Accession Number: 2019.26.31-41
Description: Series of eleven (11) black and white prints featuring Berdell "Pete" Wurzburger teaching orientation and mobility skills to a high school age boy on the streets of San Francisco; Wurzburger is a heavy set man wearing a plain black suit, white shirt, and dark tie, dark frame glasses, and a short crew cut; the trainee wears a dark waist length quilted jacket and light slacks and uses a rigid white long cane with a golf grip and glide tip; the backs of the prints are stamped, "Office of the Superintendent of Schools of Alameda County Curriculum Materials Center Feb 8 1965". .31 At the base of a set of concrete stairs, Wurzburger reaches across the trainee's body to move the cane into the correct position. .32 The pair crosses a marked crosswalk in front of a gas station, the trainee with his can sweeping out front and Wurzburger slightly behind and to the right; the front of a stopped Volkswagon Beetle is visible to right; steet sign reads "1900 Rose". .33 Pair pauses beside a "Flying A" Service Station sign; they stand side by side, the trainee's cane touching the sidewalk in front of him. .34 Immediately after the scene in .33, only now the trainee is striding forward, his cane sweeping; Wurzburger a half step behind and to the right. .35 The pair is paused at a marked street crossing; the trainee is just stepping off the curb into the crossing, with Wurzburger beside him; a neon sign, "Johnny's Charbroiled Hamburgers is overhead; two cars are to the right, heading the same direction as the team, on a street lined with two story homes. .36 The trainee reaches the top of the stairs seen in .31. .37 The trainee on the next to the to step from the series seen in .31 and .36. .38 The pair seen in shadow, at the top of three stairs inside a formal stone gatehouse open to the outside both behind them and in front of them, the lower opening way marked by a wrought iron gateway; the trainee measures the height of the steps with his cane; Wurzburger stands beside him; more steps are in the immediate foreground. .39 The pair has emerged from the gatehouse seen in .38 and are descending the lower stone stairs; the trainee on the bottom step and Wurzburger a few steps above him and to the right. .40 The pair on a sidewalk in front of a service station; on the service bay behind them, "Veedol Lubrication." .41 The pair at the top of the stairs seen in .39, Wurzburger standing on left watching the trainee intently, the trainee stepping off the top of the steps, his cane in front of him.
Date: Feb-65
History/Provenance: From the collection of O&M pioneer Berdell "Pete" Wurzburger.
Credit Line: Gift of Mike Meteyer, 2019.26.
Subjects: Orientation and mobility
