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.

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?

Old Mill Complex – Scotch Plains, NJ

The dealer's description of this large cabinet print described it as a barn, but I instantly noted the stream issuing from beneath the building, a sure sign of water being used to power some mill operation, most likely grain but maybe there are a variety of operations in this large semi-rural complex – sawmill, lathes or other operations requiring quantities of water. There is a tall brick chimney on the right indicating manufacture, a distillery being one distinct possibility.

The absence of motor vehicles may put this image before 1910, but how much earlier is anyone's guess; the albumen print is quite faded (requiring some restoration for what you see above) but is very handsomely mounted in a heavy folder which could have been done anytime after 1880; some lack of sharpness on the far left and considerable fuzziness on the right may suggest the earlier of this time span.

I am not sure what is being loaded or unloaded in this scene; it appears to be wrapped in cloth or burlap and a hoist is lifting or lowering the bales, so we may be seeing raw material coming in or a product coming out (if you have a more educated guess, please comment). I count at least 6 men, a boy and a girl. This was a busy and important place but the odds are good that nothing much remains above ground today. What was once so common a part of the landscape of American life is now relegated to a relatively few old photographs, an occasional painting and nostalgic prints of the Currier & Ives variety.

 

4 - 4 - 0 Steam Locomotive 1898

This old cabinet photo has written on its back "Junction of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, 1898", so it is likely the Wilkes-Barre & Eastern Railroad which was established in 1893 by the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad primarily to haul Pennsylvania coal to its northern markets, but it also moved ice from Pocono lakes and served passengers from northwestern Monroe County to Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg and to connections to New York City. This short passenger combination, pulled by a 4-4-0 engine of earlier vintage, has no route identification anywhere on the locomotive, tender or cars, only the number 7. If you are a rail enthusiast, you may find yourself wishing that more such ornamented locomotives from this era had not gone to the scrapyard, but then you think of the many formerly fine engines that are rusting away in parks and museums from lack of funds for upkeep or restoration. The W-B&E was the shortest line of its region, and its existence was also short – ceasing to operate in 1939. 

Also identified in pencil: S. Cobb, engineer, James Lewsley, fireman, James Nickle, baggageman, Lewis Cook, conductor, Bryon P_____?, fireman. If that identification is left-to-right, the fellow with the shovel doesn't rate a name. It is always interesting, and often amusing, to note curious onlookers – unrelated to the photo being taken – standing far in the background facing the camera directly, obviously aware of what is taking place; in this case the man on the far right may be waiting for the train to move away from what appears to be the vehicle crossing.

I have attached the original state of this image below – not just a victim of age but also of a seller who shoved it into a shipping envelope with no cardboard protection whatsoever (adding extra hours to the restoration process)!

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.