An archive of bridgespotting photography captured during about 1939-1940 by a Marvin Nauman (b.1917) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A lifelong train enthusiast, he seems to have undertaken this vernacular survey of the city's bridges independently, from his home-base, an apartment located at 2904 W. Wisconsin Ave., while in-between shifts as an assembly laborer for the locally-based Cutler-Hammer electric motor production plant (judging from his 1940 draft card and census record). 

The variety of named locations, intimate vantage points, and handlebars of a bicycle visible at the edge of the frame in at least one image suggests two-wheels may have been his primary mode of transportation. Judging from the dates (and similar print qualities to those photos undated), he was prolific during these approximately two years. His 2013 obituary notes a lifelong, avid interest in trains and we suspect this sort of photography was curtailed by the onset of U.S. involvement in The War.

A handful of prints appear to have been commercially acquired and of other locales, though the overwhelming majority seem to have been shot by Nauman himself, in or near Milwaukee, and developed into these exceptional drugstore snapshot prints. 

An extensive number intimately document the progress of construction of the Cherry Street Bridge throughout 1939, a movable, bascule-type bridge over the Milwaukee River near the city’s Schlitz Brewery, and there are often multi-photo sequences of the same bridge. It all combines to provide an engaging archive of vernacular photography and rich visual record of American infrastructure and engineering in the industrial Midwest. More images here.

[Photography] : [Bridges] : [Engineering]. [Nauman Bridge Photograph Archive]. Various, mainly Milwaukee, Wisconsin: [ca. 1939-1940]. About 580 photographs spread across five different albums. Most are silver print, black and white drugstore prints measuring about 4 1/2" x 3." Four albums are uniform, black cloth over a three-panel heavy card folder with individual prints tipped onto cloth tabs and laid on top of one another in a "flip" or cascading effect (those four albums hold 260 of the 580 prints). Fifth album with green cloth covered board panels ring-bound around 44 black paper leaves typically with four photographs set loose into corner mounts of rectos and versos (322 photographs total in this one). Prints frequently dated, almost always notated with a description and/or location. All uncommonly well preserved. About near fine overall.