Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
This cabinet card portrait was made at a studio in the port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. The studio belonged to a man named John O'Neil. Google didn't turn up any information about Mr. O'Neil, so I looked at census records on Ancestry. In the 1880 U.S. Census, I found a John E. O'Neil, age... Continue Reading →
This undated cabinet card portrait was taken in the ancient shipping town of Gravesend, Kent, England. Gravesend is on the south bank of the Thames Estuary, about 21 miles (35 km) from central London. The photograph was taken at the studio of Frederick Charles Gould, who became known for images he captured of the many... Continue Reading →
The young man in this carte-de-visite portrait is wearing a military-style tunic with an "F" on the collar. The photograph was taken at the studio of Fredrique Holmstedt in Vadstena, Sweden. I had difficulty finding information online about Fredrique. Unable to read the handwritten dedication in Swedish in the upper left corner, I turned to... Continue Reading →
I had hoped to identify the dignified woman who sat for this portrait at the Bombay Photographic Company in the late 1880s or 1890s, but so far I haven't had any luck. The photographer, S. Hormusji, is also a bit of a mystery, at least as far as online sources go. Some examples of his... Continue Reading →
This carte-de-visite has me stumped. I assumed the girl in the image would be easy to identify, but so far that hasn't been the case. At first I thought she was holding an oar, but a rower I contacted told me it was a paddle. Well, that's a start! Actually, I think the most interesting... Continue Reading →
The young man in this small snapshot is wearing a military tunic with no insignia. He may have been serving as a musician in the Imperial Japanese Army. The photo is blank on the back, so it's hard to say when it was taken, but I'd guess it was printed in the 1930s. At the... Continue Reading →
I found this cabinet card portrait for sale on eBay in England (Northamptonshire) in January of this year. Books are common props in 19th-century studio portraits, but titles are usually too blurry to read, even after scanning them at high resolution. In this case, the book is large enough that the title is easily readable... Continue Reading →
The unidentified young woman in this photograph is wearing a drop-waist dress and a Marcel Wave hairstyle, hallmarks of the flapper era of the 1920s. The photograph is about the size of a postcard, but it was printed on plain photo paper, rather than postcard stock. It came to me from a dealer in Pennsylvania who often... Continue Reading →
Effie Hegermann-Lindencrone was born in Hillerød, Denmark, on August 27, 1860. This photo of her was taken in July 1879, a month before her nineteenth birthday: The carte-de-visite portrait was made at one of the two studios owned by photographer Lars Dinesen, either in Odense or in Fredericia: A year after the photo was... Continue Reading →
If only we knew her story! Alas, she isn't identified. Her carte-de-visite was made by John Bowles Newman, whose studio was at 5, Old Court House Street, Calcutta (Kolkata). The only information I found online about Mr. Newman was that he filed a petition of insolvency in 1879. It always makes me sad to read... Continue Reading →
Have you heard the term spinner's weasel? I hadn't until a few days ago, when I started researching the photo above. The photo is slightly smaller than a cabinet card and more square. I would tentatively date it to the 1890s (+/- 10 years). On the back, a previous owner wrote the word Shaker, referring... Continue Reading →
In the first comment under the previous post, Shayne Davidson said the nurses' uniforms reminded her of the BBC series Call the Midwife. Her comment made me look anew at the photo above, which also came from the United Kingdom, and wonder if the young sitter might have been preparing to work as a midwife or... Continue Reading →
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