Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
The message on the back of this postcard was written 105 years ago by a French serviceman during the First World War. The writer was not the man pictured on the front of the postcard. The writer's name is illegible, and I can't quite make out the name of the intended recipient or the town... Continue Reading →
I bought this photograph from a neighbor when she had a yard sale. I asked if she knew anything about it, and she replied that she had bought it many years earlier from another neighbor across the street. That neighbor had had a shop nearby which sold old books and antiques. We both agreed that... Continue Reading →
The group above must have participated in a festival or celebration of some kind. The people in the group are wearing a variety of different outfits. The photo came from an estate in Texas, with no information about where it was taken or when. The back is blank. [Note: this post has been updated with... 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 →
This carte-de-visite came to me from Massachusetts, but it didn't originate there. The title of the post is taken from a handwritten note on the back. Update: Readers all agree that the location referred to was most likely the village of Leeds in Kent: The British Hop Association has the following information on its website: The... Continue Reading →
This undated postcard was addressed by a man named René to a friend, also named René, who was probably working at the Café Monico in London. The sender is very likely one of the men in the group above. The postcard was printed by the firm of G. W. Gibson in Coldstream, a town in the... Continue Reading →
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 →
This charming little CDV came from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, but has no information on it to confirm its origin. The girls are elegantly dressed and must have come from relatively well-to-do families. After scanning the photo I noticed that one of the girls is of African or mixed-race heritage. I love the fact that the school's... 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 →
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 postcard came from the estate of Hazel Alberts Peterson (1898-1989). As a girl, Hazel Alberts attended Seattle Seminary, a Free Methodist college preparatory school. College-level classes were introduced in 1910, and in 1915 the school's name was changed to Seattle Pacific College. For more information about Hazel and her family, please see the page... Continue Reading →
According to the Fall 2008 newsletter of the Upper Pemigewasset Historical Society, in 1928 Ed and Florence Clark moved to the town of Lincoln in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to raise sled dogs and demonstrate their abilities for tourists. On April 5, 1932, Florence summited Mt. Washington with a team of dogs, becoming... Continue Reading →
Tokens of Companionship 
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