Dick and his father Simon sailed from New York City to Paris in the early hours of July 16, 1934, aboard the SS Champlain, arriving in Le Havre, Normandy on July 22. There’s a good chance that other members of their party sailed with them. Dick photographed other members of the group, apparently waiting to disembark (see photo on left).Dick kept his 1934 passport, which contains dated stamps from various countries. This has helped us to track his route. However, we have no letters or diary from Dick about this trip, and there is much that we don’t know. We have not been able to identify Dick’s traveling companions, apparently a family who accompanied him all the way to Moscow and back to France. Perhaps you can help us solve the mystery of their identity.

Simon and three other companions are in this photo. In the following pages, these three are identified as Young Girl, Woman #, and Pocket Square Man. These three, possibly along with one other Young Man, seem to have accompanied Dick throughout the trip. Simon seems to have been with the group throughout their travels in France and Spain. But Si is absent from the photos from Italy, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland and the USSR. He may have remained in France while Dick and the others toured these countries. Upon leaving the Basque region, the travelers visited Carcassonne in southern France.

Several people appear uniquely in Dick’s photos from that location, identified here as Pipe Man and Camera Couple. They may have been relatives or family friends, or passing acquaintances. After this point, the group continues to Italy, apparently by train, probably without Si Scheuer. Joan Scheuer (Dick’s widow) recalled after his death that Dick told her that he had been invited by another family to attend the Moscow Theater Festival, though she did not recall the family’s name.

After returning from the USSR, the group visited a rural location in France. This may have been the home of relatives, possibly the Hermann family in Auxerre, a location that would be consistent with the architecture shown in these pictures. Another person, woman #2, appears only at this location.