Old Mill Complex – Scotch Plains, NJ

The dealer's description of this large cabinet print described it as a barn, but I instantly noted the stream issuing from beneath the building, a sure sign of water being used to power some mill operation, most likely grain but maybe there are a variety of operations in this large semi-rural complex – sawmill, lathes or other operations requiring quantities of water. There is a tall brick chimney on the right indicating manufacture, a distillery being one distinct possibility.

The absence of motor vehicles may put this image before 1910, but how much earlier is anyone's guess; the albumen print is quite faded (requiring some restoration for what you see above) but is very handsomely mounted in a heavy folder which could have been done anytime after 1880; some lack of sharpness on the far left and considerable fuzziness on the right may suggest the earlier of this time span.

I am not sure what is being loaded or unloaded in this scene; it appears to be wrapped in cloth or burlap and a hoist is lifting or lowering the bales, so we may be seeing raw material coming in or a product coming out (if you have a more educated guess, please comment). I count at least 6 men, a boy and a girl. This was a busy and important place but the odds are good that nothing much remains above ground today. What was once so common a part of the landscape of American life is now relegated to a relatively few old photographs, an occasional painting and nostalgic prints of the Currier & Ives variety.

 

On A Bicycle Built For ... Huh?

Talk about a dog's life! You know that "dog's best friend" gig is up when two rather well-fed ladies think it is so cool to take the pedals off of a pair of bikes and let their dogs do the work. Shouldn't they be the ones getting some exercise? I thought dogs were supposed to chase people on bikes, not pull them.

I think I know what the dog in the middle is saying to his fellow beasts of burden: "I don't know about you, but I'm not taking another step until one of them gets off!"

You go, Fido!

It really did it for me when I noticed the lady(?) holding the reins had a buggy whip handy. What a bitch!

Making The Best Of The Opportunities

For a fair-sized cabinet print, the low quality of the lens used resulted in a poor print in spite of the adequate light available, yet it is still a worthwhile photograph for any collection.

There is one teacher and forty-eight pupils! For that to work she would have to be a teacher of considerable talent, persuasion, dedication and disciplinary capacity, not to mention stamina. One room schools had community support regarding the behavior of children and the better older students were expected to help the younger ones with their lessons and their personal needs. Most pupils managed to learn enough to get by in life, were glad for it, and may have gone on to expect better for their own children. These children are adequately if not fashionably dressed for the 1880s timeframe; there were no trips to the store to buy back-to-school outfits for the term – if you had new clothes they were more likely just new to you!

The part of the building they chose for the backdrop has no windows or doors, the brickwork would win no prize in a masonry competition, but I expect the community was proud of what they could accomplish. The teacher has both arms around the young boy to help him support the book; the two youngest girls in the front are fast friends. I have given you a close up but the image is so poor no amount of editing will make much of it.

They Were Blessed

Large families were once more common than they are today, not only because birth control was not as easy as it now is, but because it was often socially desirable and in some instances economically necessary to divide the labor on sizable farms or to expand business capabilities. My own father teased his children by telling them he only had them so he would no longer have to mow our extensive lawn himself – what other good were they to him!

In the more distant past the dangers of childbirth meant that a very large family might be the result of a man having married more than once – the loss of one wife meant that it was imperative to find another helpmate to raise the children, and with the likelihood that more would follow.

This couple had their offspring in close succession; good genes and their living environment may have contributed to their healthy appearance. Some were not so fortunate; having more children than you could feed, clothe and educate, and living in unhealthy places, made life a misery for many.

Here we see a somewhat rural scene that may have been their home; the church in the background might have significance – perhaps the father was a parson. The youngest is typically exuberant and her mother’s gently restraining hand had little effect.

Holy Cow, It Must Be An Anti-Q!

Maybe you think collecting antique photos is dry and boring. Not so. There is plenty of entertainment to be had – especially in the online sellers’ descriptions!

Did you know that not only can photographs be antiques, but so can adults, children and even babies? I’ve never actually seen an antique baby in person, but apparently that is one of the differences between back then and now. No one has been able to tell me how long a human has to remain in infancy to become an antique, but when they did grow up they must have been really old when they were old. It happened at lot because photos of “antique babies” are a dime a dozen.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that people wore “antique” and “period” clothes in the past! I have never been exactly sure if they just preferred old clothes or if they were so well made that they didn’t wear out, or maybe clothes were so very expensive that it was necessary. Now don’t ask me to correlate the frequent changes in clothing styles with their apparent antiquity, I’m not really into logic, I only collect pictures.

All women and girls and children were “beautiful” or at the very least “pretty”, it's true – ALL of them, though I have noticed that the criteria has changed with time and fashion because quite a lot of them are sort of hard to look at today. All brides are by definition “beautiful”; it hardly bears mentioning, but it usually is. So are their gowns (I sometimes agree – but I also think that we can be grateful that some of them only saw the light of day for one day, and making a permanent record of them only served as a warning to future brides).

One note of particular historical interest: there are way more photos of civil war soldiers than there were soldiers involved in that war, so apparently when they weren’t marching or on the battlefield they were lining up to have “there likenesses struck” for the edification of the folks back home. In light of the prices that will be paid today for any worn out, faded, blurry image of a man in uniform, you really should have gotten every one you could lay your hands on 85 years ago when you would have been considered hopelessly daft. Heck, they might have even given them to you out of pity.

And then there is the distinction between merely ordinary antiques and “old” antiques; it is very hard to tell the difference just by looking at them – you have to trust the experts (if it doesn't say "old antique" then it probably isn't)!

Oh, I almost forgot! The photo above – it may be early 20th century, but then again, the ostrich feather in the hat may identify her as a soldier in the English Civil War, c. 1641 – 1651 (the little spots all over it are a dead giveaway). But you just never know.