Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Apr 8, 2007 23:03:31 GMT -8
During a routine Google search today I discovered the following site full of images of historical advertisements and catalogue pages:
www.skindivinghistory.com/mfg_retailers.html
The collection is modestly labelled "Ron's bit" (well done, Ron!) and it's classified alphabetically by company. What a wealth of source material! Most of what I found there isn't available elsewhere online. There's plenty to nourish my interest in early suits, much of it new, e.g. a picture of a full-length version of The Spearfisherman suit and lots of new flyers for the Skooba Totes suit.
The site skindivinghistory.com appears to be a work in progress, so there are lots of blank spaces on the wider site, but the early manufacturer and retailer portion of the site seems to have covered the whole field of American diving equipment in the 1950s. The only quibble is that I would have liked to have seen the documents dated and some indication given of the context in which they were found. Having said that, what a labour of love!
www.skindivinghistory.com/mfg_retailers.html
The collection is modestly labelled "Ron's bit" (well done, Ron!) and it's classified alphabetically by company. What a wealth of source material! Most of what I found there isn't available elsewhere online. There's plenty to nourish my interest in early suits, much of it new, e.g. a picture of a full-length version of The Spearfisherman suit and lots of new flyers for the Skooba Totes suit.
The site skindivinghistory.com appears to be a work in progress, so there are lots of blank spaces on the wider site, but the early manufacturer and retailer portion of the site seems to have covered the whole field of American diving equipment in the 1950s. The only quibble is that I would have liked to have seen the documents dated and some indication given of the context in which they were found. Having said that, what a labour of love!
