Mountain Home

This was almost certainly made for someone's personal use, nevertheless, there is a commercial photographer's credit line on the back.  "Milton Helm's Studio, Mountain Home, Idaho."  I couldn't find much about Helm, but a bit.  I know that in 1907 he was a partner in a photo studio in Twin Falls, with Leah Amos, Idaho's preeminent woman photographer, or at leas that's how she was described in  an article about photographer's in Idaho.  The next year Helm moved to Mountain Home and opened his own studio.  I know he was active in 1917.  I found a mention of him in a newspaper that had an ad for Civilization, a silent movie directed Thomas H. Ince, and released that year.  And I found another mention of him from Abel's Photographic Weekly from 1922.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any of his photographs.  Type in Milton Helm Mountain home and all the pictures that come up are from Levon Helm's  recording studio.  Oh well.

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.