The Streetcar Blues

Paying your fare and riding to your destination would seem simple to the New York City commuter in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th century, but the machinations behind the conglomerate street railways of Manhattan were as snarled as the traffic. Reading a short 20 year history of NYC Railway Company and the Metropolitan (one of dozens of iterations) in Wikipedia will tax your brain and reveal two things of significance: (1) Our legacy of impenetrable, opaque corporate financial dealings (organizations, mergers, leases, collapses and reorganizations) has been a long, long time in the making in America, and (2) Corporate law was (and still is) a very good business with job security.

This blurry little snapshot from someone's photo album was taken between 1907 and 1911, or so the "facts" suggest, before electrification of streetcar lines pulled by horsepower which had begun as early as 1832 in the city. There are four horses in this picture, which means that a second car is abreast of this one and is hidden from view (there were only two horses per car). The streetcar companies were called railways – confusing to us since we think of steam and diesel locomotives – but rails made it much easier for horses to pull heavy loads and had the added benefit of iron wheels that were more durable than wagon wheels, provided a smoother ride and did not mire in mud in rainy weather. Of course there were steam locomotive railways, both street level and elevated, and subway systems contemporary with the horse drawn variety in NYC. This car's exterior is enameled sheet metal which replaced the much earlier painted wood siding.

Here is an engraving of an earlier version and company name of the Metropolitan streetcar.

Ovis Aries Pastoral

This pleasant pastoral landscape of a small herd of sheep with their owner was likely taken by an amateur, someone in the farm family with a small view camera using glass plate negatives, to be added to the family album; that it also has dramatic light and is well-composed may have been intentional or pure happenstance – almost anyone can take an exceptional photo occasionally even if they have no "eye" for technique or composition. It is small: 2.5" X 5".

All we have for specifics are the clues to be read –

Location: there is a mountain in the background; the trees are a mix of deciduous, spruce and white pine; the fence is unusual because it is mixed rock and rails – so I suggest appalachian range, perhaps Virginia or West Virginia, and unlikely a western ranch locality.

Season: late summer or fall based on corn shocks in the distant field and the size of the two lambs in this group.

Time of day: the direction of the sun, if it is eastern U.S., late morning.

Date: the power pole on the left suggests 20th century, as late as the 20s or 30s when rural electrification became more prevalent, though it is odd that there is only the single pole evident.

As with conjecture, I could be wrong about any of the particulars. What do you think?

Our Trusty Steed

This wonderful turn of the century print shows us as nice a group of children as you could care to know, and it would be hard to imagine a more handsome group. A donkey is a safe choice for children, stronger and better tempered even than a pony.

It is easy to critique the work of a photographer unless you have “been there and done that”: we have all seen both the opportunity and the shot we want and come up short because of miscalculations regarding lighting or exposure. This was one of those situations – but the photographer felt like it was worth printing anyway and we can be glad for it. There is no studio identification on the mount and it was perhaps an amateur effort. The camera case is sitting by the tree, probably 5”x7” negative size.

Strong directional light is from the upper front left and the exposure was misjudged, but not fatally, just not ideal. Having only the print, I cannot tell if all that was possible was done in the darkroom to bring up the tones in the face and clothing. The original has considerable foxing and accumulated dirt.

Image editing software has the tools to reclaim a print from time and damage, and restore the shortcomings to some degree – if you are willing to invest the time. This one was worth it.

Oh, You Hairy Beast You!

From Scotland, home of champions of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" competition, comes this quite old glass negative contact print of the Highland breed, a product of Mother Nature and natural selection without help from man. So, of course, it is disease resistant, requires little special feed or care, is mild tempered and can survive where other "man made" breeds will die.

It was used by American breeders early on to improve their stock and is found both as a pure breed and as the foundation of many other breeds worldwide. The Highland is the oldest registered cattle breed (1884).

All cattle descend from the Aurochs which have been around since way before early man decided to paint their portraits on the walls of caves. Tasty, too, so I hear!