Shades Of The Departed

Shades Celebrates Four Years Of Tons of Fun

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:15:00 +0000

Four years ago today with this post, No Place For A Lady, Shades started down the road to blogging history. The history part is that I'm still enjoying my Shades life four years later.

It's been a bittersweet year for Shades.

First, the sweet part. Shades Of The Departed was again voted one of Family Tree Magazine’s 40 Best Genealogy Blogs, and Shades was honored to win best of category for heirlooms and old photos. Thank you, to all those who voted and to Family Tree Magazine. Shades is honored to be in such esteemed company. And thank you to those who write for Shades, the regular columnists and those who contribute feature articles. They are Shades. Shades is all about the fascination with old photographs and our connection to them. We love what we do.

The bitter part of the year is the interruption in the flow of our beautiful online magazine due to a few personal difficulties. To all who regularly check on Mr. M and me on faceBook, you know this has been a very slow road to recovery. Shades is in the works again, back and better than ever with the advent of an iPad and Android app for each issue.

I'd also like to thank the Shades readers who have have twittered, emailed, and commented Shades happenings. We do it for you, but we can't do it without you. Thank you!

Let me introduce you to the heart of Shades. I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank the finest writers and best friends Shades and I could ask for in working toward building an online community dedicated to old photographs and the part they play in our family history.

The excellent writers of Shades write for their own blogs as well. If you enjoy their work, please take a moment to say so and support what they do.

Returning Columns:

Appealing Subjects – Where Law & Photography Meet - Craig Manson
Healing Brush – Preserving Our Ancestors One Pixel At A Time - Janine Smith
In2 Genealogy - Discovering Family History Today - Caroline Pointer
Penelope Dreadful – A Dreadful Tale - Penelope Dreadful AKA Denise Levenick
The Last Picture Show – Behind The Photograph - Editor
The Year Was – What Happened The Year Of – Sheri Fenley
Saving Faces – From The Eye of An Archivist – Rebecca Fenning

New Columns:

Ancestor ArtiFacts – Questioning Preservation – Denise Levenick
Putting Down Roots – Writing Your Family History - TBA
iAncestor – Technology - Denise Olson
A Brush With History – Scrapbooking Old Photos (Tips & Tricks) - fM
Dressed To The Nines – Godey’s Ladies - Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective

Special Appearances:

A Date With An Old Photograph – Case Studies & Clues Dating Old Photographs -Editor
Behind The Camera – Photographers of Old – Editor
Captured Moments - Featuring Heritage Scrapbooking and Art - Show & Tell From Readers
The Future of Memories - Where Memories Meet The Future - Denise Olson
The Humor Of It - Through A Different Lens – Donna Pointkouski

And of course:

The Last Picture Show - The Beautiful Imprints That Grace The Verso of Old Photographs - Editor

The next issue of Shades The Magazine will be School Days (May/June 2012). In the meantime, why not revisit the Women's History Edition of Shades as we celebrate and look forward to the coming year.

MARCH 2010

Go to m.issuu.com
on your mobile browser

March Shades On The iPad

The Shades Archive will be upgraded as each
issue is made available for the iPad.

Today's Shades' Old Photograph - Little Lord Fauntleroy X 3

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:31:00 +0000

Three beautiful brothers, two of whom are dressed in Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. Little Lord Fauntleroy was a book written by Francis Hodgson Burnett. The suits described and illustrated in her book proved extremely popular with doting mothers and hated by the young men who wore them. The suit was a black velvet jacket and breeches, sometime worn with an elaborate lace collar and fancy blouse, as seen here. The hair was worn in long ringlets. The main period that the suits were popular was 1886-1899, but the suits were worn into the 1920s.

EDWARD T. BILLINGS:

Edward T. Billings' photographic studios were located at the corner of Main and Fifth streets, in Racine. Wisconsin. He was born April 12, 1852, the son of Bradish D. and Eliza (Harry) Billings, natives of New York State and Cornwall. England, respectively.

Edward was eight years old when he came with his parents to Racine county where he lived on a farm. When he completed public school he studied photography. He established his gallery in 1872, andit was considered one of the finest galleries in the State.

On the 20th of March, 1877, he married Mary Easson, the daughter of Captain Larry and Alice (Green) Easson. They were the parents of two children, Harry and Edna.

Sources:

Stamper, Anita A. Clothing Through American History: The Civil War Through the Gilded Age, 1861-1899. Greenwood : 2010.

Photograph:

Three Siblings. Cabinet Card. Billings, Edward T. Original Cabinet Card privately held by the footnoteMaven, Preston, Washington. 2007

Today's Shades Old Photo - Second In The Siblings Series

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:47:00 +0000

Two little sisters in pinafores and bows.

McDonald's Studios
Ground Floor
301 South Michigan St. cor. Wayne
South Bend, Ind.
Duplicates of the Picture can be
had at any time.

McDonald had a showing at The Exhibition Of Photographs at The Chicago Convention. In 1887, The Photographic Times commented on his work; "McDonald of South Bend, Ind. showed some very good cabinet work, which was neatly and effectively mounted on 6 1/2 X 8 1/2 maroon cards, thus giving a liberal margin that neatly set off the picture."

Today's Shades Old Photograph

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:27:00 +0000

This week's series is Siblings.

Today's Shades Old Photograph starts the week with a series called Siblings. Three impeccably dressed siblings; the photographed was taken by Falk.

Benjamin J. Falk was born 14 October 1853 in New York City. He was one of the leading New York photographers who specialized in celebrities. He was a well-known New York photographer from the opening of his first studio at 347 E. 14th Street in 1877 to his death 19 March 1925. This photograph lists his address as 13 and 15 West 24th St., Madison Square. A studio he designed and opened in 1892.

He also had a studio at Twenty-third Street and Broadway, on the site of the present Flatiron Building. He left Twenty-third Street and Broadway and established a gallery in the Waldorf-Astoria at West 33rd Street. (Dates not yet determined.)

Are these children celebrities, or were their parents celebrities? Or were they just the children of wealthy parents who wanted them photographed by Falk?

Photographs:

Three Siblings. Cabinet Card. ca. 1892 - 1904. Original Cabinet Card Panel privately held by the footnoteMaven, Preston, Washington. 2007

Twice Told Tuesday - Where Bad Citizens Are Made

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:51:00 +0000

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article reprinted from
my collection of old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

Wouldn't You Hate America If It Met You This Way?
By Marie De Montalvo and Rose Falls Bres
The Delineator
March 1921

Read this story of what women and children endure at Ellis Island, where many immigrants get their first taste of America. Then, while you are still boiling with the sense of injustice and outraged decency, write your congressman that conditions must be changed.

Talk the cause of these immigrant women and children in your church. It will not stand for this gross violation of Christian principles. Talk it in your club. The hatred that Ellis Island breeds is spreading like a plague to increase the discontent which menaces our institutions and the Government itself.

Like A Vision
The Great City Rises
Before The Newcomers
Kingstone View Company

Do you know what happens at Ellis Island, in the shadow of the Statute of Liberty, to the women who come to America from other lands because they think that this is the land of freedom, of justice, of plenty - women whose only crime is poverty, whose only offense is ignorance of our language and our ways?

Never mind the millions of men who are pouring into this country, and the millions more who are waiting over there to come, some with passports, waiting for a few inches of space on some American-bound ship, and millions more still waiting for passports. They constitute a problem of enormous importance - but we can leave it to the men. The thing that concerns the women of this country is that the proportion of women coming to this country is increasing and nothing is being done about it.

National and international problems are coming to a point of confusion and complexity which makes us feel that a man who seems to know what he thinks must be mistaken. Immigration is one of the complicated problems about which people think and feel, and hardly any one knows anything. Yet it may be possible to make one assertion which we can all agree to:

There are just two things to do with the immigrant - keep him out or treat him fairly.

Now, women of America! Do you know that women surrounded with children, carrying babies, squeezed into airless rooms among men, are found to stand day after day and week after week waiting for a man with a megaphone to yell their unpronounceable names at them so that they may know their relatives have come for them?

Do you know that after they disembark at Ellis Island they are pushed and jostled and shouted at and bullied by so-called "officials" whose qualification for the job seems invariably to have been a harsh voice and a hot temper?

Do you know that women with babies and luggage are forced to stand in line for at least half a day, and sometimes several days, and negotiate flights of stairs carrying with them everything they own on earth, before they pass their physical examinations which could all be performed much more quickly and effectively on the same floor?

Two thousand Men, women and children remained five days at
Ellis Island recently without bunks, and had to lie on the floor or sit
up all night, six squeezed together on each bench.
Brown Bros.

Do you know that there are 2,000 bunks on Ellis Island, provided with two blankets apiece; that because detained immigrants must be segregated into classes, only 1,500 of these beds are available - since if there are only 10 Chinese and the dormitory for the Chinese hold twenty-five, the remaining 15 bunks must remain empty rather than fill them with white people - and that recently on the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, 3,500 men, women, and children were without bunks and had to lie on the floor or sit up all night, six squeezed together on each bench?

Do you know that there is no place for women to wash themselves, their clothes and their babies, except at a sink out in the public hall? And no place to dry their clothes except strung over lines strung over their bunks in the unventilated dormitories, with bunks four deep up and down the walls, where they must remain anywhere from a single night to a year?

Can you imagine the mental attitude of government employees who stopped up the faucets in the eating halls because they might drip on the floors if immigrants were allowed to drink water with their meals?

Have you a picture of a baby whose underclothing remains unchanged for so long that its skin peels off with its garments when they are finally removed?

Do you know the inadequacy of the sanitary arrangements - such that a visitor hates to inspect them because their awful presence is made known long before they are visible to the eye?

In brief, do you smell Ellis Island when you read these words?

To Be Continued!
Next Twice Told Tuesday

Sources:

Magazine and Photographs

"Where Bad Citizens Are Made."The Delineator, March 1921, 8.

Twice Told Tuesday - How Much Is That Baby In The Window?

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:23:00 +0000

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article reprinted from
my collection of old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

The Delineator Child-Rescue Campaign. For The Child that Needs a Home and the Home that Needs a Child. Photographs were used to bring together the homeless child and the childless home. One of this country's most famous magazines, The Delineator published a Child Rescue Campaign combining sweet photographs of young children with a poignant story told in the style of the time.

Was this a Sofie's Choice? Did all seven go, or just these two? Probably the first photographs ever taken of these two young boys. The story of Charles and Vance. Tissues required.

The two little faces who look into yours are those of Charles and Vance, who were considered by the Michigan Children's Home Society, St. Joseph, Michigan, May 2, 1908.

Their mother was a woman of good mental ability, and was married when very young, to a respectable young man in poor circumstances. She died at the age of twenty-five, the mother of seven children, the oldest being but a little more than seven years.

Overcome by sickness, poverty and distress, she laid down the burden of life, March 15, 1908, with the words, "Be good to my children."

The father, unable financially to hire a good housekeeper, and finding it impossible to secure the necessary help from friends and relatives, thought the best way to fulfill the wife's request to be good to the children was to secure help from outside and appealed to the Michigan Children's Home Society, which gave the needed assistance. Then came the parting. Friends and loved ones joined in the good-byes, and tears and kisses mingled.

Little Vance was so young that he was quickly attracted by new sights and scenes but not so with Charlie. He did not so easily forget the old associations, and, leaning his head upon the window in the car, he sobbed: "I want to go back to grandma's house."

Oh, the love and sympathy needed to comfort these little hearts that are breaking because those whom they have known and loved are taken away from them!

Will someone come to the rescue of these two bright, healthy boys, and give them a home together, that they need not be separated?

Sources:

Magazine and Photograph

"The Delineator Child Rescue Campaign."The Delineator, September 1908, 405.

Shades The Magazine - Occupations - July/August

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 04:06:00 +0000

Welcome To the July/August Issue of Shades
Occupations In Photographs

HAVE YOU READ?

MOURNING ISSUE

WEDDING ISSUE

MAY 2010 ISSUE

MARCH 2010 ISSUE

FEBRUARY 2010 ISSUE

JANUARY 2010 ISSUE

DECEMBER 2010 ISSUE
NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE

Would You Believe -

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:40:00 +0000

My Dog Ate My Homework?

No, Hunter pup didn't eat Shades.

It's just plain late. I'm late. I apologize. My time table was shorter than my workload. I'm very close, but I'm not going to give you a specific time. Who wants to look foolish twice? No, not me.

I'm just going back to work and finish.

Historic Market Street 1906

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 03:48:00 +0000

I have seen parts of this film before, not restored and not full length. Last night on 60 Minutes we were treated to the restored researched "A Trip Down Market Street." Shot days before the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 we are transported to another time and permitted to watch the residents of 1906 San Francisco going about their daily lives.

I loved the one second glimpse of a woman negotiating the long skirts of the day as she catches a trolley car. She makes it look easy.

We see the dare devil traffic and the looks on the faces of those who at that moment realize they are being filmed. The end of the film shows a group of young newspaper boys who gather on the tracks to wave and mug for the camera. My favorite scene.

The mystery always has been who shot the film and when. Who were those carefree filmmakers and how did the film survive?

The Library of Congress had dated the film September 1905. Using the tools of any good historian or genealogist, California archivist David Kiehn vowed to solve the mystery. He researched the newly restored film for license plates and weather reports chasing the date into April 1906. Kiehn describes himself as having an incurable curiosity and a love for silent films. Add to that dogged determination.

Then Kiehn found The New York Clipper newspaper articles advertising "A Trip Down Market Street" by the Miles Brothers. The film was made one week before the destruction of every building shown in the film. One of those buildings was the office of the Miles brothers. The film makers had the good fortune to send the film by rail to New York the night before the quake.

I watched the film again. This time with the benefit of Kiehn's research. Now I know what is merely days away. Now I know the sad reality that many of the film's faces probably did not survive the quake and resulting fire.

What struck me was not that these smiling people didn't know what was about to happen to them, but rather that I did. And I am a hundred years too late.

DearPhotograph.com

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Are you familiar with the blog DearPhotograph.com? The premise of the site is to take a picture of an old photo held up in front of the place where the old photograph was originally taken and then post it online at DearPhotograph.com.

It is the idea of Canadian Blogger, Taylor Jones. While sifting through a shoebox of old photographs he happened upon one of his brother sitting in a chair. He looked up to find the same chair in front of him. He grabbed his camera and held the old photo up to the chair until it fit with the background.

Thus began a book deal and another internet sensation!

My personal favorite is the photograph below. The caption reads: "Dear photograph, thank you for everything we had."

It's worth a visit and will send you running to look for photos that just might be worth a submission.

Shades Of The Departed Magazine on Digital News Stands July 13, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:04:00 +0000

Shades & Occupational Photographs
On Digital News Stands
July 13, 2011

This issue welcomes the first of Maureen Taylor's "Dressed To The Nines Column," Craig Manson's Appealing Subjects deals with "Occupation: Barber," and Penelope Dreadful is "Saved By Grace," plus many more interesting photographic articles from your favorites both old and new.

Oh, and don't miss the sweet Occupations Centerfold.

Lookin' through Shades Magazine 
Found something tucked there in-between

My blood runs cold
 My memories have all been sold
 Great Grandma is a centerfold
Great Grandma is a centerfold

A part of me has just been ripped
 The ages from my mind are stripped
 That unnamed woman can't deny it
 footnoteMaven had to buy it!

My blood runs cold
 My memories have all been sold
 Great Grandma is a centerfold
Great Grandma is a centerfold

It's okay, we understand 
Not all heirlooms are in our hand
 We know that when this issue's gone 
Great Grandma’s centerfold lives on

My blood runs cold
 My memories have all been sold
 Great Grandma is a centerfold
Yes, Great Grandma is a centerfold

Friday From The Collectors - Brett Payne Redux

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:18:00 +0000

CONNECTING THE DIASPORA

BRETT PAYNE

Photo-Sleuth

A rare visit from my grandparents, April 1966

While I was growing up in what was then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), I was often envious of my friends with their large networks of grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. My parents had both emigrated from the countries of their birth – England and the Netherlands – before they were married and I hardly knew my grandparents. By the time I left home, I could count on one hand the number of times that I’d met members of my family outside the immediate circle of parents and siblings. The photograph above shows one of those rare occasions in April 1966, after my grandparents had made the adventurous journey by train and ship from the English Midlands to the Eastern Highlands of Rhodesia. A decade ago, events unfolding in the country of my birth precipitated a further scattering of family members, something my father resignedly referred to as La Diaspora Continua, and I emigrated with my wife and children to New Zealand.

Perhaps it was a lack of contact with extended family that precipitated my fascination with my Dad’s large accumulation of family photographs. He inherited the collection, along with a hefty archive of family papers, from his parents. Much of the older material had originated from his great-uncle Hallam Payne (1870-1960), who had been the family archivist, although the existence of several items from the early 1800s points to an earlier origin for the hoarding gene. With my Dad’s encouragement, I drew my first rudimentary family tree when I was nine or ten years old. Nevertheless, it was only fifteen years ago, with my purchase of an early version of FTM, and an introduction to the internet, that my interest was piqued.

Like many readers of this blog, I’m sure, I've since become a family history addict. Building on the archives passed down by family members, I’ve spent an enormous amount of my spare time researching and building up the framework of ancestors and cousins, boring and confounding family members and friends alike with my tales of discovery. I still do make the occasional breakthrough, resulting in the adding of an extra generation or two, or the discovery of a new umpteenth cousin.

Along the way I have developed an even greater interest in the vast body of material which envelopes the bare bones of the family tree. I find that I have an intense need to discover ever more and more details of the life of a particular ancestor – anything that might embellish the character that my mind builds up around the bare essentials of a name, two or three dates, and a position in the tree. That’s why I tend to use the term family history instead of genealogy to describe my passion. It is ironic therefore that, despite being bored to distraction by history in my school years, I am now most intrigued by the historical aspects of my research. So much so, in fact, that I have some considerable trouble keeping myself from getting “too distracted.”

Charles Vincent Payne (1868-1941)
St Andrew's Middle Class School
Litchurch, Derby
c.1876-77

I don’t really have much fascination with how major historical events in history might have influenced my family. Perhaps I have a little more interest in how a particular ancestor might have played a role in some local incident. I find myself more absorbed with building up a timeline of events that are likely to have shaped peoples lives, and hoping that this exercise will reveal something of their characters. In the course of this quest, I’m always hunting for new tools that might have the potential to open further avenues of research. However, I repeatedly find myself returning to the family photograph collection for clues and inspiration.

Postcard Photograph
Payne Family Off-Licence & Grocery Shop
New Normanton, Derby
c. 1908-1909

I would even go so far as to say that photographic portraits, both formal and informal, now form the fundamental framework of my attempts to unravel the life stories of these people who I never met, either because they lived so far away, or because they died long before I was born. Once the photos are assembled into chronological order, I am often able to gain an impression of what the person looked like and, if there are enough in the sequence, how they changed through the course of their life. While it helps me to build a concept of that person, I find that a detailed examination of the photographs can often reveal far more. Apart from a simple observation of the identity of the subject, other factors such as photograph type and style, studio name and location, inscriptions, clothing, studio backdrops and accessories used, other backgrounds, such as buildings, may also be usefully analysed. I will admit to setting less store on things like family likenesses, and expressions on the subjects’ faces, but they can be useful in certain circumstances.

My GG-Grandparents
Henry Payne (1842-1907)
Henrietta Payne nee Benfield (1843-1917)
A rather nice portrait, expertly colourised
by a kind Photo-Sleuth reader - just one of many examples of the
collaboration and co-operation which I have experienced.

Often, when I approach portraits from my family collection from a fresh point of view, I make exciting new discoveries. In my series of articles on Photo-Sleuth, I like to share these findings with fellow family and local history enthusiasts, and hope that they will prove to be of some use to others in their own research. It is, of course, a collaborative process, and I continue to learn a great deal from such exposure. I have presented my own analyses of some of the old family photos that researchers have kindly sent me from all over the world, and I value enormously the numerous and varying contributions that I receive.

It is to my own ancestors that I return perennially, building up a more detailed picture in my mind of who they were, how they lived, and why they chose to make certain decisions and changes in their lives. It is also important to me how those decisions and changes – in particular the successive emigrations, from village to village, county to county, country to country, and continent to continent – shaped the individuals and families that eventually produced me. The family photograph collection chronicles and illustrates many moments within that process of movement of my family through the Diaspora. What remains is for me, and others who follow, to document, describe and interpret, joining the lines between those moments to relate the stories of our tīpuna.

Read Brett's Latest Article - Train Wrecks

Article & Photographs
Copyright © 2008
BRETT PAYNE

Photo-Sleuth

Many Things Thursday - Don't Go In The Water

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:53:00 +0000

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things."

Thursday, on Shades Of The Departed, will be dedicated to
many things, and nothing in particular.

Many Things Thursday

Bathing Suits and Trunks

Photographers went where the people went, and when the people went to the beach, so did many photographers.

They would set up seaside studios equipped with backdrops imitating the shore. Seavey, one of the most famous background painters of his time, sold a Sea Shore Ground backdrop for $13.00 in 1887.

The description of bathing apparel accompanied by the photographs below all offer sufficient reasons "not to go into the water."

Bathing "trunks" are usually made of knitted cotton or worsted, and shaped to cover the loins and trunk of the body.

Man Oh Man!

A Studio Tintype.

Year and photographer unknown

Bathing "suits" are of various shapes and made of many materials. Surah silk of thick quality is used extensively. It is claimed that it does not retain as much water as flannel, and that it does not cling so closely to the figure. The medium quality bathing suits are manufactured of flannel and of a coarse wiry cheviot.

Marie Jansen

The Lady GaGa of Her Time?

The more modest suits are made with the waist and drawers in one, cut in continuous pieces or attached to the same belt; a seperate skirt reaching to the knees is then buttoned on to this belt. The drawers fall below the knees and are quite wide with rubber in the hem to draw them into shape.

A beautiful background

painted and continuing

under foot.

Jersey suits are also manufactured and these do not shrink. The waist and skirt are all in one piece in this variety, and the skirt is made full. The drawers are close fitting like equestrian tights and have stockings woven with them—but how and where they are fastened no man has ever found out.

Just add sea shells

and mix.

Source:

Cole, George S. A Complete Dictionary of Dry Goods and History of Silk, Cotton. W. B. Conkey Company, 1892.

American Journal of Photography. Advertisement. 1887.

Photographs:

Women all courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Lillian Russell

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:26:00 +0000

Lillian Russell's Portraits Outselling All Others
Mrs. Langtry's Pictures No Longer Popular

~ New York Times ~
25 February 1883

What we know from the photograph:

(1) The card mount measures 4 1/8 in. by 8 1/2 in. and is 0.063 in. thick, the photograh measures 3 1/2 in. X 7 1/2 in. The edges of the card are beveled. The card stock's original color appears to have been buff or tan (matte finish) front and back.

(2) The photographer’s imprint on the front (recto) of the photograph lists the photographer as The Falk Studio, 14 and 16 West 33rd St. N.Y.

(3) Handwritten in ink on the verso is Lillian Russell in "Lady Teazle." For story of her home Dec. 18. In small print at the bottom of the card is Lillian Russell panel cabinet card.

Card Analysis:

The card is smaller than a true Panel card, ca. 1900. Panel cards generally measure 4 in. X 8 1/2 in. for the image and 8 X 13 for the mount. It is also similar to a Boudoir card which measures 5 in. X 8 1/4 in., ca 1890.

Conclusion: The card properties are only one clue and do not offer a definitive answer. The card is consistent with cards printed 1890 to early 1900s.

Photographer and Imprint Analysis:

Benjamin J. Falk was one of the leading New York photographers who specialized in celebrities. His studio was originally at Twenty-third Street and Broadway, on the site of the present Flatiron Building. He was a well-known New York photographer in the 1880s. He left Twenty-third Street and Broadway and established a gallery in the Waldorf-Astoria at West 33rd Street.

The imprint contains the address only and is located on the front of the card.

Conclusion:

The Flatiron Building construction was completed in 1902. Falk would have had to have moved to the Waldorf-Astoria at least one year prior in 1901. I have found no information that indicates that Falk ceased operation of his business at any time. We will assume for purposes of this discussion that he occupied the West 33rd Street premises from 1901 until his death on 19 March 1925.

The photographer's information indicates a time period of 1901-1925. The period of operation is consistent with the card properties analysis of the early to mid-1900s.

Lillian Russell Analysis:

Here we have a significant clue. Lillian Russell is depicted in what was called a character portrait, Russell as the character "Lady Teazel".

In 1904, John Kendrick Bangs and Roderick C. Penfield created a comic opera version of Sheridan's play "The School For Scandal" for Lillian Russell. The role of "Lady Teazel" was played by Miss Russell. The photograph used to advertise the play at the Casino Theatre in 1904, in the New York Times, is very similar to our Photo of the week.

Miss Russell died in 1922 and it appears that "Lady Teazle" was her last role on the stage.

Conclusion:

The Lillian Russell in this photograph looks the approximate age of the advertisement in the New York Times. The advertisement and the role of "Lady Teazle" are dated 1904. The play ran from December 1904 into 1905. Lillian Russell did not appear as "Lady Teazle" after this run. The first run of Russell as "Lady Teazle" would be the most likely time for the character portrait to have been taken and sold, as this would have been the period when it was most economically viable.

The biography (role 1904, death 1922), photographer (West 33rd St. 1901, death 1925), and card stock analysis information are consistent with the date of the cabinet card being 1904/05.

Lillian Russell's story is too amazing not to explore. From her four marriages, to her affair with Diamond Jim Brady, her work as a suffragette, her fact finding mission on immigration for President Harding, and her beauty, she led a very full life.

Sources:

Books:

Darrah, William C. Cartes de Visite in 19th Century Photography. Gettysburg: Darrah, 1981.

McCulloch, Lou W. Card Photographs, A Guide To Their History and Value. Exton, Pennsylvania: Schiffer 1981.

Newspapers:

Unknown, "Benjamin J. Falk Obituary," The New York Times, 22 March 1925. Online archives. http://access.newspaperarchive.com : 2008.

Unknown, "Faces of The Noted" The New York Times, 25 February 1883. Online archives. http://access.newspaperarchive.com : 2008.

Unknown, "Lady Teazle in Baltimore" The New York Times, 20 December 1904. Online archives. http://access.newspaperarchive.com : 2008.

Photographs:

Russell, Lillian. Photograph. ca. 1904. Digital image. Original Cabinet Card Panel privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2007

Lady Teazle Advertisement, New York Times Historical Database, December 25, 1904, New York, N.Y.
(http://proquest.umi.com/ : retrieved 15 March 2008).

The Overstuffed Baby Comes Full Circle!

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:12:00 +0000

"A superb story - blogging works!"

~ Randy Seaver ~

Geneamusings

As you read yesterday, Shades and the Overstuffed Baby made a connection. I was contacted by Dorothy Gray's granddaughter, Emelie Williams, who wrote and has sent Shades photographs of Dorothy's life, bringing our story full circle.

From Emelie Williams:

I was bowled over when her baby photo came on my monitor.

God love the internet and people who love history.

We are fortunate to have quite a lot of photos from Dorothy's side of the family. She kept scap books that have some portraits of family members and also some of Virginia City, Tonapah and Goldfield.

Dorothy's Engagement Portrait

I must say that your detective work on her photograph was very accurate and your methodology may prove helpful as we are piecing together some of our unknown people. She was indeed born June 20, 1907 in Goldfield, so your theory that she was about 6 months old was correct. They were Catholic and that looks like a Christening gown. So your thought about going to Silver City has great possibilities.

As the secretary for the School Lunch program

Washoe County, Nevada

I will look forward to reading more about preserving, sleuthing, researching and opening up the paths to the past in your future issues.

Thank you, Emelie

Emelie, the thanks is all mine. Yes, the internet is a wonderful place and this story is proof that we all have the opportunity to make a connection, to break down a brick wall, to come full circle.

Yes, thank you Emelie, for contacting Shades and for being so generous with your family history. It was such a pleasure to find that the research of a photograph of a baby with nothing more than a name resulted in such accurate work. It is so encouraging.

And now, it is on to preserving, sleuthing, researching and opening up the paths to the past.

Shades and The OverStuffed Baby Make A Connection

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:22:00 +0000

It is the reason why we do the things we do!

Shades received the following email from Emelie Williams:

Thank you for posting this! Believe it or not, Dorothy was my grandmother. She died last April (2010) in Reno, Nevada at age 102.

Her eyes were always her most noted feature -- clear, sky blue eyes. She was proudest of being a native Nevadan. Her grandparents from both sides immigrated in the 1850s and 1860s for the gold and silver rush and she was the second generation born in the US.

Dorothy was loved and adored by her parents as she was the only child to survive beyond age 4. Four sons did not due to childhood illnesses. Her uncle, William Counihan was a miner from Virginia City and moved to Montana for their mining rush. I suppose this is how baby Dorothy's photo got to Montana.

Dorothy still has three children aged 77 to 82 who are researching their past.

Thank you so much Emelie for telling us the story of baby Dorothy! We research, we write, and sometimes we are rewarded.

THE OVERSTUFFED BABY
Dorothy Margaret Gray

Today's Twitter #ShadesOP is an interesting orphan photograph with several clues. I purchased the photograph in an antique store in Missoula, Montana. The staff had lovingly nicknamed the photograph "overstuffed baby," and you can see why.

While I don't specifically collect photographs of babies, I was drawn to this particular baby, because of her eyes. They are beautiful and looking at them you must wonder just what color were they.

While the photograph has been identified on the verso, a good detective will never assume that the information is correct. The information must be investigated. That is what follows with the analysis of "the overstuffed baby."

What We Know From The Photograph:

(1) The card mount measures 5 in. X 7 in. and is 1.30mm thick. The photograph measures approximately 3 in. by 4 in. The corners of the card are rounded, the edges are beveled. The card stock is black morie silk, there is a raised embossed oval around the photograph. The back of the mount is a dark gray color with no photographic imprint.

It is an exceptionally well done trim of the oval. The photograph is clear with excellent contrast and is perfectly centered. The photograph appears to be of very good quality.

(2) The photographer’s imprint on the front (recto) of the photograph lists the photographer as O. L. Dowe, Artistic Fotografer. There is no address.

(3) The back of the mount reads Dorothy Margaret Gray, Goldfield, Nev., October 13, 1907. There is no photographers imprint.

Card Analysis:

The card is consistent with mounts of the 1900s in both size, thickness, board, bevel, and color.

Photographer and Imprint Analysis:

O. L. Dowe was Oscar L. Dowe. Dowe was active in Lovelock, Nevada, in 1891, 1901, 1904 and operated the Big tent below the Catholic Church" in Silver City, Nevada.

From 1879-80 Dowe was a retoucher with Davidson Brothers in Portland, Oregon. Dowe operated as an itinerate photographer in California, Idaho, Nevada from 1890 - 1919. No fixed address is listed; several of the time periods list his studio as a tent.

The Biographies of Western Photographers lists Dowe as Oscar S. The census and this imprint list Dowe as Oscar L.

The problem with this information is that we can not determine the exact location where the photograph was taken. While the back of the card indicates Goldfield, Nevada, biographies for Dowe do not indicated that he operated in Goldfield. During this period of time, 1907, Dowe is listed as operating his studio in a tent in and around Silver City, Nevada.

Dorothy Margaret Gray Analysis:

The 1910 Census lists William Gray and his wife Emma living on East Elliott Street in Goldfield, Nevada with their two children, Dorothy age 2, and a son Gordon age 3 months. William works as a bookkeeper for a mining company.

Gold was discovered at Goldfield in 1902, the year of the town's inception. By 1904 the Goldfield district produced about 800 tons of ore, valued at $2,300,000, 30% of the Nevada's production that year. This remarkable production caused Goldfield to grow rapidly, and it soon became the largest town in Nevada.Goldfield reached a peak population of about 30,000 people in 1906. In 1907 Goldfield became the county seat.

In 1920 we find William Gordon Gray, his wife Mary Emma, and twelve year old daughter Dorothy living on University Street in Nye County Nevada in the Township of Tonapa . William is working as a pay teller in a bank. Missing from the Gray home is baby Gordon. Too young to have already left home since the last census, it can be assumed that baby Gordon has died sometime between the 1910 and 1920 census.

On 18 and 19 April 1910, Dorothy is listed in the census as being two years old. That would make her date of birth between 18 and 19 April 1907 and 18 and 19 April 1908. The baby in the photograph only looks as if it is a few months old. The birth date of 13 October 1907 would be consistent with the baby being approximately 6 months old at the time of the photograph.

Clothing Analysis:

The satin and lace trim on the bonnet and cape, the embroidered shoes indicated that this was clothing for a special occassion, not clothing purchased for a studio portrait. The clothing would be consistent with christening outfits of the early 1900s.

Conclusion:

It has been determined that Dowe operated his photography business in numerous locations in California, Idaho, and Nevada from 1890 until 1919 as a traveling photographer. Although his biography does not indicate he had a studio in Goldfield in 1907, Goldfield was a Nevada boom town beginnng in 1906 and Dowe could have easily traveled there to take advantage of the newly rich miners, mine operators, their employees and their families. Therefore, the photograph could have been taken during 1907 or later, and the photograph could have been taken in Goldfield.

In the alternative, we know that studio portraits were taken to mark a passage in the portrait sitter's life. Although the date listed on the back of the photograph is October 13, 1907, it may be the date of Dorothy's birth rather than the date the photograph was taken. As such this may be a photograph of Dorothy's christening and the date would be around 13 April 1908. The clothing is consistent with christening outfits of the early 1900s.

Both William and Mary Emma are of Irish descent. If their religion is Catholic, they might have traveled to Silver City to the Catholic Church to have Dorothy christened. Just down from the church in Silver City was Dowe's tent. The Grays may have gone directly from church to the tent for a photograph to commenorate the event.

This is far too much supposition and too little proof, but does show the process of analysis.

Sources:

Books:

Darrah, William C. Cartes de Visite in 19th Century Photography. Gettysburg: Darrah, 1981.
MacPhail, Anna. The Well Dressed Child. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer, 1999.
McCulloch, Lou W. Card Photographs, A Guide To Their History and Value. Exton, Pennsylvania: Schiffer 1981.
Mace, O. Henry. Collector's Guide To Early Photographs.Iola, Wisconsin: Krause, 1999.
Mautz, Carl. Biographies of Western Photographers. Nevada City, California: Carl Mautz Publishing, 1997.
Nickell, Joe. Camera Clues. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1994.
Palmquist, Peter. Pioneer Photographers Of The Far West A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Severa, Joan. Dressed For The Photographer. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1995.

Census:

1900 U.S. census, Inyo County, California, population schedule, 1-Twp, p. 2, dwelling 48, family 48, O. L. Dowe (Head); digital images. Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/ : retrieved 2 May 2008); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 87. Occupation - photographer.

1910 U.S. census, Esmeralda County, Nevada, population schedule, Goldfield, p. 82, dwelling 99, family 100, William Gray (Head); digital images. Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/ : retrieved 2 May 2008); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 858.

1920 U.S. census, Nye County, Nevada, population schedule, Tonopah, p. 84, dwelling 369 , family 374, William Gordon Gray (Head); digital images. Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/ : retrieved 2 May 2008); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1005.

Photograph:

Dorothy Margaret Gray. Photograph. 13 October 1907. Digital image. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2007

Many Things Thurday - Burton Homes & My Grandfather at The George Eastman House

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:49:00 +0000

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things."

Thursday, on Shades Of The Departed, will be dedicated to
many things, and nothing in particular.

Many Things Thursday

My Grandfather and His Straw

A Close-Up

A photograph found with this one has written on the reverse, "Everywhere you go there's someone to take your picture." Usually those taking the photographs were Holmes and Greene.

E. Burton Holmes and E. Jesse Greene traveled the world together taking photographs and making films for the Burton Holmes empire. Always, I might add, dressed to the nines no matter where they were in the world.

Burton Holmes was a mega star of his day; for sixty years he was America's most famous travel showman. Yes, Burton Holmes traveled the world, but he didn’t travel alone. Producing the Burton Holmes lectures required the efforts of a close knit group of tough ground-breaking professionals. While much has been written about Burton Holmes’ career, little has been known about the men and women who traveled with him and contributed to his empire.

One of those men was my grandfather, Edward Jesse Greene. Greene left school at sixteen to begin his career with Holmes. Burton Holmes personally gave my grandfather an education in photography, travel, and the world. The stories of my grandfather and his association with Holmes, as well as his personal photographs are my legacy.

The George Eastman House has acquired several hundred of Holmes' films and is working to preserve his legacy. They have released the following video.

View more interesting occupations in the May/June

Issue of Shades published this week!

Photograph:

Holmes & Greene. Unmounted Photograph. Photographer Unknown. Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, Preston, Washington. 2008

Twice Told Tuesday - Occupations - Photography & Women

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:17:00 +0000

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article reprinted from
my collection of old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

Shades reprints a chapter from the book on Occupations For Women, describing Women and Photography. Don't miss Shades Of The Departed Magazine - out this week with a look at occupational photographs.

PHOTOGRAPHY is especially adapted to a woman's artistic taste and delicate touch. Many girls practicing photography as amateurs, do their work well and it seems unaccountable why so many who reach a creditable degree of excellence in the work should be satisfied and so cease to produce better results. Why should they not continue in the art, master every detail, enter the field as professionals, and pursue the work as a business? Hundreds of women might accomplish far more in this occupation than at present.

Is it lack of energy, of courage or capital that deters them? It cannot be lack of energy, for the hours spent in the work by the ambitious, enthusiastic and painstaking amateurs prove the contrary. It should not be on account of insufficient courage, for it has been said that "the business woman is a nineteenth century production. She is honestly proud of her work, and of being a link in the great chain which keeps the business world moving." The hesitation should not be based upon the plea of "no capital," for the bright, determined girl of the present will always overcome this difficulty.

The work is not too difficult for a woman. For years it was regarded as a particularly occult and mysterious process, requiring a special gift, a knowledge of chemistry and years of professional study. During these years photography, to the woman, suggested untidy work, blackened hands, and soiled aprons. Today it is acknowledged to be a fascinating work, easily understood, requiring no superior knowledge, and demanding but a comparatively short time of study and preparation.

The introduction of electric lights, dry plates, light machinery, and dainty photographic devices renders the work more agreeable and available to women besides offering at the present day a most inviting field.

Nearly two-thirds of a photographer's patrons are women and children, and a woman photographer of pleasing manners, obliging disposition and artistic sense is most successful in securing happy results when the critical moment of posing arrives. There is but one best position, one best view of all objects. It is acknowledged that in woman the artistic sight is more perfectly developed than in man. This natural gift enables her to immediately discover the one best position--the one best view of her subject.

A woman quickly grasps the beautiful and harmonious in nature and in art. She naturally understands posing, colors in dress, and all the details that make up the artistic photographs of women and children. She will quickly tell why this line, shade or curve is more desirable. She possesses the faculty of bringing out the best in the patron who poses before her.

Many years elapsed in the history of photography before the public became assured of these neutral gifts in women--gifts so admirably adapted to this work, so favorably suited to its success. The photographers in several of our cities were assured of woman's efficiency in this work after securing her aid in their studios. It was when thus employed as assistants that women fully realized their adaptability, discovered opportunities for improvement, and resolved to pursue the work as a profession.

Julia Margaret Cameron

Mrs. Julia Cameron, of England, early realized that the ideal portrait consists in portraying a glimpse of a man's soul; not only the face but the intellect, the genius, the spirit in its completeness--these must all enter into the faithful portrait. This she aimed to accomplish and seldom has the work been more satisfactorily accomplished. She produced portraits which were an immediate inspiration to others who were striving to do sincere and truthful work. It is said: "She was of a most distinguished and fine nature, and was of unique pre-eminence in the profession of which she has made a great and noble name." Tennyson was her neighbor, and often he posed for her. The faces of Browning, Carlyle, Sir John Herschel, Charles Darwin and Tennyson were among her noblest of English portraits. In these she succeeded in portraying the loftiest aim and the utmost steadfastness which were the principles of their lives. It is this that vivifies their portraits. "When I have had these men before my camera," she once said, "my whole soul has endeavored to do its duty toward them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man." This is the secret of her power and her success: "Truth in art for truth's sake." It has been said that her work merits comparison only with the best portraits from the old masters.

London to-day has the most celebrated woman photographer in the world. Miss Alice Hughes, the daughter of Edwin Hughes, the portrait painter, has earned this enviable reputation.

Her photographs are more expensive than any others produced in London, and yet she is scarcely able to attend to her orders. Her work is all done at her home in Gower street, London, and here there are no surroundings usually associated with photographic galleries, No outward sign on portal or windows suggests the atelier. Her studio is built out over the garden and from the drawing-room one descends to it by three or four steps. The secret of her success is that she makes her subjects perfectly at ease. She lets them pose themselves and makes only the changes that are absolutely necessary. Among her photographs are nearly all of our American girls who married Englishmen, from Lady Randolph Churchill to Lady Terence Blackwood.

Mrs. Emily Stokes of Boston, is an example of what a woman may accomplish in photography. When compelled by misfortune to give up her London home, she came to America to begin life among strangers. Having been associated with enthusiastic photographers in England, and believing that the position could be filled by women as well as men, she resolved to enter the field as a professional. For sixteen years she has aimed to produce the true child portrait. She has conquered difficulties, and is an enthusiastic and successful artist. "This one thing I know," she said brightly, and it would be well if many girls could say the same. "I know every detail of the work; it is the only way to success," she added, as she glanced about the room at the pictures of sweet child faces.

Since the first public exhibition of photographs in London in 1852, and especially since the Paris Exposition in 1889, photography as an art has steadily advanced, and in the recent exhibitions in European and American cities the photographs executed by many women have been an inspiration urging others to enter the field. Not only have these women exhibited portraits, but their photographs of landscapes, marine views, mineral and vegetable specimens have won for them a wide reputation.

Frances Benjamin Johnston

Some of the most beautiful photographs in the United States have been produced by Miss Johnston, of Washington. She has attained a superior degree of excellence in all her work. As a professional she ranks among the list of leading photographers in the country. The truthfulness and artistic beauty in all her photographs have earned for her a name pre-eminent among photographers. She has done much work for newspapers and magazines, giving to the public truthful pictures of much that is constantly occurring in the public life of the capital city.

Miss Beatrice Tonnesen

Miss Beatrice Tonnesen, of Chicago, has opened a studio in that city, and her photographs of women and children, especially the latter, are already noted for their beauty.

Mrs. Farnan, a California woman, has earned the reputation of accomplishing remarkable results in photography.

In February, 1896, the Youth's Companion offered prizes for the eight best amateur photographs submitted during the following six months. Over six thousand photographs were received in response to the offer. Miss Emma Farnsworth, of Albany, N. Y., submitted a most truthful scene, "When the Day's Work is Done." This was awarded the first prize, and strikingly illustrates the perfection to which a young woman has brought her art.

Others who obtained prizes were Mrs. Sarah Holm, of Wisconsin, and Miss Kate Matthews, of Kentucky.

The girl who decides to leave the army of amateurs and enter the professional arena must feel assured that she has patience, an artistic taste, determination and business ability. She must be willing to inform herself of the multitudinous operations to be performed; she must expect waste and loss, and she must be able to rise above disappointments and trials. To be successful in working a "four-by-five" outfit does not imply an equal success with an "eighteen-by-twenty-two." The ability to make a few blue-prints daily does not mean equal success in producing five hundred to one thousand a day in albumen, ilo or platinotype[.] To be able to please a few interested, intimate friends is widely different from contending with the capriciousness of disinterested strangers. To take a picture and secure a local artist to do all the work requires little ability when compared with understanding the operating, printing, mounting and finishing. Possession and production are widely different in their meaning. It is one thing to work for pleasure and one's self and quite another to work for profit and the public.

Too often a girl thinks if she buys a camera, some plates and a few chemicals she can become a photographer. In her mind all that is necessary is to expose the plate properly, develop it, print from it, tone and fix the prints, and then the art will be mastered. She forgets that few can expose a plate with perfect success, that judicious, painstaking care is necessary to develop it, and that toning requires skill. It must not be supposed that with the cheapness of material and the present comparative simplicity in applying it, the pictures require less care than formerly. The conditions of light and composition are the same as they were in the early days of photography, and the laws of lenses and theories of light must still be studied with the greatest care.

The girl who would be a photographer should consider her adaptability for the work, and, having decided to pursue the occupation, she will do well to work with some reliable firm. When once an opportunity is found in some photographic studio she must work earnestly and hard in learning the details of the work. After a short time is given she will obtain a position as assistant in the work. If she be on the alert for opportunities she will, when fitted, find the right locality and here build up a business of her own. The cost of materials, furniture, rent, wages and the fund for emergencies must then be considered. One young woman of the East fitted up a skylight for fifty dollars. The expense incurred will vary according to the taste of the young woman. Once furnished and equipped the subsequent outlay is but trivial, and if good work is furnished the profits are assured. A young woman may choose to devote herself to but one branch of the work. Should she excel she will find with determination the opportunity of assisting in some large studio. The operator and the one who poses the subject hold positions of importance and responsibility and are usually paid the highest salary. An education in photographic science is required, a knowledge of light and its effects, an artistic taste, and a knowledge of theories that constitute art in portraiture. Women who excel in these, who are professionals, will receive from fifteen to fifty dollars a week.

Especially adapted to a woman's delicate touch is the process of retouching photographic negatives. Before entering upon this branch of the work it is essential that she should draw and possess a knowledge of anatomy, especially of the face, neck and shoulders. If the work be undertaken without this knowledge, distorted, unnatural productions will be shown, and failure will result. The work also requires strong eyes, for the use of artificial light is a constant strain upon the eye. The amount paid for this work in large cities varies from ten to fifteen dollars a week.

Printing is the most interesting part of the work. Several women in the larger studios receive from twelve to eighteen dollars each week.

Girls who enter the work to mount the pictures should be alert, detect at a glance any imperfection, and must have artistic feeling.

During the past thirty years there has been a demand for the application of color to photographs, and to-day hundreds of young women are devoting themselves to supplying the demand. The technique of the work is simple. Many women earn from twelve to fifteen dollars a week by executing orders. After a short course of study they are able to earn more. A knowledge of drawing is necessary, or the artist is unable to produce form, and the work is flat or distorted; there must also be a knowledge of color, or the tints will be dry and hard.

One young lady of the East has supplied the teachers of schools with figure subjects. She has reproduced with exactness the little dramas and comedies of life. Here there are pictures of boys, their work and pastimes; school girls in their natural pleasures or duties. Kites, hoops, marbles, tops, dogs, are all so truthfully pictured that the teacher is seldom required to tell long stories for the children's amusement and instruction, for the photograph's explanation is clear, and from these the numerous stories are told or written.

Another young woman with her camera has reproduced engravings, and her copies of famous old pictures in European galleries and prized ones in America, have earned for her reputation and profit.

One woman makes a specialty of children's photographs, another confines her work to landscapes, a third takes photographs of interesting events in the city and sends them to the illustrated papers.

Everywhere in the scientific world the power of the photographic camera has been felt. Physics, Chemistry, Mechanics, Astronomy, Zoology convince one that by patience and study a woman may put her camera to a most excellent use.

Many eminent scientists are constantly preparing and publishing scientific papers. However perfect their language may be, however clearly their thoughts may be expressed, the words are often found inadequate to convey an actual visual impression. These papers, to satisfy the public and make the thoughts of more value, should be illustrated. The old illustrations of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish are frequently untrue, misshapen representations.

The young woman whose photographic work possesses merit and accuracy may in this field pursue her work to most profitable ends and to the advancement of learning. This field is full of interest to the gifted young photographer, but one in which ingenuity is demanded.

This is an age of books and book illustrations. The various processes of book illustration are annually enriched by new applications of photography. The present knowledge of the flights of birds and the motions of animals can be produced by the camera in a most accurate degree. Here the young woman may choose her work, and if she would succeed she must strive for the best and seek to do not only good work but a superior quality of work.

Sources:

Willard, Frances Elizabeth. Occupations for women: a book of practical suggestions for the material advancement, the mental and physical development, and the moral and spiritual uplift of women.Cooper Union, N.Y.: The Success Co., 1897. 504.

Photographs:

Unknown, photographer. “[Frances Willard, portrait bust]” Glass negative. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1867. From Library of Congress: George Grantham Bain Collection, [no date recorded on caption card]. (accessed September 19, 2008).

Cameron, Julia Margaret. Self-Portrait. Date Unknown. Wikipedia.

Frances Benjamin Johnston with camera on balcony of Treasury Building, Washington, D.C., 1888. Photographer Unknown. Reproduction number: LC-USZ62-91952 (b&w film copy neg.)

Unknown photographer. Beatrice Tonnesen. Godey's Magazine. Published by The Godey company, 1897. p. 124

Exhibition of Young America: Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:36:00 +0000

An addition to my new fascination with videos about old photographs.

Hear about the former occupations of Southworth and Hawes

in preparation for the May/June Issue of Shades

Occupations

This Week!

Reflections

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Mon, 09 May 2011 19:13:00 +0000

I spent Mother's Day afternoon again trying my hand at building a video. Here is another attempt. I have so much to learn, but I promised myself this would be the year I mastered some of the programs I am so fortunate to own.

Here for your enjoyment are a few Mother's from another time. Caution to those who are at work. A music box plays in the video.

Photographs of Mother's of Old.

May Is National Scrapbooking Month - Today Is National Scrapbooking Day

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Sat, 07 May 2011 18:11:00 +0000

Marry the two fastest growing avocations and what do you have? Heritage Scrapbooking. But just as your family has history, so does the pastime of scrapbooking.

SCRAPBOOKS An American History
Jessica Helfand

One only has to look at these scrapbooks to realize that history isn't what historians tell us.

~ Jessica Helfand ~

Scrapbooks by Jessica Helfand examines scrapbooks from the nineteenth century to the present, concentrating particularly on the first half of the twentieth century. The book is filled with color photographs from more than 200 scrapbooks; some made by private individuals and others by the famous, including: Zelda Fitzgerald, Lillian Hellman, Anne Sexton, Hilda Doolittle and Carl Van Vechten.

This book is so fascinating, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put it down. I am so taken with the hundreds of examples of yesterday's scrapbooks, their brush with history, their tangible examples of real life. The scrapbooking of yesterday seems so far removed from that of today; they're not a contrived version of history or life. And yes, green!

These scrapbooks of old are filled with the bits and pieces of their authors' lives. Ticket stubs, torn letters, stamps, fabric, string, and a thousand things we throw out on a daily basis.

There are several scrapbooks shown with very inventive themes. I was particularly drawn to the scrapbook of locks of hair. My husband's family has a photo album filled with locks of a cherished child's hair. A child who died young and tragically. Do we still collect locks of hair? I don't know anyone who does. The album of monograms, once a very prevalent part of life, was graphically beautiful.

Modern day scrapbookers can draw on some of the more inventive ideas and incorporate them in today's themes. F. Scott Fitzgerald's mother had a scrapbook page of his signature at different ages, starting at five. What a brilliant idea! I am going to do this for my grandson's.

Of this project the author, Jessica Helfand tells us:

This project percolated in my brain (and my sketchbooks) for years until I realized that scrapbooks were simply visual autobiographies filled with stories waiting to be told. I am fascinated with the degree to which non-visual people felt, for whatever reason, compelled to keep these remarkably visual records of their lives. Its a chapter in American history (and in graphic design history) that has not been told: in my book I call it outsider art with insider knowledge. It's raw and primitive and heartbreaking and real, and if it bears little if any resemblance to contemporary scrapbooking, it's probably because a generation ago, people made things from the detritus of their lives: they rescued things, saved and savored them, and pasted them in the pages of books. And therein lies the scrapbook's particular and enduring magic.

Jessica also authors a blog called The Daily Scrapbook with beautiful examples of some of the scrapbooks she's collected.

This richly illustrated book is the first to focus on the history of American scrapbooks — their origins, their makers, their diverse forms, the reasons for their popularity, and their place in American culture. I loved it!

Take a look at this beautiful book and draw inspiration from the scrapbookers of old.

You might also be interested in:
Web Wandering Wednesday
Scrapbooks Of Old

Shades gives it:

A four out of four camera rating - Recommended Buy.

From The PhotoHistory Dictionary

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:07:00 +0000

educated

edu·cated (-kāt′id)

adjective

1. having, or showing the results of, much education
2. based on knowledge or experience an educated guess

Source:

Photograph:

Graduate. Card Mounted Photograph. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2007

Twice Told Tuesday - Hold Still!

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article reprinted
from old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

While there were many reasons for our ancestors not smiling in their portraits, one look at this torture chamber might give you a clue. Even when exposures were only four or five seconds some photographic studios continued their use.

The Passing of the Head-Rest

Farewell to thee, old, time-worn Friend!
All things at last must have an end —
Your time has come to go away,
For "every dog must have his day."
You have served us, long and well;
Many secrets you could tell.
The bridal-pair, the rustic youth,
The palsied dame, the man uncouth,
From grandparent to infant small,
Your firm embrace has held them all.
Farewell!

ONE by one the constituents of the photographer's conventional studio equipment are reaching the end of their usefulness and are fast disappearing. That old, familiar accessory, the head-rest, is among them, and with it what was once an important industry.

Its disappearance has been preceded by the burnisher, a heavy, clumsy, troublesome and time-consuming implement, and no one has regretted the end of its brilliant career except the manufacturer and the dealer, both of whom profited considerably by its sale.

The cold, firm clutch of the head-support rarely, if ever, contributed to the much-sought-for pleasant expression, neither was it calculated to impart ease or grace to the pose of the sitter, and the adjustment of its burly form was often accompanied by startling and ominous sounds. Yet it managed to hold sway for more than half a century, until, with the advent of high-speed dry-plates, its use has become more and more restricted, so that only a few studios continue to recognize its utility.

Many eminent practitioners have ceased more than ten years ago to work with the head-rest, and would prefer to give up portrait-photography than to resume its use, on account of the psychological and irritating effect of the instrument upon the sitter.

Those workers who have taken this advanced attitude claim that the head of the sitter, freed from its restraining influence, is disposed to oscillate gently in the direction of the lens, out of the plane of optical sharpness, thus producing a degree of indistinctness highly desirable and which could not be obtained in any other way.

On the other hand, one finds here and there a practitioner who still clings with affection to the accessory, finding it quite useful during necessarily prolonged exposures when the light is weak, or for other reasons, in which cases the support is not pressed against the head or neck of the sitter, but rather against the crown of the hat and accompanied by a remark calculated to divert the sitter's attention.

All the same, the days of the ponderous, rattling source of irritation are practically over and will soon pass into the realm of forgetfulness.

Note: You can see the stand behind the young girl in the photograph above.

Article Source:

The Passing Of The Head-Rest. Photo-Era: The American Journal of Photography. Boston: Wilfred A. French, 1909.

Photograph:

Young Girl With Head-Rest Stand. Photograph (Cabinet Card). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, Preston, Washington. 2009.

THE Civil War App for your iPad

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:11:00 +0000

I'm in love with the iPad app that marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War produced by the History channel. While the app costs $7.99, you will receive real time "This Day in Cvil War History" updates every day. It features photos, newspaper clips, and first-hand accounts from the war in the form of letters and diary entries, and help using Morse code to send telegrams via Twitter. It's a hoot, and a bargain when you consider you will be receiving daily updates that let you live the events in “real-time” over the course of four years.

The app also uses the iPad's multi-finger swiping feature allowing users to navigate through time. History says a one-finger swipe moves a day, a two-finger swipe for a week, a three-finger swipe for a month, and a four-finger swipe can jump the user one year in time.

The Civil War Today includes:

Daily Civil War updates from April 12, 2011 through April 26, 2015. The app content updates ONE DAY AT A TIME, precisely mirroring the events of 150 years ago
“In the Headlines” featuring newspapers from every day of the war.
Running tallies of the North and South casualty counts.
“A Day in the Life” with personal letters and diary entries from 15 individuals including Abraham Lincoln, Horatio Nelson Taft, and Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.
Photo of the day and photo galleries.
Quote of the day.
Articles and video on featured topics.
Authentic period maps from key battlegrounds.
Daily North-South quiz.
Detailed background scenes that put you in the time and place of the Civil War. (Northern city, Southern plantation, Western frontier town, military camp).
Twitter integration to send a telegram via Morse code.
GameCenter integration to earn Civil War era appropriate achievements - and display them in a virtual medals case.
Airplay integration for viewing of app video via Apple TV.
Advanced multi-finger gesture functionality and custom toolbar for deep navigation.

It's everything you could wish for in an app. You can find it in the iTunes store.

Twice Told Tuesday - Suffrage & Backhanded Reasoning?

noreply@blogger.com (footnoteMaven) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article
reprinted from old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

Men will find it far pleasanter and more elevating to
live with an equal than with an inferior in the home.
There is no one so hard to manage as a fool.

Yes, the answers to the questions asked are far more interesting than the questions themselves. After reading this, I was amazed women ever got the vote. This article was excerpted in the "Politics in Photographs" issue of Shades The Magazine. The author of this article, Mr. Henry Blackwell, was the editor of the Woman's Journal.

Woman's Journal was a women's rights periodical published from 1870-1931. It was founded in 1870 in Boston, Massachusetts by Lucy Stone and her husband Henry Browne Blackwell as a weekly newspaper. This new paper incorporated Mary A. Livermore's The Agitator, as well as a lesser known periodical called the Woman's Advocate. It specialized in suffrage news.

What are the chief objections now urged against Woman Suffrage, and what are the best answers to them:

1. Suffrage is not a right of anybody.

To say so is to deny the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed"—women are governed. "Taxation without representation is tyranny"—women are taxed. "Political power inheres in the people "—women are people. To deny these principles is to justify despotism. "The men who refuse the ballot to women can show no title to their own."

2. Nobody asks for Woman Suffrage.

Over 21,000 citizens of Massachusetts have petitioned for it within six months. More than 50,000 others have petitioned for it in previous years. Not a dollar has ever been spent in circulating these petitions. Repeated efforts have been made and money spent to circulate petitions against Woman Suffrage, and they have few signers.

3. What eminent men have favored Woman Suffrage

Among others, Abraham Lincoln, Chief Justice Chase, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Samuel G. Howe, John G Whittier, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson, President Hayes, Governors Banks, Boutwell, Claflin, Washburn, Talbot, Ames and Long. Senators Geo. F. Hoar and Henry L. Dawes, John M Forbes, Robert Collyer, Bishops Haven, Bowman and Simpson, Rev. Joseph Cook, Bishop Phillips Brooks, Neal Dow, George William Curtis, the republicans of Massachusetts in successive platforms since 1870. The national republican platforms of 1872 and 1876. The Democrats of Massachusetts in their platform of 1882.

4. What eminent women have favored Woman Suffrage

Among others, Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child, Frances D. Gage, Lucretia Mott, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, Louisa M. Alcott, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Clara Barton, Frances E. Willard, Abby W. May, Lucy Stone, Mary F. Eastman, Frances Power Cobbe, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Mary Clemmer.

5. Most women do not want to vote.

Except in years of presidential election, a majority of men in Massachusetts do not vote. This is shown by statistics. The right to vote for governor, state legislature, municipal, town and county officers, usually calls out less than half the male voters, in spite of public opinion, party machinery, torchlight processions, newspaper articles, expenditure of money, and personal efforts of candidates.

Over seven thousand women in Massachusetts registered last year to vote merely for school committee. Yet this is only a small and disjointed part of the system of Municipal Suffrage. It does not include a vote on the management of schools, or a share in the nomination of candidates. Small as it is, the right is restricted in the case of women by limitations which make it troublesome and costly to exercise. A woman must apply to be taxed and registered. She must give a statement under oath of all her property, and thus incur taxation to an extent which most men escape. Under parallel conditions not five hundred men would have voted for school committee. That even seven thousand women have done so, under such restrictions, is a proof of eminent and unselfish public spirit.

6. The number of women voting has diminished each year since School Suffrage for women was granted.

Only when the interest of men voting has also diminished each year since School Suffrage for women was granted. When a real issue was to be settled four years ago, 21,000 Boston women paid a voluntary tax and registered and voted and settled the question right. In every case the falling off has been due to a general lack of political interest, which temporarily affected both sexes. In the case of women it is due also to the limitation of the right, and the vexatious restrictions imposed upon the registration of women by the present law.

7. It is a step that once taken can never be recalled.

Municipal and presidential suffrage for women is an experiment which can be repealed at any time by a Legislature of men alone, elected by men alone. If the presence of women at town-meetings and municipal elections proves distasteful to the men, the Legislature will soon repeal the law. Every fair-minded opponent of Woman Suffrage should vote for Municipal and Presidential Woman Suffrage, as the shortest way to put an end to the agitation for Woman Suffrage by exposing its supposed evils.

8. We have too many voters now.

Where will you draw the line? No one proposes to disfranchise any class of men who now vote. Every extension of suffrage has proved on the whole a benefit to all concerned; first to poor white men; then to ignorant colored men; why not now to intelligent women? Are democrats who have given suffrage to poor men of foreign birth or republicans who have forced negro suffrage on the reluctant South, afraid to share political power with their own intelligent mothers, sisters, wives and daughters?

9. Women are represented already.

Men cannot represent women, because they are unlike women. Women as a class have tastes, interests and occupations which they alone can adequately represent. Men specially represent material interests; women will specially represent the interest of the home.

10. Only bad and ignorant women would vote.

Our ten years' experience of School Suffrage for women proves the contrary. The twenty-two thousand women who have voted are admitted to have been good and intelligent. The demand for suffrage comes from the respected leaders and educated representatives of their sex. No woman can vote in Massachusetts unless she can read and write.

11. It is contrary to experience.

Not so. In England women have voted for twenty years in municipal elections. Hon. Jacob Bright has written to the Massachusetts Legislature that in England Woman Suffrage has proved "good for women, good for Parliament, and good for the country." It has worked so well there that it has just been extended to the women of Scotland. Are American women alone unfit to be trusted with political responsibilities?

12. There is no precedent in this country.

In Wyoming, women have voted for twenty-two years on all questions, on the same terms as men. Every successive governor—the judges of the Supreme Court, the Senators in Congress, the presiding elder of the M. E. Church, the newspapers of both parties, all agree that Woman Suffrage works well and gives satisfaction in Wyoming. The State constitution guaranteeing equal suffrage to women has been ratified by Congress, and the women of Wyoming will vote in the next Presidential election.

13. It would put the control of state and nation into the hands of the foreign element.

In every State there are more women who can read and write than all the illiterate men and women combined. In every State there are more American women than all the foreign men and women combined. In every State the votes of women will double the intelligent majority, thus diminishing the influence of the ignorant minority one-half. In the Southern States taken together, there are more white women than all the colored men and women combined. So that the white majority, when women vote, will be larger than the total number of white male voters, if all women and colored men were excluded. There are in Massachusetts 454,852 women over twenty years old who can read and write; 326,731 of these are Americans; 128,121 of foreign birth. (See Carroll D. Wright's statistics for 1875.) Vol. ix.—No. 50. 10

14. It would put our cities under Roman Catholic control.

There are, in all our large cities, even in New York, more Protestant women than Roman Catholic women ; more American women than foreign women. There are in Boston 91,367 women over twenty years old who can read and write; 52,608 of these are Americans, 38,759 are of foreign birth. (See Carroll D. Wright as above.)

15. It would diminish respect for women.

Voting is power. Power always commands respect. To be weak is to be miserable. How many men are tolerated in society only because they are rich and powerful! Woman armed with the ballot will be stronger and more respected than ever before.

16. It is contrary to the Bible.

Not so. In the beginning, we are told, God made man in his own image, male and female, and gave them dominion ; not man dominion over woman. Among the Jews, God's chosen people, Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, a married woman, was judge, and led their armies to victory. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, but all are one. Women as well as men are commanded to "call no man master." Nowhere is it said in the Bible to women, "Thou shalt not vote."

17. Women have not physical strength to enforce laws; therefore they should not help make them.

One-half our male voters have not physical strength to enforce laws, yet they help make them. Most lawyers, judges, physicians, ministers, merchants, editors, authors, legislators and congressmen, and all men over forty-five years old are exempt from military service on the ground of physical incapacity. (See statistics of the late war.) Voting is the authoritative expression of an opinion. It requires intelligence, conscience and patriotism, not mere muscle. All the physical force of society is subject to call to enforce law, but cannot create law. Moral force, such as women possess, is as necessary as physical force to national well-being.

18. If women vote they must fight.

Women are the mothers of men. Lucy Stone says: "Some woman perils her life for her country every time a soldier is born. Day and night she does picket duty by his cradle. For years she is his quartermaster, and gathers his rations. And then, when he becomes a man and a voter, shall he say to his mother, 'If you want to vote you must first kill somebody? It is a coward's argument."

19. It will make domestic discord when women vote contrary to their husbands.

In cases where husbands and wives vote together it will be an additional source of sympathy and bond of union. In cases where they vote differently they will agree to differ, as they now do in religious matters. A man will not respect his wife the less because she has an opinion of her own and is free to express it.

20. It is unwomanly to vote.

This can only be true if voting is a purely masculine function. If so, it is right that men should monopolize it, but not otherwise. Or if it were a purely feminine function then women should monopolize it. But it is a human function and demands for its exercise qualities common to both sexes. What is suffrage? A choice between principles, measures and men. Are women capable of forming an opinion? Have they the capacity of rational choice? Are they interested in good government? If so they ought to vote as citizens, just as they now vote as stockholders in banking and manufacturing corporations.

21. The polls are not fit places for women.

Then they are not fit places for men. But if this were ever true, it is true no longer. The Australian ballot system has put an end to all disorder and removed every such ground of objection. Wherever women meet with men they are treated with respect. If the polls were as bad as represented they would not degrade women, but women would reform the polls.

22. Women have no grievances.

Women have many serious grievances growing directly or indirectly out of their disfranchisement. As workers they are not fairly paid. From many profitable occupations they are altogether excluded. In the older states they are not freely admitted to colleges and professional schools. They find it difficult to get instruction in skilled labor. Suffrage would give them larger independence and wider industrial opportunities. It would enable them to control legislation. As wives, mothers and widows they have special rights to protect and special wrongs to remedy. But the laws regulating these relations are often unjust and unequal. In only three states of the Union has a married mother, while living with her husband, any legal right to her children; everywhere else the father is the sole legal guardian. Widows and widowers do not have equal rights of inheritance in each other's property. During the husband's lifetime he is the sole legal head of the family and the sole owner of the accumulations of the married partnership. In most of the States marriage is a relation of superiority on the part of the husband, of inferiority and dependence on that of the wife, whereas it ought to be recognized as a noble and permanent partnership of equals with reciprocal rights and duties. Where additional rights have been secured for wives, mothers and widows, it has been almost always by the efforts of friends of woman suffrage. But the greatest of all grievances is the fact of disfranchisement. It is a stigma upon any class of citizens that their opinion is not thought worth counting.

23. What good will it do women to vote?

Just what it does for men. It will give women power to protect themselves in their persons, property, children, occupations, opportunities and social relations. It will enable them to get done what ought to be done, and to get undone what ought not to be done. As it has made certain classes of men, formerly treated as inferiors because disfranchised, more nearly equal with other men, so it will make all classes of women more nearly equal with men and with each other.

24. What good will it do men for women to vote?

Whatever enlarges the minds and hearts of women makes them more agreeable companions and better wives and mothers. The brains and conscience of an educated mother are the best inheritance of her children. Men will find it far pleasanter and more elevating to live with an equal than with an inferior in the home. There is no one so hard to manage as a fool.

25. What good will it do society for women to vote?

It will make government more fully representative. It will put an end to bribery in elections by doubling the number of voters and making it difficult to use money corruptly. Formerly when only a small class of men were allowed to vote, "every man had his price " and bribery was the rule. The wider the constituency the purer will be the political atmosphere. Candidates of better moral character will have to be nominated in order to secure the support of a majority of the women voters. Vice will be discouraged, poor and defenseless women will be better protected, and there will be a higher standard of public morals. Crimes against women will be more adequately punished, and children will be better cared for. Primary meetings will be made orderly, when women are expected to attend them. The manners and atmosphere of the smoking-car will be replaced by those of the lecture-room and the church-meeting. The caucus will be lifted to the level of the parlor. The presence of women will purify politics as it has already purified literature and refined society.

26. It will only double the vote—women will vote as their husbands do.

Then the family will cast two votes instead of one. But the quality of the voters changes the quality of politics. A political party of men and women will not be the same as a party of men alone. Women are more peaceable, refined, temperate, chaste, economical, humane and law-abiding than men. These qualities will influence the character of the government. The united votes of men and women will give the fullest, fairest, and most accurate expression of public opinion.

Source:

Blackwell, Henry B. "Expert Opinion." Our Day, A Record and Review of Current Reform. February, 1892.

Photograph:

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.