Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
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 →
This cabinet card portrait was made by a photographer named G.J. Maddison, whose studio was at 9 Norfolk Road in Dalston, which is in the London Borough of Hackney. (In 1938 Norfolk Road was renamed Cecilia Road.) I haven't found any information about Maddison yet. Among the boys, we can see tennis rackets and... 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 →
When I bought this photograph from a dealer in Arkansas, he and I both assumed the photo had originated in neighboring Texas, which is known as the Lone Star State. Well, it turns out there have been schools with the name "Lone Star" in several different states. The only additional information on the photo was... Continue Reading →
This photo postcard likely dates to the final years of Imperial Russia (1910-1917). It came to me from modern-day St. Petersburg. The back has some standard lettering but no personal information: I'm guessing that this family is at their dacha, or summer house in the country, because of the trees in the background. Their... Continue Reading →
The family in this photograph seems to be enjoying ample privacy and personal space at their secluded cottage. I searched online for pictures of old houses in the area around Forres, a town in northern Scotland, but didn't see one that looked exactly like this one. Maybe the house still stands, and maybe someone visiting... Continue Reading →
This small tintype portrays an unusual subject for early photography: a standing woman appears poised to brush the hair of a seated woman, who has a comb and other items in her lap. The standing woman is looking down and is slightly out of focus, while the seated woman is looking in the general direction... Continue Reading →
This cabinet card photograph came to me from Herefordshire, England, but could have originated elsewhere. It has nothing written or printed on it. Update (March 21): Readers quickly informed me that the man in the photo was a postman. His hat has the letters GPO on it, for General Post Office. (Thank you to Val,... Continue Reading →
March is Women's History Month in the United States. (International Women's Day isn't widely observed here, although that may be changing.) For the past two years, I've tried to pick out a photograph in March which I thought was especially relevant to the theme of women's history. In 2018 the focus was on education (Caliopians). ... Continue Reading →
At the top of this cabinet card photograph is a painted sign: John Rigby, Boot & Clog Maker. Under that is another sign: Longshaw Post Office. Wikipedia describes Longshaw as "a small residential and agricultural area within Billinge Higher End at the western boundary of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England." Historically,... Continue Reading →
In the previous post we were in Kolkata, West Bengal. This week we're in the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. We've also traveled back in time another ten years. As you can see, it's a little colder in St. Louis, but not too cold. A light jacket is all you need for winter sports!... Continue Reading →
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