Summerville Photos (1929 and 1936)

Two large-format panoramic prints by Summerville Photo, San Antonio, held by Nancy Draves. Neither full panorama has been scanned as of the documented correspondence — though the collection independently holds a left-half crop print of Photo 1 (see the partial-match note under Photo 1 below). These are among the highest-priority unacquired primary sources in the project — Photo 1 is the only known large-group employee photograph from the Burnett Street era; Photo 2 contains a documented family member (Nancy Draves's mother).

Nancy Draves has offered to make both available for scanning on two separate occasions (May 2015 and 2024), and the curator replied in June 2024. Acquisition is agreed in principle but not completed.

Photo 1 — Employee group, exterior (1929)

Dimensions: 21×10 inches
Title (printed on photo): "Office Sales Force and Plant Employees Hoffman Hayman Coffee Co. San Antonio Tex. Sept. 14, 1929"
Subjects: 48 employees seated and standing in front of two enormous background signs
Location: South Crescent Street, San Antonio — where the two H&H billboards stood, per Nancy Draves reading the print on tape (Rec13, 12 June 2026). The firm's plant was at 331 Burnett in 1929 (until the 1932 Delaware Street factory); the billboards were a separate outdoor location. (Earlier records here inferred the photo was taken at the Burnett plant — superseded by Nancy's reading.)
Identification (Rec13, 12 June 2026): This is the "two H&H signs side-by-side" group photo Nancy Draves narrated — front row Rudolph Menger (center), Minnie (Mrs. Schlosser), Gus, Ted, August, Edward; Louis not visible. The session confirmed the two H&H billboards are side by side (one panorama), not two separate signs — so this is the full panorama whose left half the collection holds as HH-COLL-2018-0003. Scanning Nancy's print supplies the missing right billboard and the full ~48-person roster. TODO-42 (the "South Crescent billboard" scan) and TODO-66 are therefore the same target.
Date discrepancy: In her May 2015 email Nancy Draves described this photo as dated "September 14, 1924"; in her 2024 email she gives "September 14, 1929." The 1929 description is more detailed and recent; the 1924 reading may have been a misread of a period-appropriate typeface. Either way, the photo predates the 601 Delaware facility.
Nancy Draves's note: Recognizes individuals, including one man she describes as having "wrote some pretty incredible letters you may want to copy."

Partial in-collection match (2026-06-25): The museum independently holds a left-half crop print of this exact image — HH-COLL-2018-0003, acquired via eBay in 2018 and long mis-catalogued as a 1934 "Fragrant…" billboard group photo by Jas. W. Zintgraff. A magnified scan of its lower-left grease-pencil annotation reads "Office, Salesforce and Plant Employees / Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. / San Antonio, Tex. Sept. 14, 1929" — matching Photo 1's printed title and date, with only the left of the two billboards in frame. So Photo 1's image is partially documented in-collection (its left half) even though Nancy Draves's full 21×10 panorama remains unscanned; her print would add the right-hand billboard and the complete ~48-person headcount. The 1929 read also resolves the old "1924 vs 1929" date ambiguity in favor of 1929 (the rounded grease-pencil "9" reads as a "4" only at low resolution). The Zintgraff studio stamp in the 2018 lot belongs to the other print (the 1933 "In Step with N.R.A." photo), not this Summerville panorama crop.

Photo 2 — Annual Picnic (1936)

Dimensions: 28×10 inches
Title (printed on photo): "Employees Annual Picnic Aug. 9, 1936"
Subjects: Approximately 100 people in a park setting in front of 4+ H&H delivery vehicles; children in the foreground
Nancy Draves's mother appears in this photo as a child — a Gen-4 Menger child; this is the only known photograph documenting a fourth-generation family member in an H&H context
1936 = Delaware Street era — the 601 Delaware plant was built in 1932; this picnic is from the first generation of that facility

Nancy Draves described Photo 2 as her favorite of the two.

Acquisition status

Date	Event
May 2, 2015	First scan offer — Nancy Draves offers both photos for scanning
2024 (before June 4)	Second scan offer — re-contacted; updated the 1929 date description
June 4, 2024	Curator replied to the 2024 contact
May 28, 2026	1936 picnic print shown in person at Draves home session; Nancy identified mother (~10–11), R. W., Minnie, Gus among faces — scanning not completed on visit
May 2026	Neither photo scanned; acquisition agreed in principle

Research value

Photo 1 would be the earliest known large-group employee photograph from the Burnett Street era; the 48-person headcount documents the scale of H&H operations in 1929.
Photo 2 would be the only known large group photograph from the Delaware Street era showing H&H delivery vehicles — potentially dating and identifying the fleet.
Both photos could identify named employees against the 1923 and 1934 press records.

Open questions