This Is My Album

Did this attractive young woman buy this elegant album especially for this and other photos like it? It seems that she thought it was important enough that she has dragged a piece of furniture with its fashionable covering out into the yard to show it off!

She looks straight into the camera, hand on hip, with a confidence that suggests she is a woman with certain positive ideas and spontaneous intentions; we can imagine that she may have been more interesting to know than she was comfortable to have as a friend.

Clearly, getting this particular picture is what she wanted – taking time to sweep up the debris on the ground just isn’t "in the picture” (though, of course, it is literally “in” the picture). Another key consideration in getting a good portrait – choosing an attractive outdoor background – was also not a prime consideration. But it is an amusing and memorable pose!

Who AM I?

This has to be the most carefully contrived child portrait I have come across in collecting. It is unusual, beautiful on its face, yet somewhat creepy.

Why was this photograph taken in this manner? It is a portrait of a child, likely done for an individual and certainly not for commercial purposes, or am I missing something pertinent to the pretentious props and style of dress. A country scene, a country maid in a most un-country choice of material and style. The girl’s expression may show more than a hint of confusion. Surely this is not how she would have posed if she had been given a choice. Is she clear about what her image is supposed to be and what is expected of her?

Perhaps our own age has broken with the conventions of other times when the children of certain income classes were dressed as small adults, before dressing children distinctly “as children” became a concept. Training children for what was expected of them was begun early. And yet, this particular photo does not ring true. One wonders what this child may have thought of this image as she aged; but perhaps she didn’t wonder at all.

Riding In Style

Goat carts are not as common today as they were in a more agrarian age, and even in urban communities at a time where many people kept carriage and buggy horses, chickens and perhaps even a cow on their property. A goat could be trained to pull a small cart with children as passengers, so it was the bicycle or go-cart of its time. Some were quite elaborate and expensive affairs, but most were more cheaply constructed and surely many were homemade projects.

The young boy in this image has a very nice cart; he is dressed in the Buster Brown style with some Little Lord Fauntleroy touches. As is not uncommon, it is the son who is pictured at the reigns while the daughter stands by (perhaps doing her best to look properly admiring while thinking, “I can drive that thing every bit as well as you.”)

Technical note: The image below compares the faded state of the collected print with the image restored to its original appearance. It is surprising how much tonal range still exists in a faint and yellowed original when scanned and edited in readily available image manipulating software. See Restoration of Old Photos.

Lumberjacks

This print came from Oregon, so perhaps it is safe to say it is a lumbering scene in that region. All the women and children are turned out in their best, it seems. Are they family of the lumbermen? The children have found seats on a trunk, the women stand behind, one holding a puppy; the woman on the far left is not wielding an ax or standing on the tree as it at first appears; there are more horse teams in the far background. There is a bracket of some sort attached to one tree in the background.

It would have been interesting to see how trees were loaded onto that wagon; it must be much stronger than it looks. The brakes on the rear set of wheels are applied via the rope that extends from the driver to the upright pole (one little boy who posed for his picture is hidden behind it). If OSHA had been around at that time, the inspectors would have had apoplexy, died on the spot and taken the entire crew along with them straight to Hades!

This large print was in superb condition, only needing repair of a few minor scratches. The sun is directly overhead which makes for perfect light in a scene of this kind.

Sister Regina's Class

A large group of children, like any gathering of people anywhere, reveals a gallery of personalities – but perhaps with a certain lack of subterfuge common in the young. Sister Regina’s class at the turn of the last century exhibits what suggests, to our mind’s eye, some of the sweetest little girls imaginable – and some we might choose not to know if we could avoid them! Perhaps a few got up on the wrong side of the bed, so to speak, so we can give them the benefit of the doubt; but I’ll put my money on there being at least a few that could try the patience of the saints the Sister teaches her girls about.

Were they told to cross their arms or was it a habitual pose they struck? There is little joy in this event, but one little soul on the back row finds something to smile about. At least two girls wear earrings; another has a ring on each hand. This class is racially integrated.

Imagine setting up a picture today where it would be permissible, from a safety perspective, to stack benches in this manner and stand nearly a dozen little girls on each of them! Horrors! Oh, the lawsuits!

On a technical note: class pictures were likely done by local photographers whose view camera’s lenses were less than stellar in their critical focus across the film plane, resulting in dramatic loss of sharpness on the left and right, as this photo is a prime example, and particularly if light was low and the optimum f-stop was not possible. Adequate light is the main reason that most class pictures were done outside in this period. Most of the girls are wearing colored dresses, but two are wearing dazzling white which plays havoc with capturing detail there (all photographers at all times deal with these issues and make choices).