1929 Harvard Crew Charles River Ice Cutting Larz Anderson Glass Negatives Pair For Sale

1929 Harvard Crew Charles River Ice Cutting Larz Anderson Glass Negatives Pair

Original, one-of-a-kind (OOAK) pair of two (2) camera-original antique gelatin silver glass negatives captured on March 6, 1929: an extraordinary historical document of Harvard University athletics and Boston winter maritime traditions: workmen in wooden dories cutting and breaking up ice floes on the Charles River below the Larz Anderson Bridge to open a rowing channel for the Harvard University crew.

Accompanied by the original vintage tan kraft darkroom morgue filing sleeve with complete contemporary newsroom documentation:

• The Sleeve Inscription:

  Name: Cutting ice on the Charles River

  Remarks: at Lars Anderson Bridge so the

  Order Finished: Harvard Crews can get out 3-6-29

Historical & Sporting Significance:

Collegiate rowing on the Charles River is one of the oldest and most storied athletic traditions in the United States, centered around Harvard University\'s Newell and Weld Boathouses. In early March 1929, with spring regatta preparations underway, thick winter ice blocked the river, preventing the rowing eights from taking to the water. The university and municipal river crews dispatched men in heavy wooden dories equipped with long pike poles and ice saws to carve an open passage through the frozen basin.

Shot directly from the balustrade of the Larz Anderson Bridge (connecting Cambridge to Lower Allston), this pair of camera-original news negatives captures the manual effort from an aerial perspective:

• Plate 1 — Close Overhead Study: A composition of two wooden rowboats operating in tandem, each manned by two workers in caps and heavy wool jackets using long poles to break, push, and disperse floating ice chunks into the open current.

• Plate 2 — Expansive Channel View: A broader panorama capturing the carved path of open dark water cutting through the solid white expanse of river ice, showing the scale of the ice-clearing operation across the Charles.

• Tonal Fidelity: Rich continuous-tone silver gelatin gradation rendering granular surface frost, jagged fracture lines along the ice shelves, wood grain in the boats, and water data-path-to-node=\"18\">

• Format: Pair of two (2) heavy antique silver gelatin press glass negatives, exposed directly in-camera on March 6, 1929.

• Archive Ephemera: Accompanied by the original period tan kraft darkroom morgue filing envelope.

Please Note: This listing is for the two (2) original antique glass negatives and their period paper archive sleeve only. Any positive photographic images shown in this listing are modern inverted digital scans provided solely as a visual representation to show what finished photographs print like. No physical paper photographs, modern prints, or paper products of any kind are included with this purchase.

Condition:

Very Good to Excellent antique condition across both plates. The heavy glass plates are structurally sound, stable, and completely intact with no cracks, fractures, breaks, or chips through the glass bodies. The silver gelatin emulsions are clean, sharp, and firmly adhered, retaining crisp definition on the workers, boats, and ice textures. Authentic unexposed handling borders remain preserved along the outer glass rebate margins. Accompanied by the original period kraft morgue filing sleeve.

The glass plate negative measures 4 x 5In.
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