Object number2002.7.2

A Cup of Coffee - Now and Then

Date1945/1946

Artist Currently Unidentified

possibly by Ray Platnick (American, 1917-1986)

CultureAmerican

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (19.05 x 24.13 cm)
Sheet: 8 1/16 x 10 in. (20.48 x 25.4 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund

On View

Not on view

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Photograph

InscribedOn verso, by unidentified hand, lower left: 3 col / Platnick / P19 typed in blue: 4891 / FROM: / PUBLIC INFORMATION DIVISION / U.S. COAST GUARD / WASHINGTON, D.C. / OFFICIAL COAST GUARD PHOTO / A CUP OF COFFEE---NOW AND THEN / FORMER MARINE “BOB (FARIS M.) TOUHY IS BACK FROM ENIWETOK ATOLL / IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC. BACK TO RESUME AT 21 THE LIFE HE LEFT IN / WASHINGTON, D.C. AT 18. THE SCENE BEHIND HIM IS THE FAMOUS COAST / GUARD COMBAT PHOTO, TAKEN ABOARD A COAST GUARD-MANNED ASSAULT / TRANSPORT, ACHORED OFF ENIWETOK, FEBRUARY 19, 1944. LOOKS / DIFFERENT NOW, DOESN’T HE? / ... lower right [within a box]: RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION / 25 MARCH ‘46 / U.S. COAST GUARD / WASHINGTON, D.C.; typed newspaper affixed to the verso: [. . .] of a hundred Navy combat photo- / graphers in the Pacific. / The photograph below came in / yesterday from the Coast Guard. It / shows Marine Faris M. Touhy / posed against the background of / the original Platnick battle photo- / graph. He returned to civilian life / in Washington recently. / Platnick took the original coffee- / drinking picture of Touhy and his . . .

MarkingsOn verso, stamped upper right in red ink: USED / Mar 27 1946

BibliographyHistories of Photography. Poughkeepsie: FLLAC, 2003Exhibition HistoryHistories of Photography, France Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, July 5 - September 21, 2003

Label TextSee object number 2002.7.1 for further historical context of the photograph pictured.

DescriptionBlack and white image of a young man, Faris “Bob” M. Tuohy, from the chest up in profile. He wears a suit, has dark cropped hair, and looks downward towards the coffee cup in his hands. Behind him to the right is a photograph of him taken several years before during WWII. The photograph shows him drinking a cup of coffee. He holds the cup close to his body and wears coveralls covered in soot and blood. He stands in profile with his face and hands smudged with soot and blood. Behind him and to the right is Stephen Garboski and an unidentified soldier sitting next to him with his coffee. Both are similar in appearance to Tuohy.

Terms

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu