I brought home thousands of photographs after my mother died last week , and for the most part I recognize the people in them and know the circumstances under which they were taken. But a few are a mystery. Some because they’re of friends and relatives I don’t remember, others because they’re of events in which I didn’t take part.

For example, who is this guy to the left of my father? What is that scrap of paper he’s handing over? Why was this moment worth memorializing?

And then there are these two, happy to be holding that same scrap of paper.

What’s going on here? I had no idea.

The backs of the photos were stamped with the name “Henry S. Davis,” but there’s no other information to help explain their history.

As I studied the photos, and puzzled over them further, I suddenly remembered another scrap of paper which had once been in my father’s hand, one I’d told you about slightly more than a year ago—a telex informing Dad he’d won the Jesse H. Neal Editorial Achievement Award for work done while he was the Art Director for the magazine Engineering & Mining Journal.

Could the man in the first photo be the McGraw-Hill telex operator delivering the news to my Dad? Could the men in the second be executives of some sort, proud that their employee and magazine had won an award?

I have no way of proving it. But Dad seems about the right age, and in the absence of any positive identification of these men, I’m going to say yes, that’s exactly who they are.

Whether I’m right or wrong, it sure is good to see new pictures of Dad.