Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
The day of the party has arrived. She and her friends have been working on their dresses for weeks. "Let's take pictures!" "I don't know, I have a lot of things left to do. Maybe later." "It'll only take a few minutes to set up the camera. We might be too busy later." "You're right. ... Continue Reading →
The two cartes-de-visite above were made by Henry Cushing in Windsor, Vermont, in February 1865. Windsor is on the Connecticut River, which forms the boundary between Vermont and New Hampshire. The town is connected to Cornish, NH, by the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge, which is the longest wooden bridge in the United States and the longest... Continue Reading →
The two cartes-de-visite on this page came from an antiques dealer in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in the northwest part of the state. On the back of the carte above is the name Adolphe with a question mark: The portrait was made at the studio of E.v. Eggert, which probably stood for Emmanuel von Eggert (see... Continue Reading →
The name "L.C. Pike" is written on the back of this carte-de-visite. Generally a name on the back of a portrait refers to the sitter, but not always, so it's important to try to find corroborating information. I searched on Ancestry for an L.C. Pike who was about forty years old in the early 1860s and... Continue Reading →
The young man appearing on this carte-de-visite could be certain everyone would remember his profession. You might even say he was in tune with the latest trends in advertising and self-promotion. The one thing he neglected to do was write his name on the back, which is a pity. The CDV was made by James... Continue Reading →
I'm guessing about the relationships between the sitters in the previous post and this one. Do you think the baby in the portrait above looks like the one below? I think this may be the same child, a little older: *** *** A year ago today, I published my first blog post. To everyone who... Continue Reading →
A few months ago a photo dealer in Arkansas listed the contents of a small 19th century album on eBay. The original owners of the album weren't identified, but some of the portraits had the names and addresses of photographers printed on them. The studios were located in Mobile and Talladega, Alabama. Some of the... Continue Reading →
If you've already looked at the previous post, Jeanne Fouillon and her beautiful harp, then you've already seen the portrait above. When I put that post together last week, I hadn't yet tried to identify the dignified gentleman with the harp. It seemed like a long shot, but one that might be worth a try. ... Continue Reading →
Is there any instrument as angelic to the ear and eye as the harp? I had hoped to find a reference to Jeanne Fouillon online, but haven't succeeded so far. Her harp is certainly very graceful and beautiful to the eye. The carte-de-visite was made by Augustin Michel in Grenoble, France, around 1890. Jeanne's... Continue Reading →
This carte-de-visite isn't the first wedding photograph on the blog, but it's the first portrait of a bride and groom without attendants. For some reason I've been slow to appreciate wedding portraits as a genre, so I haven't bought many over the years. I found this one in January while doing research for an earlier... Continue Reading →
We can see from this scene that parents have overreacted to teenage behavior since at least the 1850s. A girl and a boy lounge in the grass. A basket of wildflowers lies at the girl's feet. The boy innocently offers her a small bouquet. Meanwhile, the girl's father discovers them and charges through the bushes... Continue Reading →
Here's another occupational carte-de-visite from England. It looks like an early one, maybe early 1870s. At the mouth of the River Tyne on the North Sea, South Shields was a major shipbuilding center from the 1850s onward. The photo was taken in an industrial setting, possibly a shipyard, by a photographer from the studio of... Continue Reading →
Tokens of Companionship 
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