One of the last things you'd expect to see while waiting around for some foreign currency is a photo of your grandpa. But that's what happened to Nell, a visitor at our museum in Minneapolis. While her son exchanged money for a trip to Argentina, Nell browsed our exhibit cases and caught a strange site: A photo of her grandfather, J. Raymond Smith, smiling from behind the wheel of an automobile.
Smith started working for Northwestern National Bank 
in Minneapolis in 1909. He started as a bank messenger, and worked his up to become Comptroller. He took his job seriously (though not overly seriously, maybe, judging by the photos). Nell told us he would stay up all night to get the annual Statement of Condition completed, and have it delivered to the Minneapolis Star for publication on January first every year.
Nell lived with her grandfather while she was growing up. She fondly recalls this gregarious man who loved to hunt and fish. Turns out the "J" in Smith's name was just an initial, by the way. It didn't stand for anything.
It just so happens that in our Northwestern National Bank collection we have a series of lantern glass slides , that capture bank employees, both hard at work and having fun. These images were part of that series. Luckily, we were able to provide the photos as a Mother's Day present to Nell's mother (Ray's daughter) who isn't able to visit the museum in person.
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