Yard Crew 1890

The seller of this large cabinet print conjectured that this was Norfolk &Western but I have found nothing in the photograph to corroborate it. There is no company name on the car because it is a private one either being renovated or repurposed by this crew. It's anyone's guess who took the photograph or for what purpose, but it is my impression that they are a team that has the sort of camaraderie that comes from working closely for quite some time. There are the usual clowns and jokers you might expect – the broad shouldered man in the center clasps his hands on top of the head of the man in front, who shows that he minds not at all.

This is a good print to consider what mongrel creatures humans actually are. There is no other creature on the planet with anything like the variables that occur in physique or face. Most other creatures share considerable clone-like similarity, relying on many senses to distinguish one another. Even our pets and domesticated animals come from single species that we have bred into variants for our own caprice and purposes; left alone, they would eventually revert to what they were before we became involved. Humans' best natural functions are sight and language, so we may have evolved in a much different way not entirely because of geography or resources but for individual visual distinction – each of us recognizes a myriad of people we know and thousands we have seen and do not personally know. It is a remarkable state and capacity that is not shared by any other earthly single species life form that shares the same chromosomes. We take in most of our social information by reading faces, and we are largely unconscious of doing so. Think about it. Life is interesting partly because we find other faces endlessly interesting – we are naturally that way.

Melancholy Lady

If I am correct in a Gilded Age date for this image, then it is a most unusual one for the time. Victorians made a fetish of female melancholy in both literature and art, but a small personal photograph taken in this manner, so closely cropped on the subject, with such shallow focal depth and luminous light on shadow, is rare indeed.

The dress is remarkable yet there is only the simplest ornament in the hair and a tiny crescent pin on the collar, no other jewelry. Taken by J. A Brush studio of Minneapolis, it is a masterful cabinet print that deserved better treatment than it got – parts of it looked like someone took sandpaper to it, requiring a great deal of retouching, but the restoration is faithful to the original.

Why So Sad, Heart's Darling?

Such a sad, sad face. Have to wonder what is going on in that little head.

Photo by Mabel Sykes.

J. J. Jarvis "The Little Gem" Saloon & Restaurant

This is the real thing – a saloon of the 1880–90s. You can practically taste and smell it! Yippee yi yo!

Not like TV or in the movies at all, this is how it was. J.J. Jarvis' Little Gem Saloon and Restaurant served "meals at all hours", so the sign says; there are no menus, so look at what is chalked on the board, or not, call out your order and someone will rustle it up for you. There are curtains on a rod drawn across the left window – classy indeed! Need a room? There is the hotel across the street as evidenced by the reflection in the saloon windows.

No one is putting on airs, so what you see is what you get in this town. Dust and dirt everywhere. Nobody in this photo is going to shovel the equine poop off the street before the ladies with their babies and tots take center front for the cameraman. The saloon regulars, employees and anyone else get into the picture. The proprietor brings out a tray with glasses filled. Alright! The crates stacked on the walk are Medford Brewery Company of Wisconsin (where else would good beer hail from at this time?). There is sheet metal siding meant to look like brick, sort of. The building next door has newspapers covering the windows inside. The railroad may even come through this town.

This was a faded, tattered cabinet card of above average size. No other identification – what we see is what we get!

World Famous Skate Quartet

The seller described this image as Four Men With Musical Instruments. 

Of course I was not about to miss having permanent proof that anyone, much less a quartet, could make music with ice skates! Who knew – and these characters don’t even look like your typical musicians. Don’t ask me how they do it or what it sounds like. I am pretty sure none of the major composers wrote for ice skate, but perhaps someone has. 

Anyway, you heard it first here at Timebinder and you will be a hit at the next cocktail or dinner party when you pipe up with, “Did you know that ice skates are musical instruments?”; the silence will be deafening until someone screws up the courage to ask you to elaborate, so be prepared! 

This is a small, poor quality tintype – which is really a shame considering the sensational subject matter. I have never understood why a fair percentage of tintypes are almost completely out of focus, and it is usually not due to motion blur. Maybe the photographer was in a hurry because these guys had to leave for their next concert.