Red Dress

I love these old, hand tinted photographs.  I'm always surprised just how hard it is to find a good example.  There was a fair amount of work in applying the tints and, of course, if a mistake was made, a new print was needed and the colorist had to start over, so they weren't cheap. .  Throw in that they were often displayed in a frame,  exposed to sunlight, and the subsequent fading, it's no wonder that so few have survived in one piece with good, rich colors.  The Northland logo presented some problems.  There are a huge number of photo studios, past and present, with that name.  I'm tempted to say that this photo is from Northland Studios with offices in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Toledo and Indianapolis because they were in business in the 1920s and with all those offices, it increases the chances that this photo is one of theirs, but of course, I can only guess on that.   Click on hand colored prints in the labels section to bring up some more images.

Aunt Fronia

I bought this real photo postcard at the same time, and from the same dealer, as the previous post.  The handwriting on the back is similar, but in my opinion, not a close enough match to be sure that they are related.  And the caption, "Aunt Fronia Kerney and half sister Laura."

The Lady Violinist

My favorite violinists are Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, and Regina Carter.  If you don't know who they are, you're not a jazz fan.  From the forties or fifties, I would think.

Berries

But what is she eating?  I thought grapes, but grapes come in bunches.  Whatever it is, this lady likes them, and I do think it's the same lady, photographed a decade or so apart.  Stamped on the back of the second photo, "V Sutras-Tartu"  I assume a photographers name, but who knows these things.   And, I'm guessing Europe.

The North Texas State Normal College Album 14

Click on NTSNC in the labels section at the bottom of the post to bring up the whole collection.

Lost In the Snow

I know, they're not actually lost in the snow.  But the composition is so interesting.  Did the photographer mean to frame like this, or was it a mistake?  Was he trying to show just how much it had snowed?  I like the lady on the left in her full length fur coat.

Posing In the Snow

I don't know whether these two photos are related or not, but I did find them in the same place, they look very similar, so I'm posting them together.  Because of the hat, I can't be sure, but I think it might be the same woman.  Call it small town America, in the twenties, in winter. 

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.

A Bold Portrait

It's always tricky trying to read personality into an old photograph.  For all I know this woman was shy, retiring, and looked at the floor when talking to someone.  But when I look at this picture I see confidence, a keep up with me if you can look.  As has been noted on many a vintage photo blog, we'll never know.  

Older Women

Two more from the packet of studio portraits I've been posting.  Unlike the last two entries, these haven't been cut from a photo album.  Montgomery's, written on the bottom of the two images, is probably a photographers name but there's no way to be sure.

More Destroyed Photo Albums

I'm not 100% certain, but my guess is that this album fragment was cut from the same source as the last post.   I wish that the parade picture hadn't been destroyed.

Destroying Photo Albums

Every so often, I feel the need to complain about the wanton destruction of photo albums and the breaking up of collections by antique dealers.   I understand that they're trying to increase their profits by selling individual images, but come on, there's history to think about.  It's true that the average person thinks of war, elections, and famous people when they hear the word history,  but there is a whole other historical past out there; the past of the ordinary, they way people lived, the day by day that's every bit as important as who won the election of  1884.

The dealer who sold me these images, as well as some others that may or may not have come from the same source, saw the two studio portraits as his profit.  When those photos wouldn't pull off the page, out came the razor blade and goodbye photo album.  Now, I admit that they are lovely images, but when I turned them over...all I could think of  was how much more interesting they would have been if I could have put her life into some sort of context.  And if the dealer hadn't cut things up, I might have been able to do that.  The funny thing is, I bought these two photos plus five other images in an envelope, for five dollars.  I would have paid more for a single page of the album, with both sides intact, and even more for the whole album.

Embossed on the second photo, "BAUGH WINFIELD, KANS"  I couldn't find anything about the photographer.  Winfield, Kansas is a town in southern Kansas, current population, 12,000+.

Two Stylish Ladies

Written on the back, "Modilta & Kate"  Best guess, from the thirties.

Two-Up

This is a very small print and was probably cut from a longer strip.  At least I've run across some other strip images that have about six or seven frames.  I'm told that they were made in a camera, specially made to make multiple images on a glass plate negative.

That's Not Writing, That's Typing

I was thumbing through the photo grab bag collection, (100+ photos purchased in a sealed envelope, sight unseen.) and found another image with a typed label that should have been part of  the I Love Lucy post from the second of this month. When I put up that one I was thinking, a cold, overly analytical type who labeled everything with his typewriter, and then filed, cross referenced, making things easy to find.  Now I'm going with middle aged, mid western romeo who had his collection of conquests and had to keep things organized just in case the ladies of 1938 ran into the ladies of 1941.  Typed on the back, "Helen Aug-1938"

Bonus points for whoever gets the title reference.

Shirley Bristow

Labeled Shirley Bristow.  I love the low angle.  I don't know whether the photographer used a fill flash or if the printer dodged  Shirley's upper body, but it's a nice contrast with the darker background.  Probably from the mid thirties to early forties.

Looking Into the Lens

She looks very stern.  Perhaps she was a missionary.

Good Lookin'

No date, no name, no location, no information at all.  I bought these because I thought she was good looking.  My best guess, late forties through early fifties.

I Yearn For You

This one has been a bit of a trial. Translating a language that is unknown, where the context, the way natives use words, where the poetry of structure is a mystery, is  an almost impossible task.  I went to Google translate and started typing, clicked on find language, and up popped Estonian.  But a word for word translation isn't as simple as it might seem.  Kui has a different meaning depending on context.  It can mean as, if, than, when, how, that, and while.  Au can mean honor, glory, credit, dignity, and reputation.  And then there is the way people write cursive.  I tried habad, halad, nabad, nalad, and a number of other combinations for word number three on the back of the photo.  The only one that was in the Google translator, in Estonian, was nabad.  And it's meaning; navel or umbilical cord.  The first sentence, when I put in all the words together, "So is the threat to the honor of navels."  It might make sense to someone from Estonia, but to me...well, I can't help but think there is something wrong there.

The second sentence gets into the realm of the poetry of language.  Word for word, "You, my, place the dishes, looking for".  How about,  "I look for you where I place my dishes."  A simple invocation of home life?  I like to think so.

And in the next sentence, "I yearn for you."  At least I think that's how I think  it should read.   If anyone from Estonia can correct my poor efforts, leave a comment.

Added July 26.....We have a translation.  It's from an anonymous Estonian poem.  Click on comments and read Oliver's contribution.  Nothing about dishes, I'm disappointed.

What Can I Say, But....

....nice lips, and the feather isn't so bad, either.  No date or name.  From the thirties or forties would be my guess.