The Smart Ass Of Sweet Water

More than likely, some classmate of Joe, Roger, Bob. Lorena, and Lillie wrote their names on this photo.  More than likely, years latter, some smart ass wrote roof, grass, and drew the skull and crossbones  on this image.  I hate smart asses.

You Press The Button, We Do The Rest

No, George Eastman did not invent photography, nor did  he did  invent film.  What George Eastman did was see that the average person on the street would, given the chance, take pictures of their own.  Before Eastman and Kodak came along, photographers needed a basic knowledge of chemistry, a light tight laboratory of their own, and a willingness to carry around a large camera that took photos on glass plate negatives and had to be used with a tripod.  Eastman understood that if photography was made easy, photography would spread to the masses.  His first attempt at mass market cameras, the detective, was a huge failure.  It was his second try, the  Kodak, that made his company a giant of American manufacturing.

George Eastman's idea was to build a camera that literally needed no real skill to operate.  It was sold pre-loaded with a strip of film that could take 100 separate images; point and shoot, send the camera with the film still loaded back to Kodak, and Kodak would develop the film, make a single print of each image, reload the camera and mail the whole thing back to the camera's owner.  Of course, at $25 in 1887, for the camera and film, true amateur photography was still limited to the well established members of the middle class and above, but in time that would all change.  In 1900, Eastman introduced the first Brownie camera with a list price of $1.00 with  no film included.

When I was a child,way back in the early 1960's, a cheap 127 camera made by Ansco could be had for $10, and a twelve exposure roll of film could be developed and printed for $5.  The focus might have left something to be desired, and the plastic lenses didn't cut a super sharp negative, but then again, even poor people could take snapshots of their kids.

In all the years I've been collecting old photographs, this is the first time I've found a photograph from the original Kodak mass market camera.  I don't know why George Eastman chose a format that gave round prints, but that's how they can be identified.  In 1887, the Kodak prints were 2 1/2 inches in diameter, in 1888, the size went up to 3 1/2 inches, which is what this particular print is.  Written on the back, "Me and my den as seen through a Kodak."

Herr J. Sternstein, Glaswegian

So, how did Herr Sternstein end up in Glasgow?  This is what I was able to find out.  Jachiel Sternstein was from Hamburg, Germany.  He and his son Sigmund emigrated to Scotland some time around 1870.  I couldn't find an exact date.  In 1873, Jachiel opened his photographic studio.  Eventually, his son joined him in the family business and it became J & S Sternstien.  They did, as noted on the back of the card, specialize in group portraits.  By the 1940's, presumably, absent Jachiel and Sigmund, J & S Sternstein had contracts for school portraits all across central Scotland.  I found references to their school portrait business into the 1970's.   

So, my English mother had a tendency to look on the Scots and the Irish as somewhat lesser members of the United Kingdom.  (Not the Welsh.  Her mother was Welsh.)  She always described the Scots as cold, sour people, and looking at this photo, well let's just say that even the children look unhappy.  Although, there is that one little boy, second from the right in the front row, who seems to be making some sort of remark to his classmate.  I think he was the kid who always got other kids in trouble. 

The Post War European Trip Collection-Swiss Mountains

All postcards, all published in Switzerland.  I wrote in an earlier  post that Gloria Lee was on an American Youth Hostel cycling trip of Europe.  My source for that information was ABE Books.  It's a website that allows book dealers to join together to sell their wares, and if you're a book lover like me, an indispensable resource.  Anyway, I found a rare book dealer in St. Louis who was selling the Gloria Lee Bigewet European trip archive.  Scrapbooks, diaries, photographs, postcards, letters and other ephemera.  Sadly there was an asking price of over $2,000, so it doesn't look like I'm going to reunite my few scrapes with the greater collection.  At that price, one would  think that Gloria Lee must have been someone with at least a level of fame in Missouri.  That would be wrong.

So yes, it is necessary to click on The Post war European Trip Collection in labels to see more and wet your appetite for parts yet to be posted, which won't happen for awhile. 

The Post War European Trip Collection-Berne 7

I'm beginning to wish I'd posted this travel brochure as one post.  Well, at this point it doesn't really matter.  This is it, the last two panels.

There are two names in the La science panel, Nicolas Manuel Deutsch, and d'Albert de Haller.  Near as I can tell, Deutsch was an artist and not a scientist, though I have to admit, I was too lazy to go beyond the less than reliable Wikipedia. Haller was also an artist, but also a doctor and anatomist. 

As usual, click on The Post war European Trip Collection in labels for lots more.

The Post War European Trip Collection-Berne 6

So, where does  the water come from?  L'historie was easy, but I had to look up Les fontaines.  I assumed it was fountains and was right, but everyone I know makes the mistake of assuming that words from languages other than English, that sound similar to words in English mean the same.  Sometimes they do, but more often than not, they don't.

Click on The Post War European Trip Collection, and all that.

The Post War European Trip Collection-Berne 5

Yesterday I wrote that Gloria Lee might have been tired from all the cycling.  Keeping my earlier promise to continue with my research into her trip, I discovered that she was on an American Youth Hostel cycling trip through France, Switzerland, and Italy.  The trip lasted three weeks, excluding the voyage from the U.S. to Europe and home again, so it's a good bet that they used some sort of ground transport between countries.  Dare I mention it again?  Click on The Post War European Trip Collection in labels.....

The Post War European Trip Collection-Berne 4

I hope Gloria Lee wasn't so tired and sore from all the cycling that she missed this Gothic church (?) in Bern, Switzerland.  As usual, click on The Post War European Trip Collection in labels to see more.

The Post War European Trip Collection-Berne 3

I'm burning through Bern.  This section presented a bit of a problem as far as scanning goes.  I'd much rather have done each panel individually, but the publisher's choice to put a fold through the middle of the photos took that option off the table.  I don't know about anyone else, but I'd love to see the statue of the baby eating ogre.  I wonder what that says about the Swiss mindset.

As usual click on The Post War European Trip Collection in labels, etc.

The Post War European Trip Collection-Berne 2

I wonder if Gloria Lee did what a lot of tourists do.  Did she take her tourist brochure and go looking for the view pictured?  It looks like there's a handrail right at the bottom of the photograph, and there is that map. Click on The Post war European Trip in labels to see more.

The Post War European Trip Collection-Berne 1

It's time for a travel brochure for Bern, Berne in the local German dialect, the capital of Switzerland. Interesting, since the brochure is in French.  We know that Gloria Lee toured Europe in 1948, so while it's quite possible that it was printed pre '48, we know when she got it.  I'm not sure how I'm going to break things up, but all but one of the panels has some sort of photograph, so at least there's that.

Click on The Post War European Trip Collection in the labels section at the bottom of the post for more of Gloria Lee's vacation.

The Post War European Trip Collection-Gloria Lee, Probably

It's been more than a month since I started in on this collection, so a brief explanation why a pencil sketch  has ended up on a blog devoted to old photographs.  I bought an envelope of material that documents, pretty much, a trip by Gloria Lee Bigewet, from the great state of Missouri.  This envelope has brochures, postcards, some photographic, some illustrated, a letter, and this drawing.  Had the collection been related by theme, I would have published the non photographic stuff on my Fair Use blog, but since it's all from a single person, everything, including stuff that didn't start life in a camera, will end up here.  So, click on The Post War European Trip Collection in labels to see what's up, and what will be up in the future. 

As far as the artist, I have no idea who Ann Reeves is, but I'm doing what little research I can as I go along, so who knows what will turn up in the future.

Plauen & Reichenbach

If nothing else, Heinrich Axtmann must have been a successful photographer since he had two studio locations.  More than likely he had employees, with a second photographer filling in for him at which ever location he wasn't at on any given day, and perhaps lab staff so he could go home at night rather then spending his evenings in the darkroom.

Once again, we're in Saxony.  But, I bought all five photos in this mini series from an EBay seller in Bellingham, Washington. Were these all photos from the same family?  If so, why did they use different photographers in different towns?  What about the Swedish cabinet card?  Perhaps someone emigrated to the United States, between the wars, and he or she brought photos of family and friends with them.  Maybe they were mailed from Germany to someone who was already in the U.S.  Of course, that's the trouble with antique dealers.  Things start passing through so many hands that any such connections become lost.  I'll keep these photos together, but after I'm dead and gone, I doubt the next owner will be so concerned with such things.  The fact is, I don't really have any heirs, so it's quite possible that all of my collections will end up on the curb or in the trash.

Ehrenfriedersdorf

As I've noted in some of my older posts, both cabinet cards and CDV's were early, successful standardized photographic formats.  Photo supply companies manufactured the cards, some with printed logos on the back, and then the photographer would mount his or her work on the front of the card.  Albums and frames were sold to the public, designed to hold those particular formats.  I've never seen these small, narrow cards before, but clearly someone was selling these things to different studios.  (The actual dimensions, 4 11/16 x 2 1/8)

I could find a fair number of other photographs by Heinrich Wagner, on line, but no information on the man himself.  I'm not going to try and translate the back of the card, but Wagner did win the bronze medal at Heidelberg in 1912, so we can know this image wasn't taken until after that.  I'm still guessing pre World War 1.  If I'm right, that's a small two year window.

Ehrensfiedersdorf is in Saxony, Germany.

Limbach

I spent way too much time researching this photograph.  I never expect to find anything about any individual photographer, but not being able to find any reference to a place was unique.  Then I got out the better magnifying glass and realized that there was an "L" right up against the edge of the studio logo and it was Limbach I was searching for, not Imbach. Once I found Limbach, I was able to add C. Grosser photographer to my search parameters and  discovered that in 1903, Herr C. Grosser had decided to sell photographic supplies at his studio.   Not much, but it's what I got.

Eibau

There's nothing on the back of this small portrait, and while I was able to find more of the photographer's work, I couldn't find any information on Emil Roitsch, himself.  His studio was in Eibau, Germany.  Eibau was in Saxony, near the current borders of Poland and Czechia. If this picture was taken before the end of World War 1, then Czechia would still have been part of Austria-Hungary, and Poland would have been part of the Russian Empire.  In 2013, Eibau merged with two other communities forming the city of Kottmar.

Goteborg or Gothenburg?

I just picked up a small envelope of European studio portraits.  It looks like this one started as a cabinet card that someone trimmed down.  Maybe it was a family member who needed to fit it into a frame or album.  That's not so bad since more could have been had from Alfred Back, the photographer.

So, I'm always amazed by what I can find on the net.  I didn't know if Alfred Back was a complete name or not, but I gave it a whirl, and indeed it was the full name of a Swedish studio photographer from Goteborg, Sweden, properly spelled with the two little dots above the "O", which I can't type on my ever ageing desk top computer.  The weird thing is that Goteborg has an exonym that's kind of semiofficial in Sweden itself.   Goteborg, also known as Gothenburg is the second largest city in the country, and the headquarters of Volvo.  It was founded in 1621 as a Dutch trading colony and quickly became home to a number of Germans and Scots, Swedish allies from the Thirty Years War.  So, a Swedish city with a Swedish name as well as a German/English one.  Oh those Europeans and their crazy wars. 

Now, about Google/Microsoft, etc., and how tech changes language.  Exonym is a real word.  An exonym is the externally used word for a geographic name place.  A perfect example is Germany for Deutschland.  Despite exonym's long usage, according to Blogger the word doesn't exist.  This is something I run into from time to time, and I'm always left wondering, "Are we loosing words because someone in silicon valley couldn't be bothered to add it to a database?"

Any guesses about the uniforms?  They don't look military to me.  No badges of rank or decorations.  Maybe the Swedish railway.

Light Rail In Pittsburgh

I grew up in a small town about fifty miles from downtown Pittsburgh.  We didn't make many trips to the city, but when we did, I always wanted to ride the trolleys.  My family looked at me like I was an idiot.  Why would anyone want to ride a trolley when they had a car.  I still ride light rail, in Los Angeles, and yes, I own a car.

The caption on the back, "PITTSBURGH 1653  Pittsburgh Railways PCC car 1635 on route 40, Mt. Washington negotiates the curve on Sycamore near Bertha, July 5, 1963.  R McMurdo photo-N.D. Clark Collection." 

Queen Elizabeth

That's her in the funny hat.  Actually, this one is captioned, "R.M.S. QUEEN ELIZABETH. Nassau. Cruise of 1965."  We are not amused.

A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody

Old song, old postcard, and proof that a pretty girl can be used to sell anything.  In this case, Cypress Gardens and postcards.

The caption on the back, "Giant blue Hydrangeas with cover girl, Martha Gray, make this a lovely scene along one of the paths that wind through the tropical Cypress Gardens."  Helpful hint, never include cover girl in an internet search.  Unless, of course, you want to buy lots and lots of makeup.

Ladies Who Sneer

I admit it.  Identifying a sneering face can be a bit subjective.  Anyway, I grew up in a small, fairly religious town, and as a life long atheist, I was sneered at a lot.  To me, these look like sneering church ladies. Oh, and I double checked, nothing written on the back of this print.