| Number | Pho. 4758 |
|---|---|
| Date | (c.1940s-50s) |
| About this object | This photograph depicts Anthony Duparc, one of the sons of Isaac and Ursula Duparc, exiting a plane on a set of boarding stairs and was probably taken in the late 1940s /early 1950s. As evidenced by this image, the Duparc family were privileged enough to afford air travel. Until the removal of government control of airline fares in the late 1970s and 1980s, flying was extremely expensive. Travelling internationally by air would not have been affordable for most travellers who would instead travel by land and sea. Although their destination is not known and therefore the cost of their journey cannot be estimated, post-war airfares in the late 1940s / early 1950s were certainly much more expensive than today. A round-trip ticket from London to Amsterdam would have cost £14 in 1951, equivalent to £600 today. Longer flights would have been even more expensive: a BEA flight from London to Istanbul, with stops in Nice, Rome and Athens, in 1951 was £105 - equivalent to £4,600 today! The Duparcs had international roots; both side of the family were from continental Europe. Ursula Duparc's paternal grandparents, David and Rose Bamberger, were both listed in the 1861 census as having been born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in the early 19th century. Hesse was a sovereign constituent state of the German Confederation (an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe which pre-dated the German Empire and modern-day Germany). The Bambergers settled in England, prior to the invention of the airplane. Isaac Duparc’s father Morris (originally Mozes) Duparc came to London as child from the Netherlands. |
| Physical Description | Yellowed photographic positive print on paper. Damaged torn top-right corner, deckled edging, discolouration, tears and scratches across the prints surface on the piece’s recto. |