Norbert George Moser

1885-1970

American (New York, New York)

Norbert George Moser was born in Pierceton, Indiana, and shortly after completing high school in 1904, Norbert enlisted in the US Navy and became an electrician's mate, working with new wireless radio technologies. At the expiration of his enlistment, he was serving as a chief electrician and as the recruiting officer at the Topeka, Kansas, Navy recruiting office. He later moved to New York City with his wife and turned to commercial photography. Drawing on his Navy experience, he began copyrighting and publishing views of naval scenes.

With the Unite States' entry into the Great War, Moser reenlisted, served on board the USS New Jersey (Battleship No. 16) as a chief electrician, and was discharged at Yorktown, Virginia, on 15 October 1917. It appears the Navy may have thought he served his country better as a photographer, for around that time the Navy used at least one of his photographs in a recruiting poster. In the years after the war, Moser operated a photo service in New York City, marketing panorama-sized photographs and "Photographic Postcard Views of the Navy—Historical—Spectacular—Picturesque—Comical" under the bylines of "Moser's Naval Views" and later "Moser's Foto Novelties," which could be "Just the Thing" as "A Souvenir of Your Cruise," with a semi-personalized "Naval Photo-log" featuring one's ship on the cover.