All we know is marked in pencil on the back of this large cabinet photograph: a family named Thom who lived on the hill (?) perhaps somewhere in Connecticut. It is likely a multi-generation family event on the farm in the mid 1890s. A substantial house with painted finish on windows, doors and trim but with the clapboard unpainted and weathered dark, the lawn not manicured or planted as it might have been were it in town.

A deliveryman has arrived, but what sort of product would a farmer need to have brought in I have no idea. We see typical day dress for the period, certainly for such a get together. Of 17 people, I am amused to note that only three appear to be looking at the camera, not at all typical of the sort of focus you might expect if a professional photographer had been summoned for the occasion, so maybe someone in the family is manning the camera. Many hundreds of thousands of this sort of photo have been taken in every part of the world in 170 years, and so many are still with us today.

Once again, indulge my fascination with streetcars: the Woodland Heights trollies of the Springfield Traction Company that took over services in Springfield, Missouri in 1895. Had I lived in an era when streetcars were ubiquitous, no doubt my romantic notions would be tempered by the reality that they were dirty, noisy and uncomfortable, only preferable to shank's mare if you had a way to go, but they sure do look cute in miniature running around my Christmas tree dinging merrily! Certainly, in my own time, smelly diesel city buses were hardly my idea of the way to go, but you get the idea – time and distance trump reality.

Touring New York City in style in the early years of the 20th century! An open vehicle with solid rubber tires was acceptable to folk who for at least two generations paraded about in horse drawn open carriages and barouches and felt very good about themselves indeed (tourists today pay exorbitant prices to do so in Central Park!) This tour bus, not much more than a truck fitted with seats, was small compared with others of this kind that were easily three times this length and carried perhaps as many as 42 passengers.

Today we would want cushier seats with safety belts, an enclosure with conditioned air and large windows, and the driver would need to be amplified so we could hear the canned script – we could not be expected to be ferried about in the equivalent of a delivery truck or depot hack, but I am sure these tourists were content to pay the fare to satisfy their curiosity about life in Gotham. A very good time was had by all!

My title expresses my opinion that this is a prime example of the best CDVs of the Victorian photographers. The convention of composing a head-and-shoulders portrait with the face near the center is typical; today we would tend not to have so much blank background above the head and hat.

This 1880s image is as charming as they come. A very attractive young woman, quite well dressed without any pretensions to being a fashion plate – she is the subject, not her clothes, yet she has a certain flair with the tiny ruffled edge to her standing collar and pin offset by the informality of the way she has tied the velvet ribbon around her throat. Women's styles of the time often interpreted the dress of a country maid in a high style fashion, but it worked very well when it was not too extreme.

Another thing that attracted me to this portrait is that the young woman makes me think of the models that the French Impressionist artist Auguste Renoir painted during this same period. One always wonders whether an artist paints an image true to a particular model who sits for him or if he paints an ideal based on what he sees before him (some of the Pre-Raphaelite painters' models are very well documented in photographs – perhaps because they had a propensity for marrying them – so we know they were often guilty of painting to a particular ideal), but here I see a face that Renoir might well have painted. This image looks like the portraits he painted that are famed for their naturalism and the certainty that you are looking at an identifiable person and true likeness; this young woman's no-nonsense persona leads you to suspect that she would never have countenanced being the subject in one of his nude bathers scenes for which he is also quite famous.

This 1922 portrait of three sisters from a Massachusetts studio had great promise: a painted backdrop superior to what one often sees, the furniture made to seem a part of it rather than stuck in front of it; good natural lighting; but perhaps the stage managing of the subjects accounts for the lack of success in getting pleasant expressions – all but the baby are somewhat wan and unengaged. As I have noted before, the personalities of the children have much more to do with the outcome than the talents of the photographer, in fact I would imagine that this same photographer had used this setting with other children who responded very well and the results were likely very satisfying. As it is, the best little face is the baby who looks almost more like a painting than a photograph.

Kudos to the photographer who had everything right that was within his control! He cared about his work – he signed and dated it right in the image.

We can be reasonably certain that this 5" x 7" glass negative was taken on July 4th, and by the 38 star flags (used from 1877 - 1890) the year may be in the mid-1880s (bolstered by the prevalence of the men's bowlers with the turned down front brims, the droopy mustaches and other sartorial details). There are three hatless women on the sidewalk in the lower left, virtually the only people in the entire scene without hats – with the exception of three women hanging precariously out of a second story window, one holding a gesturing, not-so-little boy on her knee (good heavens, lady, it's at least 18 feet to the sidewalk!).

Flags are everywhere (even a non-official one with more than 30 stars arranged in a circular pattern that I can find no information about) and there are more people marching in the parade than are watching them go by! They are a motley crew with the exception of a band in the near foreground, followed by a group wearing broad-brimmed hats with the lead figures carrying brooms (?); in the far background is a streetcar that is skirted with star bunting, so perhaps they are dignitaries or local politicians who could not be expected to walk like everyone else (it is interesting that there are no other parade-related conveyances or anyone riding horses in this view).

If I had a business directory of the period, I could confirm my guess that this is Chicago, though I suppose another city might have a Chicago Street as well. On the left corner is a bank advertising a Safety Deposit Vault; on the right side of the street are named businesses: a millinery store, clothing store, stationery and news store, two cash grocery stores, a cafe that serves meals at all hours, a pharmacy, Acorn stoves and ranges, a candy factory that is practically next door to a dentist, a wallpaper store, real estate office, and a photographer's studio among others.

It is generally said that everyone loves a parade, but it may also be true that every antique photograph collector loves photos of parades. A glass negative of this size provides remarkable detail; I only regret that it isn't possible for online viewers to inspect them minutely on the scale at which I restore such prints.

I have always been fascinated by the the more unusual railroad equipment of the latter 19th and early 20th centuries. This inspection engine is one of that genre, used not only by inspectors but by railroad dignitaries. One would assume that inspections could be done quite well and in greater comfort by using a private car behind an engine, but a benefit may be the high elevation afforded by perching the car atop the engine - even higher than a typical engineer's cab position. Surely, since such an engine would not ordinarily be used for anything other than the purpose for which it was designed, it was also something of a luxury – a bit of company arrogance.

Whoever rode in this affair would want to have a degree of faith in the operators since they were literally riding on the most volatile part of any steam engine – I have a few images of what an exploded steam engine looks like after such a mishap (I'll post a couple of them soon)!

The canvas tents in the background of this 4-6-0 engine seem to suggest that this was part of a display, perhaps the 1876 Centennial celebrations, an exposition or industrial exhibition of some kind. Since these engines are not newly painted and spiffed up, it may be equipment currently in use by the railroad, but they could be on historical display if this image is early 20th c. (I am not aware of any inspection engines that have survived as part of transportation museums and I have never seen them except in photos and illustrations).

Unlike the Galloping Goose and other self-propelled railroad equipment, the inspection engine is not popular enough among model railroad fans for them to be available for purchase; I built a scratchbuilt running model in the late 1970s for my own edification.

Here is a late 19th century cabinet print that has more warmth and personality than many from the period, well composed with critical focus confined to the subjects' faces. The son is enjoying the studio experience and the others are relaxed and attentive. The mother, identified only as Anna, does not have a smile on her lips but her eyes reveal that she is a person of humor and goodwill; she may be nearly thirty but she seems to have weathered three children very well. A lot of material went into dressing a baby in some sectors of society though this may not be everyday attire. I would have been disappointed if I hadn't been able to acquire this photograph.

The photographer is J. W. Riche's Studio of Shemokin, Pennsylvania.

The CDV you see here, taken by Ateuer Classens of Bonn around 1880, is in incredible condition for its age – not a scratch, barely a speck of dirt, no spotting and not the least yellowing of the image or the card, even on the back, its pristine whiteness is startling and makes you realize what many photos looked like when they were new! The gold leaf on the card edges is flawless. I wish I knew how this photo was stored for 130 years.

The little maid is dressed in national costume and standing on a step meant to be a continuation of the painted backdrop. What eyes! A solemn little face of perfect symmetry. I am not adept at reading the old German handwriting but I think her last name was Christel.