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| Title | Mr. and Mrs. William H. Spencer being led away from the scene of their son's drowning death, Seattle, June 15, 1940 |
| Photographer | Staff Photographer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
| Date | 1940 |
| Caption | Twelve-year old Billy Spencer died trying to save a drowning friend in the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The parents rushed to the scene as divers brought up the bodies. A fire department rescuer attempted to revive the boys but it was too late.
The P-I rarely published photographs of grief-stricken parents, but in this photograph, published June 16, 1940, Mr. And Mrs. Spencer are shown as they were led from the scene of the double drowning by an officer after hope for their son, Billy, and Franz Schubert, eleven, the other victim, had been given up. Spencer blamed himself for not having warned Billy of the danger of approaching a drowning person. |
| Notes | Handwritten on negative: Wm. H. Spencer - wife.
Handwritten on sleeve: Spencer, William H. and wife; Son, Billy drowns.
Caption information source: P-I exhibit; caption in June 16, 1940 P-I.
Date photograph was published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: June 16, 1940. |
| Subjects | Grief--Washington (State)--Seattle; Spouses--Washington (State)--Seattle; Police--Washington (State)--Seattle; Logs--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Personal Names | Spencer, William H.
Spencer, Mrs. William H. |
| Places | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital Collection | Museum of History & Industry Photograph Collection |
| Image Number | 1986.5.42510.1 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction or to inquire about permissions contact photos@mohai.org or phone us at 206-324-1126. Please refer to the Image Number and provide a brief description of the photograph. |
| Credit Line | Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle; All Rights Reserved |
| Repository | Museum of History & Industry, Seattle (MOHAI) |
| Repository Collection | Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection |
| Type | Image |
| Physical Description | 1 nitrate negative: b&w; 4 x 5 in. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from original negative as a 3000 pixel TIFF image in 8-bit grayscale, resized to 640 pixels in the longest dimension and compressed into JPEG format using Photoshop 6.0 and its JPEG quality measurement 3. |
