« Oklahoma Redux 1880s »

There is no singing or dancing here, yet something about this cabinet print made me think of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma though this is likely 20 years before the early 20th century setting of the musical. (Yes, I know, redux means "bring back" or "revive", so this would be redux-in-reverse, more like "back to the future").

I don't know what to make of this scene, so I will start by saying what I know, then what I think.

It is old –everything about the print, its aging, the coarseness of the paper, the quality of the film, all tell me that. It was printed from a glass negative that had a label attached to the lower left that, oddly enough, was not cropped out before the print was made and mounted, yet the writing is so poor I have been unable to decipher it (it doesn't help that half of the label is missing); it is likely that it was for the photographer's use and not meant to identify the subject anyway; there is a date, Jun 29/?? (unreadable). The resolution is too low for any of the food containers' labels to be read.

The people in this photo are aware that it is being taken, but not everyone is looking at the camera; it does not feel like a posed scene where people have been told where to stand, what to do, where to look, so I am lead to think that it is an outdoor event of some kind and that the people are from a settled community. I do not accept that these are in any way settlers on a trek to settle land – the clothes are simply not travel clothes. The women, particularly, are young – not young girls and not middle age; they are likely wives of the men in the picture. The image is too early to be a historic celebration of the wagon train era, that came much later.

Like most antique prints, there is enough mystery here to keep you wondering forever. It is especially frustrating to have one with a label that cannot be read.