You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby ...

Complete strangers would accost us on the street to exclaim over our big-eyed baby boy, and one of my photos of him won first place in a contest, but the baby in this cabinet photo from November, 1896, has to get a prize for "most beautiful baby" (in my humble opinion).

This photo of sister and brother has lived a hard life in spite of someone caring enough to write names and ages and date on the back. We have no way of knowing if John H. Buyers, 11 months, became a handsome man, but I think Anna P. Buyers, 5 years, was on her way to being a beauty. It was taken by Rippel in Sunbury, PA. 

This photo is engaging – not only for the attractive subjects, but the composition and exposure are superb. 

A note of interest from someone who has restored and edited many images from the 19th and early 20 centuries: regardless of gender, age or station in life, shoes appear to have been very utilitarian items of clothing; no matter how exquisite the rest of the attire, or the obvious care taken to present an attractive appearance, shoes are nearly always sturdy affairs, scuffed, worn, and hardly ever showing much evidence of polishing in preparation for the visit to the studio. I assume that the dirty condition of most streets and walks, and the general pollution from heating and manufacturing sources, made keeping up shoes a lost cause. One rarely sees slippers or shoes of a delicate or dressy design in the photos of the times.

San Francisco Area Streetcar Scene

It is interesting to wonder why a snapshot is taken, whether it is for a purpose or just idly pointing the camera as an excuse to take a picture. My anything-railroad habit extends to streetcars (I always run one around the Christmas tree), so I am always glad when someone takes one.

This was taken from an unusually high angle that I assume must be from a building or from a ridge like the one in the far background. People are getting on and off this unusual car – it is only half enclosed (not sure I have ever seen another quite like it). I am also intrigued by the architecture of the houses along the street; they are every bit as unusual; one is a store on the street level with a very odd second story porch, false front and triangular bay window with skewed pediment above (Victorians and Edwardians would go to an expense for the unusual that is virtually foreign to our purposes). There is a blowup below.

The route signboard on the car is Alameda - Oakland. Laborious research finally turned up the Oakland Transit Company (O. T. Co. on the side of this car) which was the earlier name of the Key System started by the wealthy Death Valley borax ( 20-Mule Team!) tycoon Marion Smith who eventually operated lines in Alameda and Contra Costa counties and connected to the ferries; the succeeding system operated electric cars until 1946. The O. T. name places this image in the mid-1890s and it may be on College Avenue (?)

Windsor Castle Deja Vu

I took virtually these same views 25 years ago albeit in color. Maybe you did, too. So have countless other tourists in the 170 years since cameras. Change the clothes, a lamp post or two, the tour bus, a few signs –and it could have been taken this morning. Not much changes.

These are from 4" x 5" glass negatives, 1900, the same photographer as the recent Parliament, Spalding Market and Boston Circus posts on Timebinder.

Making Shakespeare Proud

The Elk's Tooth Company, photographed by Rogers of Laramie, Wyoming, 1907.

The oddest assemblage of costumed characters I have seen in one place, leading me to hope fervently that this was a variety act and not the cast of a single play. They do look as if they are having a good time so their specialty must be comedy and entertainment. A lot of effort has gone into the costumes and sets in this production. The names are written on the back of this large cabinet print which is in pristine condition. 

Perched On Balance Rock, 1905

Books could be written about our penchant for having our pictures taken posed in or on any unusual natural (or unnatural) wonder – the “we were here” or “look what we did” craving was surely satisfied (or became manifest) by the invention of the camera. Books could be written, but probably won’t be, about the things we get up to when we go to a convention away from home, as was the case with this unsmiling group.

I appreciate that a thoughtful member wrote the details on the back of the cabinet mount, but my gratitude is sadly tempered by the fact that while energetically labeling a stack of photos, that person immediately turned them over and smeared black ink all over the face of the prior photos (this one was an unholy mess which fortunately did not stain any faces). For posterity, herewith is the record as written: Mr. & Mrs. Zenas J. Blake with other delegates from the B. of L.F.E. of Newport, VT, while in convention at Chattanooga, Tennessee. On Balance Rock (which is the couple, who are the others, what year was it, what is the acronym?)

Some enterprising photographer saw the tourists coming, so to speak; perhaps a license fee was paid for the franchise. A ladder was provided, but surely the ladies could not have gotten where they are with it in the position we see here, so when it was moved why wasn’t it removed from view? What you see has been cropped drastically since virtually half the image was extraneous background adding nothing to the effect (I know, I’m hard to please: picky, picky, picky!) It is quite small for a mounted cabinet card; 1905 – 1910.