Frissell on the water

Nassau, December 1954

Water Skiing, Nassau is Library of Congress item 2021705181, Toni Frissell photograph collection, reproduction LC-DIG-tofr-02735, call number LC-F905-02735. The piece says the container note reads "Water Skiing - December 1954 - Nassau, SI," and also "FA-26 Dec 17 '54." The digital file is from the original. No known restrictions on publication. The rights note points to the Toni Frissell Collection statement at the Library.

Frissell gave the Library her photographs and the rights in them in the 1970s. That gift is why a December day in Nassau can be printed. The note on the sleeve is the date we have. The picture is the skiing.

Acapulco, the same month

Three Acapulco frames are dated December 1954 in the shop's records, all in the Toni Frissell Collection, no known restrictions. Water Skiing in Acapulco is item 2021705056. Acapulco Wake is 2021705059. Acapulco Bay is 2021705062. The first record says that in the 1950s Acapulco was where Hollywood went to vanish, that the Kennedys honeymooned there in 1953, and that Frissell shot these skiers carving the bay in December 1954.

The wake picture is described as another frame from that shoot: a skier, a speedboat, and green hills dropping into deep blue water. The bay picture is described as the bay from above the beach clubs, with a skier and boats crossing it. The same record says the jet set had Acapulco to itself for about a decade before mass tourism arrived. Three frames, one month, one file.

Chicago to Mackinac, 1956

Sails off Chicago is Library of Congress item 2021747878. The piece says the fleet heads out of downtown Chicago at the start of the 333-mile Chicago-to-Mackinac race, and that the race is the oldest annual freshwater distance race in the world, first run in 1898. No known restrictions on publication. Frissell donated the photographs and the rights to the Library in the 1970s, which is the credit line on the print.

It is not a resort harbor. It is a starting line in a city. Hung with the Nassau and Acapulco skiing, it keeps the story from pretending that all of her water was warm. The year on the piece is 1956.

Montego Bay, January 1957

Montego Bay is Library of Congress item 2021712004, reproduction LC-DIG-tofr-09649, call number LC-F905-09649. The piece says Toni Frissell, January 1957, for Sports Illustrated. The assignment note says "Sporting Look: Round Hill, Jamaica (Montego Bay)." Sports Illustrated job number x4321. The place heading is Jamaica, Montego Bay. No known restrictions on publication.

Round Hill is the place name the assignment used. The photograph is the record of that job, not a later advertisement for the hotel. Six pictures, four bodies of water, one collection. The Library does not endorse the prints.

The rights line is the same on the Nassau and Montego Bay pieces: no known restrictions, with a pointer to the Toni Frissell Collection statement. The Acapulco and Chicago credits say the same gift in plainer words, that she donated the photographs and the rights in the 1970s. A buyer is not being asked to trust a magazine tear sheet. The call numbers are on the pieces: LC-F905-02735 for Nassau, LC-F905-09649 for Montego Bay, and the item numbers above for the rest.

Hung in the order of the assignments, the wall reads December 1954 twice, then 1956, then January 1957. Nassau and the three Acapulco frames share a month. Chicago is a race start, not a beach club. Montego Bay is a Sports Illustrated job with a number, x4321, written on the record. That number is as useful as any caption. It says the picture was work.