The Photographist

When I first started gathering up old photographs, I was only interested in cabinet cards, CDV's, and glass negatives.  Mostly, because they were really, really old.  Of course, back then, in the late sixties, World War 2 veterans were everywhere, and I knew quite a few World War 1 veterans as well.  In fact, I knew a lot of people who were born in the 19th century.  I knew people who could tell me about the first time they had seen a car, an airplane; the first time they had heard a radio or seen a talking movie.  Somehow pictures from the recent past seemed far less interesting.  As time passed and as people born in the twenties, thirties and forties became fewer in number, the photographs they took became fascinating to me.  And now, for some unknown reason, I've started looking for really, really old images once again.

It didn't take a lot of research to dig up some info on J. K. Patch of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.  Jonas King Patch was born in 1824 and became an itinerant photographer in the daguerreotype and tintype era.  Eventually he settled down at one location, in Shelburne Falls, and opened a studio.  Jonas died in 1909.  He had several children, one of whom, Henry S. Patch followed in his father's footsteps and took over the studio.  Henry was born in 1856 and died in 1939.  I found a notation that Henry gave up the studio ten years before his death.  I also found a brief notice where Jonas was referred to as a prominent photographist.  A term I've never run into before, but I like it.