A Really Faded print

 

Super faded, actually.  I can make out the teddy Bear, but I have no idea what she's holding in her other hand. 

Swedish Portraits 4

 

I'm beginning to think I should have called this the Arvid Kjerling collection.   Anyway, click on Swedish CDVs in labels to see more.  The only child's photo in the lot. 

On The Wagon

Literally, on the wagon. 

Duke & Diane

As a rule, I don't show the decorative borders found on many old photographs.  Most are pretty much the same and unless a particular border is unique, I kind of figure, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. 

So, information on the back of the print.  "Dec. 27, 1935.  Duke & Diane Andrews. Taken at 1228 S. Wisconsin Ave. Berwyn, Ill.  9-7 years."  Let's start with the obvious, the helmet Duke is wearing is probably a Christmas present.  Football, would be my best guess, though in an era that was mad about aviation, it could also be a flyer's helmet.  The leather jacket was also the type of clothing worn by early, open cockpit aviators, so perhaps Duke wanted to be like his hero Charles Lindbergh.  There is a dark blob against the wall that I think could be a dog.  I tried looking up the names on line but pretty much struck out.  Diane Andrews is too common of a name.  Also, if she got married, any mention would have probably been by her married name.  Duke is probably a nickname which doesn't really help, though there is a Duke Andrews basketball league in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  A connection?  Perhaps, but impossible to tell.  And finally, Berwyn is a suburb of Chicago. 

Bold choice for an amateur photographer, taking a picture next to light patterns from the window, which is very difficult to print. 

Japanese Students

This shouldn't' be read as an endorsement of eBay.  Like many others I've had a few bad experiences with the site.  Still, as a collector of old photographs, and as someone old enough to remember a world with out an internet,  I'm always amazed that I can buy a photo from Japan and have it delivered to my door in less than a week.

Anyway, both of these pictures were pasted on the same card, one on the front, and one on the back.  I scanned the card in hopes that someone can translate the writing and leave it as a comment, and then did the photo alone.  The back of the card, with the second image, is just plain green with neither writing or textured surface, so who knows if the card was meant to have photographs on both sides.  Since nothing was lost, I just scanned the photo.  The card is just a bit bigger than wallet size, so maybe a parent just glued the second shot on the back to keep pictures of the kids all together.

Pittsburg

Awhile back, I made the decision to post the few remaining unpublished tintypes in my collection.  Now, it's time to put up the last three cabinet cards.  I'm sure at some time in the future there'll be more tintypes and cabinet cards, but for now, I'm leaving the 19th century.

Anyway, I'm sure the sharp eyed viewers have noticed that Pittsburgh is misspelled.  Actually not.  From 1891 to 1911 the city dropped the "H" from the city's name.  It seems that the United States Board of Geographic Names, a department  of the U.S. Geographic Survey, decided to standardize place names and ordered town and cities that used the Scottish spelling, a version of borough, to use the German Burg.  No one pronounces it that way, but technically Pittsburgh should be said like Edinburgh, Scotland, not like Hamburg, Germany.  Oh well, eventually the feds relented, and  Pittsburghers got the "H" back.

The Final Melvine Album Page, The Other Side

Take a look at the whole Melvine collection, and the question that comes to mind is this.  Why the emphasis on Melvine?   There are other children in these photos, Mom, Dad, and Nell, but Melvine dominates.  Was she the only child, the favored child, or the child that died?

Captions, from top to bottom, 1. "Joan-Melvine Bev." 2, 3 and 4. "Melvine."  5. "Mom & Melvine." 6. "Nell-Mel." 7, 8 and 9. "Mel." 10. "Melvine Mom." 11. No caption. 12. "Fran-Mel Mom Nell Blanch Hal." 13. "Mom-Melvine." 14. "Norma Nell & Mel Teen & Joan." 15. "Larry Dean Melvine  16. "Pete Twiller" 17. "Melvine Jerry Baggelo."

Click on Melvine in labels to see the rest.

The Final Melvine Album Page

This is the third, and as of right now, the final Melvine album page.  Melvine was a little girl from Buffalo, Wyoming, at some point moved to a suburb of Seattle, and eventually ended up in the military.  Other than that, I don't know anything about the lady.  Click on Melvine in labels at the bottom of the post to see the other two pages.

Anyway, it's kind of hard to read the white grease pencil captions, so top to bottom of the individual photos. 1. On the side of the image, "New Years Day In Buffalo." and underneath, "Nell & Marie."  2. "Larry Fritz Bud Hal."  3. "Melvine Marie Nell." 4. "Dad Mom." 5. "Dad Mom Buffalo Wyo." 6. "Mom & Dad Buffalo." 7. "Melvine" 8. "Jerry Melvine Larry Bev." 9. No caption. 10. "Aunt Mae & Uncle Ray."

Another Side of Another Melvine Album Page

It looks like Melvine joined the army.  The hand tinted photo is captioned "Jerry And Melvine" and the others, you guessed it, "Melvine."  Clearly she was the apple of someone's eye.

Click on Melvine in labels to see more.

Another Melvine Album Page

Since I've been complaining about antique sellers cutting up photo albums, I might as well continue with the theme.  Awhile back, I purchased an album page built around a little girl named Melvine.  I've found two more pages from that album, I'll be putting up both sides of one page now, and save the other one for latter.  Click on Melvine in labels at the bottom of the post to see the other page and read something about her home town, Buffalo, Wyoming.

This time, I took the time to look up Melvine and Buffalo, Wyoming.  What I found was about a Melvine not pictured on this page, but it's such a unique name, and since Buffalo is such a small place, they've got to be related.  That Melvine died in 2015 at the age of 106.  She was born in Verdel, Nebraska.  When she was 4 years old, she and her family moved to Idaho.  In 1919, in a pair of covered wagons, they moved to Wyoming.  Melvine began her work life at a young age, as a cook, and continued preparing food for a good portion of her life.  She even wrote a cookbook.  What was really fascinating, at her death, she held the world's record for the longest survivor of breast cancer.  She was diagnosed at the age of 49.  Quick math, 57 years survival.  She was one of five children, the mother of two, the grandmother of five,  she had 14 great grandchildren, and three great great grandchildren.  Of course, that count was at the time of her death, and there may be more of the great great variety by now.   Time to state the obvious, one of those many family members is the Melvine of this album.

The four wallet photos in the right hand column are labeled, "8th, 9th, 10th, 11th"  Clearly class photos.

Long Beach Album Photo, The Second Side

Perhaps it's actually the first side.

This one's captioned, "Gwendolyn Ljunggren. Day she left for Waukegan-Ills."

When I get a name that's pretty common, I don't bother  doing any research.  If I ran "Mary Jones" I'd probably get a thousand hits on Goggle.  But Gwendolyn Ljunggren begs for a quick trip to Goggle land.

The first problem with searching for a woman is that they have a tendency to get married and take their husband's name, so it was no surprise that the only direct reference to a Gwen Ljunggren, in Los Angeles, that I found was a marriage record.  It didn't have a date, but Gwen's husband, Theodore Pretz was listed as head of household in the 1930 census.  His birth year was listed as 1906, and Gwen was listed as being 18 years old, giving her a birth year of 1912.  The photo on the other side of this picture was dated 1914.  I'm not very good at estimating the age of children, but I'd say four or five, so it's the right era.  And, since I wasn't willing to provide a credit card number to Ancestry.com, that was it as far as Gwendolyn went.

As for Theodore, his profession was listed as furniture salesman.  I also found out that he was a Marine in World War 2.  Let's say he joined up in 1942, which means he was running the obstacle  course at 36.  That's pretty old for that sort of duty.   He died in 1957.   Pretty young.

Of course, just because Gwendolyn Ljuggren is a rare name, it doesn't follow that this Gwen became Mrs. Theodore Pretz.  Perhaps she changed her name to Mary Jones and disappeared into the vast digital wasteland.