Sitting At Christmas

Demented Grandpa prevents little Emily from playing with new doll.  Bad Grandpa, bad!  Dated "DEC 70"  No other information.

Eva, Frank, and Frances Engle

Without a date or location, it's impossible to dig up any information on a name like Engle.  It's just not rare enough.  What's interesting is that little Frances is bigger than her mother, but is still dressed as an infant.  Common practice when this picture was taken, or just a very weird family?  Maybe Frances was a very, very big girl.

From Europe

Mother and daughter? Sisters, perhaps? A real photo postcard. Nothing written on the back, but the stock reads "CARTE POSTALE" so it's from France, or possibly the French speaking areas of Switzerland or Belgium.

Betty in the Center

This one falls in the "I wish it were in better condition" category. Is the girl in the center the self assured child of the family, or the immigrant maid of a nice middle class household? With her hands on her hips, staring into the camera lens, she has an air of confidence that things are going to go her way in life. If it wasn't for the apron, I'd go with family member. Written on the back, "left on face, Mrs. Clark Grandma, right on face, Mrs. Welkman Aunt Hanna, Betty in center & Norman on steps." Mounted on cardboard. Written on the front bottom margin, "Mrs. Clark, Rita, Mrs. Welkman." So which is it, Betty or Rita?

The Currie Boys

There was a time when every professional photo finisher and home darkroom had real photo postcard stock on hand. So much nicer to receive family photos rather than a picture of the local business district, church, or city hall. Each of these two photo postcards has "Minnie Streitmutter" written on the edge. The threesome is labeled, "Jim, Tom, Don Currie." But was Minnie a favorite aunt or one of the brothers' girlfriend?

Clouds in the Window

I have to wonder whether the cloud reflections in the windows was deliberate, with the photographer standing outside waiting for just the right moment , or was it just an accident. Both photos were printed with the decorative border. Normally I crop out all such borders when scanning in the original, but since the second photo was less interesting, I left it in as an example of a once common practice among commercial photo finishers. Written on the back of the image without the border, "This is Frank's family, all except Frankie, notice the reflection of the rain clouds showing in the room, the sun was out pretty strong in the front of the house, but it rained before the day was over, in fact all of these pictures was taken between down pours, showers, then sunshine." On the print with borders, "This is Franks family in the window, of course you do not want to miss the addition to the family she is some baby."

A Tintype of Two Women

I've been meaning to put up another tintype gallery with five to ten images, but I found this one not too long ago, and even though it's not in great condition, I was really taken by the angry look of the standing woman, so it gets it's own, separate post. With the hair, the scowl, she looks almost feral. Too, the dress is so striking compared to dress of the sitting woman who has a much more serene demeanor. Mother and daughter or two friends? Anyway, as I've noted in earlier posts, tintype is actually a misnomer. Tintypes are actually ferrotypes, shot on a sheet of iron with either a black paint or lacquer coating which makes the negative image seem like a positive.

Small Town Glass Negatives

A couple of glass negatives, one I wanted, and one was the throw in. I've always assumed that these two images, if not by the same photographer, were at least from the same small town. While glass negatives were manufactured, and processed by local labs, many glass negatives were made by the photographer, and processed by the photographer. This allowed for a huge disparity in the basic quality of negatives. I printed these by putting them in an 8 x 10 enlarger, and had a hell of a time getting usable prints. The emulsion was uneven, and the plates were over exposed. I assume that the group photo is a multi-generational family, and while this is the image I was really interested in, it is interesting to see a small town before paved streets.

A Mother and Her Daughters

There does seem to be a clear, distinct, family resemblance, and the lady on the left appears to be older than the other three, so a mother and her daughters is a fair assumption. Stamped on the lower right corner of the mount, "N.A. Voss, HAYS CITY, KANS."

A Pennsylvania Album

I've recently purchased some loose pages from an old photo album, as well as some photographs from the same source, which have at one time where mounted in the original album. I think I can date these from around the World War 1 era. The clothes, the one car, coupled with the pictures of the young man in a military camp puts these around 1917-18. There are very few labels on any of these prints. The formal studio portrait of the young lady with the pearl necklace has a studio name embossed on the lower right corner, "Sarony, 1206 Chestnut St. Phila, Pa." The guys wearing shorts and standing next to a rail car, "PARR employes." The PARR stands for Pennsylvania Rail Road." Stamped on the back of the photo in the black, paper frame with the slightly arched top border has stmaped on the back, "H.T. DONOVAN 12 So. Centre Square, Allentown, Pa." And embossed on the stained, studio portrait of the young man with the high collar, "WINT STUDIO ALLENTOWN, PA." Where there were multiple prints on the same album page, I've posted the whole page to show context, as well as indivdual images from those pages. There were a couple of photos that were either too faded or out of focus to warrent a seperate post.