Nostalgia

Ah nostalgia.  Do we all long for a simpler time and see that time as so much better than what we have now? The original photograph for this card was probably taken around 1910, give or take a year or two in either direction.  But it was mailed in 1940.  Did the lady who mailed it think about a looming world war and say to herself, "If only we could all go back,"  conveniently forgetting that World War 1 was just a few years in the future when this image was taken?  It's human nature to remember better times that never where.

Postmarked, "CANANDAIGUA N.Y. JUN 17 12:30 PM 1940"  Sent to "Miss L. Smith, 341 Maple Ave., Oradell, New Jersey"  And the message, "Greetings to all the Chapter and congratulations to the new sister.  Hope we have many more.  Alana T. Wallis"   I would guess that the chapter was a college sorority, but I suppose it could also be some sort of club.

Canandaigua is a bit confusing because there is both a Canandaigua city and a Canandaigua town,  they border each other, and each is on Canandaigua Lake.  Now if the city was big while the town was small, it might make some sense, but they're both about the same size.  I wonder if the urbanites look down on the townies?  Famous Canandaiguans include painter Arthur Dove and comedian Kristen Wiig.

At The World's Fair

I  went over 80,000 page views a couple of days ago and thought it was a good time to revisit some images from the early days of The New Found Photography.  Nothing was written on any of these, but I was able to date them from the midget show visible in the background of the second photo.   A bit of digging and I was able to place it at the 1939 New York World's Fair.  Click on Worlds Fair in the labels section to bring up the original post if curious.  And yes, I bought these photos because the lady is good looking.  Hey, I've bought things for worse reasons.

Medics On the Roof

When I look at these three photos I assume that the men are doctors and the women are nurses.  That's not necessarily true.  American medical schools have been graduating women, in much smaller numbers than today, since the nineteenth century.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think the tall building in the bottom picture is New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Road Trip!

I hate driving in cities, but I love road trips, and this picture looks to have been from a great one.  I put my best magnifying glass on the cars license plate and it's from Pennsylvania in 1928.  And where did she go; Watkins Glen in New York, on Seneca lake in the finger lakes district.  Au Sable, New York on the Au Sable River, near Lake Champlain.  And on Lake Champlain, Rouses Point, a mile south of the Canadian border and during prohibition a great place to meet alcohol smugglers from Canada.  And of course, everyone should know about Montreal and Toronto.  I imagine this lady and her travelling companion(s) circled Lake Ontario, returning through Niagara Falls.  So, Watkins Glen State Park, the Adirondacks, beautiful lakes, smuggled Canadian whiskey,  French speakers, and shredded wheat.  (Shredded wheat is made in Niagara Falls, New York.)  And with no four lane highways, and probably more than a few miles on dirt routes, it must have taken at least a month.  Now that's a trip.

The Strange Career of Otto Sarony

Take a close look at this photograph and see a credit for O. Sarony.  There are tens of thousands of photographs credited to Otto Sarony, and he didn't take one of them.

Otto Sarony, 1859-1903, was the privileged son of famous photographer Napoleon Sarony.  The elder Sarony was born in Canada, but made his fortune in New York City.  A society photographer, Napoleon Sarony came up with an interesting business model.  Rather than waiting in his studio for the rich and famous to show up for a portrait, he paid sitting fees to his clients in exchange for the right to reproduce and sell their images.  Napoleon Sarony dressed flamboyantly, attended the parties given by the New York theatrical community and became every bit as well known as his celebrity sitters.  His studio sold cartes de visite, cabinet cards, and latter postcards of 19th century stage stars to anyone with a few pennies in their pocket.  Despite his public image, Napoleon was a hard working, successful businessman who made a lot of money.

 Raised by his father to take over the business, working as a studio assistant, Otto didn't share his father's enthusiasm for the photographic business.  It wasn't that Otto wanted to follow another profession.  He preferred yachts, gambling and parties.  Perhaps that's why Napoleon's will required Otto to run the business for at least fifteen years, and limited his weekly wages to $75.  To put it mildly, Otto was unhappy.  In 1898, two years after his father's death, Otto sold the studio to William F. Burrow, but remained as the public face of The Sarony Studios.  In 1901, Otto Sarony wanted even more money, so he sold rights to his name to Col. Theodore Marceau.  So, there were two competing studios in New York City producing photographs credited to Otto Sarony.  In 1903, Otto Sarony died of pneumonia.  For the next decade a series of law suits were filed as William F. Burrow and Theodore Marceau fought over who had the right to use the Sarony name.  Marceau managed to use the Sarony name into the 1910s.  Burrow's Sarony Studios closed in 1930.

Robert Edeson was a successful stage actor in New York and latter a well respected character actor in silent movies.  He was in a favorite silent movie of mine, The Clinging Vine, starring Leatrice Joy.  Highly recommended.  Edeson's career survived into the sound era.  He died in 1931.

The Flatiron Building, The One In New York

As I add more and more old postcards to the collection, I keep having to make a decision; Was the original image a photograph or a drawing?  Looking at the detail in the building's facade and the chaos of the street , I'm fairly certain it's a photo, and a fit for The New Found Photography.  I'm also fairly certain that the original photograph was probably taken during the day, and the night sky, moon, and lights were all added by the colorist who prepped the image for conversion to a postcard.

I'm not going to write much about the Flatiron Building.  It's one of the most icon structures in the world and it doesn't take much effort to find out plenty of information.  I will note that it was built in 1902, and was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham with additional work done by Frank P. Dinkelberg.

When it was first built it was not a loved structure by the people of New York.  Because of it's thin design, it was assumed that it would blow down in the first strong wind and New Yorkers made fun of it, referring to it as Burnham's folly.  Architectural critics were not kind.  One thought it a grand place to watch a procession but a terrible place to do business.  Now it's thought of as one of the most symbolic buildings of New York and has been added to the list of National Historic Landmarks. .

The Flatiron has long been an inspiration to artists.  As early as 1903, photographer Alfred Stieglitz was making photographs of the building.  In 1904, Edward Steichen made an early color photo that I'm probably going to put up on another of my blogs, www.fairuse-wjy.blogspot.com.  Painters John Sloan, Childe Hassam and others have also made significant works from the Flatiron.  I've been looking at some of them, and what really caught my eye was that the building's profile is so thin, the images all look like a facade and nothing else, no real building, just a wall floating in air.

This card was never sent and there was no message written on the back.  The caption, "FLAT IRON BUILDING, BROADWAY AND FIFTH AVENUE, BY NIGHT, NEW YORK CITY.  Fuller Building, generally known as the Flat Iron building stands at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue facing 23rd Street.  Was the first steel frame skyscraper built in the world.  It is 300 feet high and contains 120,000 square feet of floor space above ground and 13,340 square feet under the sidewalk."

The German American Collection, It All Ends in Smithtown

Written on the back, "1956 Mr & Mrs B.C. Oakside Rd. Smithtown." Is this a bit of a let down for the last image of the collection? Yes and no. To recap, a dealer had purchased a large collection of photos at an estate sale, sold some of the best images separately, and then bundled the reminder into groups, put them up on EBay, and this was the only lot that I won. The huge gaps make it impossible to build a true narrative. Still, we can know that this collection had plenty of images from both the United States and Germany. What we can't know is how the two came together. Did a German branch of a family send photos to their American cousins? Was there a move from Germany between the wars or after World War 2, followed by marriage into an American family? In any case, somehow or another, some branch of this family ended up in a post war suburb on Long Island. The good life dreamed of by so many, recorded with this one, very faded color photograph. Click on German American in the labels section to bring the whole lot up. Good, bad, and indifferent images, but worth it.

Niagara Falls

Slowly we turn. Step by step. Inch by inch. Just a quick one for fans of The Three Stooges. Niagara Falls became the go to place for honeymooners in the second half of the 19th century. A nascent middle class with disposable income, easy rail connections from eastern cities, cheap hotels, and a tourist industry was born. Niagara Falls was also the home of Shredded Wheat, a much dreaded breakfast from my childhood. I thought I'd just mention that since I've put up a Shredded Wheat advertising card on my other blog, www.fairuse-wjy.blogspot.com

Lady Hobos

Yes, I know. They're not actually hobos. The Erie Railroad was chartered in 1832 as the New York & Erie Railroad to build a line from New York City to Dunkirk, NY, on Lake Erie. Construction began in 1836 and finally reached Lake Erie in 1851. The line would change it's name to the New York, Erie and Western Railroad as it built lines that would eventually reach as far west as Chicago. In 1895 it, once again, was renamed as the Lake Erie Railroad. In 1960 it merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad and became the Erie & Lackawanna Railroad. So we can know that this picture was taken after 1895. Hey, it's something. More info can be found on the often unreliable Wikipedia.

Camp Hancock, Postage Due

Postmarked, "AUGUSTA, GA MAY 20 1:30 PM 1918 HANCOCK BRANCH" Addressed to, "Mr. John Hayes 113 E. Main St., Amsterdam, NY c/0 John Burke" And the message, "Well John we had a great trip down here we left Fort Slocum 10 clock Wed morning on the boat and got in Jersey City at 12 got our lunch and left Jersey City at 2 o'clock by train and got in Camp Hancock 12 o'clock Thursday night. from Coney" One would think that Coney was a lucky young man. World War 1 would end on November 11, 1918, so even if he saw combat, it wouldn't have been much. But then again, on the last day of September 1918 there were two men in the camp infirmary. On October 1, there were 716 cases of Spanish flu in the camp. By October 5, there were 3,000 cases and 52 dead. This card was published by "A. M. SIMON, 32 UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK."

My Little Sweetheart-The Baker Family 12

This is it. The last of the loose Baker family photo album pages. It's also my favorite of the lot as well as the one that suggests the most questions. I'm still wondering whether or not the Brighton referenced is the one in New York or the one in England. If Brighton, New York was near Passaic, New Jersey, I'd go with New York, but it's a suburb of Rochester near Lake Ontario. And Passaic is in land, not on the ocean, so the beach photo has to be mislabeled. Where are they rowing? And is my little sweetheart a little boy or a little girl? Click on Baker family in the labels section to bring up the whole lot.

The German American Collection, Althea Hope Risebake

Written on the back of the school photo in a childish hand, "Althea Hope Risebake" Stamped, "SCHOOL PROJECTS PHOTO CO. 309 MAIN ST. ORANGE, N.J. Tel. OR. 5-5286 Res. OR. 5-5622."

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The problem I'm having with the German American collection (Click on German American in the labels section to get more information and more images.) is that it's so broken up it's almost impossible to build a real narrative of this family. What I do know is that a German family immigrated to the United States and made a life in New York and New Jersey. These two pieces both have education as a theme, but they don't come from the same time or place. Was the District Number 13 souvenir tag from the Andes, New York School District given to the child of a German immigrant, and a parent of Althea Hope Risebake, or was it given to someone born and raised in the U.S. who would eventually marry into that immigrant family? Was Althea born in Germany, struggling to learn English along with her math and geography, while her American born class mates made fun of her accent? Of course, when this picture was taken, an accent may have been common in this school. While it's frustrating not to know, it also allows for a freedom of speculation that makes collecting old photos endlessly fascinating. .

The German American Collection, Cabinet Cards and CDVs

Here's the story on this collection. I bought it from an online dealer from Florida. He had picked up a large group of photos, albums, and ephemera from an estate, sold of a number of images, separately, and then took what was left and put together some lots for sale. I tried to buy a number of these groupings, and this was the only one I was able to get. There are some really nice photos, some dull ones, and some that are just plain bad. Because I think context is important, I'll eventually put all of them on line, but because so much of it is missing from the collection, I'll be putting them up intermittently, rather than all at once. Because I have some photos taken in Germany I've decided to label them all The German American Collection. Not a lot of labeling on these ones. The old man has a studio mark, "L. Rogers, PHOTOGRAPHER, TARRYTOWN, N.Y." Written, "Pops mothers father-Lewis" The young boy, "Seeley, 292 Main Street, Po'keepsie, N.Y." and written, "Katie Mortimer" And no, that's not a mistake, he's identified as Katie.