Ovis Aries Pastoral

This pleasant pastoral landscape of a small herd of sheep with their owner was likely taken by an amateur, someone in the farm family with a small view camera using glass plate negatives, to be added to the family album; that it also has dramatic light and is well-composed may have been intentional or pure happenstance – almost anyone can take an exceptional photo occasionally even if they have no "eye" for technique or composition. It is small: 2.5" X 5".

All we have for specifics are the clues to be read –

Location: there is a mountain in the background; the trees are a mix of deciduous, spruce and white pine; the fence is unusual because it is mixed rock and rails – so I suggest appalachian range, perhaps Virginia or West Virginia, and unlikely a western ranch locality.

Season: late summer or fall based on corn shocks in the distant field and the size of the two lambs in this group.

Time of day: the direction of the sun, if it is eastern U.S., late morning.

Date: the power pole on the left suggests 20th century, as late as the 20s or 30s when rural electrification became more prevalent, though it is odd that there is only the single pole evident.

As with conjecture, I could be wrong about any of the particulars. What do you think?

Okay, I'm looking ...

It is probably a good thing that the very young learn by observation and do not employ what we call logic and reason until much later in childhood. If children could verbalize their incomprehension concerning adult actions, how we would see ourselves could not be especially flattering.

This little girl was taken to the photographer's studio on two occasions about 18 months apart. I imagine the photographer (two different ones, in actual fact) telling her, "Now stand very still and look at me" and then he proceeds to stick his head under what looks like a small black blanket and fiddles with a box propped up on some sticks. This is new and strange behavior indeed, so she hardly needs to be told to look; as a child she is used to the larger people around her doing all manner of things and it is generally neither important nor useful to her thinking, nor does she expect it to have any defined purpose. On the other hand, she does take a degree of comfort in useful repetition, so when she sees something very different she will be wary and consider if she likes it or not.

The small faces that look out at us from photographs, especially photographs taken by unfamiliar people, speak volumes about the process of organizing and eventually making sense of the world they find themselves in.

The position of her foot is amusing.

No Name Grocery, 1890

From the same era as the most recent post of Bohl & Gamble Grocery, this grocery differs somewhat in that it is wintertime and that it is doubtful if the store was even the reason for the photo. Though I have cropped some of the second story out of the photo, there was no signboard to identify the business, so we are left with the assumption that the man and his trap are the subject – it certainly is not a delivery vehicle for the store and it isn’t nearly as interesting as the store and its contents!

So, if you are like most perusers of antique images, you will virtually ignore them and get your fingerprints all over the dirty window glass looking to see what is different and the same about grocery shopping then and now.

There is Red Sea Cough Mixture (that fits the season); cheese is going for the exorbitant price of 19 cents a pound (you may want to shop around!); Rising Sun brand Sun Paste Stove Polish (when was the last time you gave your stove a shine?); the door tag invites you to Step Inside for your Oak Leaf Soap; there are huge tins of peaches or tomatoes (I am a collector of advertising labels but I don’t recognize this brand and can’t read the contents); the open wooden boxes with Quaker Oats labels display something other than oats – anyway, you would buy your children’s breakfast cereal in packages here, you’re not getting this for your horse (I think they may contain peanuts, pecans or dried fruit); cut plug tobacco, and shelves stuffed with other edibles; there are also polished metal lunch pails and storage tins available (you may need to ask the sales staff to reach some of these items for you, though you might even give them your grocery list and they will put your order together and pack it up for you at no extra charge – try that in your local supermarket! Heck, you would be lucky today if they even know what they have on the shelves much less find it for you).

Another thing collectors search for whenever they see plate glass windows – are there reflections that reveal what is across the street? Alas there are no hidden treasures here, though I can see letter signage, the only thing I can make out is the single word “house”. 

We are used to seeing people in the background of TV news reports flashing victory signs and mouthing “Hi, Mom!”, well, people in the past usually availed themselves of the opportunity of getting into the picture even if they were unlikely to ever see the results; from our perspective the young girls add interest and charm, but we don’t know how the photographer felt about it, or if the man sitting with his sheepskin lap warmer had this large cabinet print taken. Sorry fellow, your trap is very nice I’m sure, as far as that sort of thing goes, but thanks for the photo!

The Bohl & Gamble Grocery 1890

Bohl & Gamble must have done a good business if all eight adults were employees. Watermelons are in, as are potatoes, so it must be late summer or early fall, assuming the produce is regional; sweet corn, celery, sweet potatoes and cucumbers are also in the sidewalk displays. The window displays feature candy, both Niagara and Mirror Gloss brand starches, large size canning jars with glass dome lids and wire handles, bottles of catsup and sauces and a large cutout of a little boy with arm raised and pointing at some food item that he wants his mom to buy, of course! The hanging lamp fixtures in the windows must still have the July 4th decorations on them – due to come down in a few months for Christmas replacements?

Next door at left is a home decorating store that has everything you need in paint, wall paper, window shades and picture frames. On the right someone is making a fast getaway from the livery stable tucked away in the alley!

My scans of images are large ultra-high resolution files that provide fine detail right down to the texture of the paper and grain of the film; that is why I often describe things that you cannot see even in my relatively large online images; it isn't possible to post such files for quick viewing.

Our Place, In Town, 1900

Another in the “Our Place” genre, this one in the American South at the turn of the last century, a town home in a neighborhood of tree-lined streets and above average size houses close to one another. Porches were a social extension of the houses’ living space; before air conditioning, television, computers and all the other things that claim our hours, family and friends entertained one another with gossip, current events, and stories – conversation was cultivated. Children grew up knowing what family and community meant by sitting and listening to these evening rituals.

Everyone is looking intently at the photographer; no one appears uncomfortable which means that whether you were a cook, housekeeper or gardener, you were invited to be a part of this visual family record. The only somewhat retiring figure is the tall, somberly dressed woman on the right. One of the charming hallmarks of these architectural/family exercises is that there is rarely any effort to organize the grouping – people stand wherever and however they choose, dress as formally or informally as they choose. One woman on the porch is wearing her best hat and poses a bit dramatically with one hand on her hip. The girl in the center with her hand on the tree is a striking brunette; her dress has the flamboyant shoulder ruffles so fashionable and her broad beret is like the boys’ Buster Brown caps of the period.

Every photograph is a story bound in time. Every camera is a timebinder.