Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
UPDATE: Detail image added below. Galicia was a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire created from land taken from Poland during the First Partition of Poland in 1772. It ceased to exist as an administrative entity after the First World War with the dismantling of Austria-Hungary. Most of the territory was incorporated into the new Republic... Continue Reading →
The wedding party in this cabinet card portrait is unusual in its diversity. The young woman at lower right appears to have Down syndrome, while the little boy at the front of the group is of mixed-race ancestry. Oddly, the bride's face is completely obscured by her veil, making her unrecognizable. She sits at the... Continue Reading →
This cabinet card was made at a studio called Atelier Mąke in Gnesen, Prussia, which is now Gniezno, Poland. An astute visitor to this page, D.B. from Milwaukee, informed me that Atelier Make was owned and operated by a woman named Ludwika Mąke, who worked as a professional photographer in Gniezno for 35 years. That's... Continue Reading →
This carte-de-visite was made by the studio of Albert Baron & César Mitkewicz in Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium. The mother's gaze engages the viewer while the father's seems unfocused. The two sisters pose affectionately as the younger one reads from a book.
This is the second photo on this blog showing a family in the UK in their garden with rackets. Well, only one racket, but they seem to be having plenty of fun, anyway. This is a cabinet card, while the photo I uploaded a month ago was a smaller carte-de-visite (Tennis and tea in Hampshire,... Continue Reading →
This family is mostly serious but not entirely humorless. There's no Gothic window, but I think Grant Wood might have enjoyed this image nevertheless. Titles were sometimes added permanently to photographs by writing directly on a negative. Because the negative is a reverse of the printed image, the writing had to be done in reverse... Continue Reading →
My guess would be that the photo on this postcard was taken in Eastern Europe, possibly in the Carpathian mountains. The Carpathians stretch from Czechia down through parts of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and Romania, with Romania containing just over half the range (51%). At first glance the buildings seem to be in some disrepair,... Continue Reading →
Since the U.S. Open tennis championship is ending this weekend, here's a CDV from the relatively early days of the sport. The family isn't identified, but the photo was taken by Samuel Whitbread of Havant, Hampshire.
This family came up with a variety of ways to pass their time on vacation, from fishing and shooting to playing guitar, dominoes and at least four different board games. Someone had the great idea to make a visual record of their activities. Two women in the group find the idea a little embarrassing. Some... Continue Reading →
This is a snapshot of a family sitting on their early Autocar truck (probably a Type XXI). The truck has a Pennsylvania license plate with the year 1923. Newer Autocar models came with inflatable tires, but this one still has the hard rubber kind. Everyone seems content, though--even the dog.
Tokens of Companionship 
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