Occupational Hazards

I am posting these two portraits of children side by side to demonstrate what the studio photographer faces when the subjects are children, and what the collector faces a century later in trying to accurately date the results of the work.

All photographers whose living depends on pleasing their clientele must have stories to tell and nightmares to contend with. Even if you truly like children, taking non-candid pictures of them in a captive environment has to rank up there with teaching – it takes a special sort of person with patience and creativity; everyone knows teachers who despise their jobs and I’m sure many photographers have wanted to go home and hang themselves after a long day. You have to know that a lot of photos never made it into albums (or collections) because they were awful, and the photographer didn’t get paid.

The child on the left has no idea what is being done but she is at least interested in the process (the photographer is fortunate); the pair on the right are all too aware because this may be a yearly routine that holds no great interest for them (the photographer struggles to engage them, pulls props from his collection, hopes the parents will not be too critical and pay for this print of their surly offspring – or maybe this was the look the family cultivated, so they may have been quite pleased).

There are very few good resource books for Victorian, Edwardian and early 20th century fashions, and practically nothing on children’s clothing from the periods that cover the first 100 years of photography. The collector can date photos of adults to within five or ten years, but the best one can hope for with children is an assumption that parents will dress them in some degree like themselves. Furniture styles give you dates before which a photo could not have been taken, but tells you nothing about how long after. My best guess is 1875 for the first (Chicago photographer), 1885 for the second.

Both of these images are small CDVs (Carte de Visites) of mediocre quality which accounts for the grainy texture.

Beach Vacation 1880s

At what seems to be a New England coastal resort of substantial cottages and hotels, a group of vacationers pose for a photograph on a Fall day. They have set rockers on the lawn, and contrary to what vacationers do today, they dress precisely as they would on any day at home or at work; the change of place and routine is what they expect to achieve by getting away from it all (we take the opportunity to dress informally and leave the daily grind behind – if we can cut ourselves loose from our laptops, email and cell phone tethers).

We may see these people as being somewhat starchy – heavy wool suits and bustled dresses, hats, gloves, jewelry and parasols (if it were the height of summer, the material may have been lighter but no less dressy) and poses that are consistent with their social standing. But don’t assume they are not having a good time in their own way.

The second photo is a slightly different mix of people; the two women in the center are wearing lighter colors, and one has her pince-nez glasses on a cord.

These are directly from glass negatives; the first one was broken and restored digitally.

Barn Builders

Farming was by necessity the core means of survival for the first 300 years in America, augmented by fishing and hunting where possible. If you had the acreage and the head for it, you might do very well, but for most people it was subsistence farming – the only sure way to make a place for yourself and your family. A small percentage of the population were merchants, small manufacturers, and such professions as lawyers, teachers, builders, doctors, etc., and even then they may also have farmed. If you didn't have a successful farm or lucrative profession for support, you didn't run for national office as a life career, you served for a term or two and went back home to attend to making a living.

Barns were built to last using tree-sized posts and beams and the wooden pegged mortise-and-tenon construction that came from house and barn building techniques in Europe. The entire frame was erected before it was enclosed. The builders in this photo have the confidence that comes from years of construction (and they didn't have a boom crane to assist them).

Barns were a part of the landscape from coast-to-coast but only a fraction have survived; if they are no longer being used in active farming or have not been converted to other uses, they are rapidly decaying and going back into the ground from which they sprang. You will see many barns in the Timebinder collection of images – most of them survive only in photographs.

Circus Parade, Boston 1909

This glass negative, one of four taken on the same day in 1909, demonstrates the great popularity of the circus in America stretching from the end of the Civil War to the 1950s. The state of roads at earlier dates made travel from town to town a laborious and expensive enterprise, but the reach of the railroad beginning in the 1870s made large traveling circuses possible; towns and cities could expect the annual arrival of the circus with all the excitement and entertainment it promised – and delivered. Movies, television and the rising cost of moving such an enterprise ended the traveling circus heyday.

The spectacle of the parade was an integral part of it all as it wound its way from the rail station to the fairgrounds or fields where the tents were raised and the elaborate wagons, costumed performers and exotic animals would settle in for the duration of the stay. It is hard for us, with the wealth of entertainment we accept and demand, to imagine the huge crowds of people of all ages who turned out to watch the parade and to attend performances.

I was unprepared to see camels pulling a wagon (in my mind, a camel was something to see in pictures or at the zoo)! Look for the other three photos showing more animals and better views of the wagons and the crowds on Timebinder in the weeks to follow – there is a lot to see.

Market Day, Spalding, Lincolnshire, 1900

The Google maps for Spalding lead me to think this busy marketplace is the wide triangular square called Sheep Market looking toward The Crescent. It is certain that most of the business, attractions and socializing is engaged in by men; only one woman is in this scene with her bicycle.

There is something of special interest that has the attention of a crowd of men facing Greenall Furniture Depot and Cabinet Works – perhaps an auction or demonstration. To its right is the Black Swan which advertises Billiards & Pool; to the left, where Swan Street intersects, is Talbot's Cash Drug Stores (A. H. Molson, Proprietor) featuring Cheap Prices; a sign for Motors (meaning automobiles?) points down Swan Street; Beales Photographer has two painted signs that appear to say Picture Maker (some specific product or process?); the building at the far end of the square is Arthur Beales, Motors and Cycles, again, does that mean autos, and are the cycles pedal or motor? One man on the left wears the duster that came into fashion in the early days of motoring (still a common term in the UK), so perhaps Motors was shorthand for motorcar after the turn of the century. Finally, a man with a sandwich board directs potential customers to Freeman, Hardy & Willis Boots and Shoes at Hall Place and Market Place, a street behind where this photographer was standing.

Spalding was a named place as early as 1000; a Benedictine Priory was founded by Thorold de Bokenhale in 1051 and the town was recorded as Spallinge in the Domesday Book in 1086. By the time of this photo the population was 9,000 and it was an agricultural center with a Butter Market and Corn Exchange which opened in the latter half of the 19th century.

This image was scanned from a 4" x 5" glass negative.