:

They’re poor working men, for sure. Their appearance, with their patched, threadbare clothing, seems to exude a hard-scrabble existence. The hats could’ve been a late 1920s or 1930s style but both look at least ten years old.

Their faces are deeply lined by sun and work. They could be almost any age. The hands of the man on the right are gnarled and work worn. He wears long sleeves. The man on the left has rolled up his sleeves and you can see his arms are muscular. Probably both men are younger than they appear though their bodies had aged with unusual speed.

They were workers. It seems reasonable to assume they were fishermen. One wears suspenders and the other is in overalls, both of which would be appropriate for fishermen. They would also be handy for men whose clothing is too large at times, if they didn’t get enough to eat.

The rest of my thoughts are just impressions and imaginings about them:

They know their photo is being taken but they don’t smile. Perhaps they were tired at the end of the day or the sun was in their eyes. I would guess these men were fiercely independent, unwilling to ask for or take anything they didn’t earn. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had spent their whole lives in Southern Mississippi. Maybe when they were younger, they were inclined to dream about seeing other places. But as they got older, they saw this place as the land that produced them, that supported them and their families, and the place they belonged to and understood. They look like men I’ve known in my life.

What do you make of this picture?