Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
The women in this photograph are unidentified. Fortunately, the mount is stamped Clifton & Co., Bombay, indicating that the photo was taken at the studio founded in that city (Mumbai) by Harry Clifton Soundy (1863-1922). At first I assumed the woman sitting at left was wearing a County or Branch badge of the British Red... Continue Reading →
This boudoir card photograph came to me from Maine. The boudoir card format appeared in the mid-1880s as a slightly larger and more expensive alternative to cabinet cards. The larger size was particularly suitable for group portraits.* This one was taken in the town of Pirmasens, Germany, near the border with France. The studio belonged... Continue Reading →
This postcard came to me from a dealer in Pennsylvania who specializes in photographs from Russia and Eastern Europe. He said the photo was Russian, which made sense. The only woman in the photo is wearing what appears to be a Russian nurse's outfit from the First World War. But who were the men, and... 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 →
I don't know what the proper administrative term would be for this group, but they must have worked together as a team. Someone wrote Devonshire Hospital on the back of the postcard, but nothing else. If anyone sees any clues about when the photo might have been taken, please leave a comment. Devonshire Hospital closed... Continue Reading →
The man above is Henry Lenthall (1819-1897), a photographer who operated a studio at 222 Regent Street, London, where the photo was printed. The studio had been established in 1856 by pioneering daguerreotypist William Edward Kilburn (1818-1891), when Kilburn moved there from his original (smaller) studio at 234 Regent Street. In 1862 Kilburn retired from... Continue Reading →
March is Women’s History Month in the United States, and few professions have historically been as closely associated with women as nursing. Update, April 11, 2019: I made a significant error in the initial version of this post. When I first searched online for information related to the Montefiore Hospital School of Nursing, the only... Continue Reading →
Tokens of Companionship 
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