I've only recently become properly acquainted with Barbara Anderson's wonderful website www.watchtowerdocuments.com. After reading her life story, she strikes me as a truly remarkable woman.
If I may quote from her story, one particular experience stood out for me when she was going through old memorabilia as part of a research project at the Brooklyn headquarters...
In one of these drawers, finding personal photographs of the second president of the Watchtower Society, Joseph F. Rutherford, was, for me, one of the most disagreeable and revolting discoveries. Rutherford was clad in a dark-colored, one-piece, skin-tight, sleeveless swimsuit which covered him down to his thighs, a garment popular in the late 1920s and 30s. He had a huge belly, and appeared to be having fun romping on a large patio which overlooked the ocean. I seem to remember there were other people in a few photos lying on chaise lounges. The photo I’ll never forget was a close-up of Rutherford’s face; he was about a foot from the camera with his tongue stuck out as far as it could possibly go. He looked to me to be inebriated.
Now that is one photo I would love to get my hands on! The society seem so obsessed with presenting a sanitised and flawless pictorial record of their past, that they will even resort to doctoring re-enactments of their own history (removing the american flags at Cedar Point etc). Imagine the pyschological impact of a photo posted prominently online of Rutherford completely sloshed!
Does anyone else think this would have some value? Any ideas as to how we could get our mits on it, or what the domain name of the website showing the picture should be??!!
