Two Up

 

I just picked this photo up today, and I figured I'd better get it posted as soon as possible.  It's small, really small.  1.25 x 2 inches, and I need to get it into the storage box before I lose it.  Anyway, I don't know what to make of it.  Clearly, it's from before the age of the photo booth.  It could be a contact or reduction print.  I'm not aware of any film this small manufactured in the 19th or very early 20th century. 

The Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo

The Hoo-Hoos were founded in 1892 by a small group of men associated with the wood products industry.  They wanted to form a fraternal organization that was both unconventional and unregimented.  Unlike other lodges they were a lot more interested in having fun and tended to avoid the good works of other groups, though they did plant trees.  Their original membership requirements, apart from some association with wood products, was white males over 21.  Now, the racial standard is gone and the age requirement has been lowered to 18.  I'm always surprised that fraternal organizations are still hanging on, though I suspect most will be gone within the next 50 years or so.

There's a photographers stamp on the back.  "PHOTO BY Robertson and Fresh, TAMPA'S COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS, 504 E. Lafayette st., Tampa, Fla."  William Vernon "Red" Robertson was the photographer while Harry Fresh was the lab man who processed the film and made the prints.  They were in business from 1932 to 1960.  The University of South Florida has a large collection of their negatives.  Sadly, many of those negs have disintegrated because of high levels of acetic acid coupled with high humidity.  The yellow tinge of these two photographs shows that Mr. Fresh showed little interest in an archival wash for either their negatives or their prints.  To see the images in the USF collection, go to digital.lib.usf.edu/robertsonandfresh/all. Quite frankly, it's a lot easier just to go to Google and type in Robertson and Fresh photographers Tampa.

Black Shriners

There's a stamp on the back of this print, "ALEXANDER L. ADAMS, PHOTOGRAPHER, 1036 WESTMOOR DR.  N. W. AM 0934, ATLANTA, GA."  I couldn't find any biographical information about Adams.  Some of his photos are in the archives of Emory University in Atlanta.  The only other photo I could find of his was from the 1950s, it was taken in a beauty parlor and showed a young lady having her makeup applied.  Near as I can tell, Adams was one of the many commercial photographers who took pictures of what ever his clients paid him to take.  His prime importance is that he recorded black life in Atlanta.

I'm not going to go into the history of the Shriners.  For those who care, there's plenty of info on-line.  They are affiliated with the Masons, and they do have black affiliates, that date back at least to the early twentieth century.  I suspect they might go back towards the end of the Civil War based on some of the pictures I've seen, but I couldn't find any actual dates.

The Post War European Trip Collection-Souvenir Snapshots 1

When I was a kid, you could go to the local Stuckey's and by a package of five or ten 35mm slides of the local tourist attraction, take them home, put them in the projector, (Or one of those little hand viewers if you didn't own an Agfa Cube.) and relive the all American road trip.  Anyway, in Europe, in 1948, tourists bought envelopes of small black & white photos of the local sights.  I've got a lot of photos from Gloria Lee's trip, but only five pictures taken by members of the tour group.  I've got 39 of these commercially produced photos, but after this, I'll be taking a break from this collection, so you'll have to wait for parts 2 through 8.  If anyone can identify any of these locations, please feel free to leave a comment.

As usual. click on The Post War European Trip Collection in labels to see more.

The Pforzheim Album 1

It's time to start another album.  I'll be following my usual practice of a single post for each individual page.  If there's more than one image per page, I'll post the whole page to show positioning.  If there's only one photo on a page, then I won't bother.  Most of the images in this album are real photo postcards, and since they aren't pasted in, scanning will be easy.  There are only sixteen pages with images, so unlike a lot of the other collections I've published, I won't be breaking things up.  It'll be all sixteen pages in a row.

The top photo is credited to "Photo-Atelier Max Wolf. Pforzheim, Schulberg 5"  And the second, "M WIESENER PFORZHEIM."

Women, Thumbnail

For those too young to remember film, or those not photographically inclined, proof sheets are the thumbnails of conventional image making.  In a nutshell, a roll of film gets cut into strips, laid on top of a piece of photographic paper, a sheet of glass, turn on a light, and biff, bam, boom, you've got a quick reference print of every frame of film.  Someone cut out this very tiny frame from a proof sheet.  No doubt, from a commercial photo shoot.

Walton Studio-Oakland

This one came in a plain, creme colored folder, with a very tiny label, "Walton Studio-Oakland."  I assume that's Oakland, California, but who knows.  They look very young, so perhaps it's a prom photo, a college cotillion, (Do they still have those?), or a fraternity mixer.  I have to admit, I'm a bit of a slob in a very casual age, so this world of fancy parties is one Iv'e never known.

The German American Collection, The Wedding Picture

Again, I bought the butt end of an estate collection. A dealer had sold a number of photos individually, and then put everything else on-line in a couple of lots. This was the one I was able to get. Because it's all such a mish-mash, I'm putting things up when I get around to it with no real time table. Basically, when it gets done, it gets done. This photo, and what's left of an old photo album which is a long way from being posted, is why I'm calling it the German American collection. Stamped on the back, "Photohaus Karl Borft, Hieben, Bahnhofftr. 63" Well, my German is pretty bad and some of the letters were in the old style, Gothic script, which I often find confusing, but here goes. Photohaus is pretty obvious, so let's say Karl Borft's photo studio. I know that banhof is a station, so I'm guessing that the added tr. makes it a train station. I am confused about hieben though. I ran it through Google translate and got "cut down" and that makes no sense to me whatsoever. I hope this couple got out of Germany before the 1930's. Click on German American in the labels section to get the other parts that are available for viewing.

The German Couple

I almost didn't put up this nice studio portrait because of the prints textured surface. I had to use the descreen setting on the scanner, losing some of the sharpness. So, why is that I have so many pictures from Germany? Is it just a coincidence, or did German immigrants to the United States treasure their photographs more than immigrants from other countries? A question that will never be answered. Stamped on the back, "Foto Dickopf, das Fachgeschaft in Siegburg." I think that means Photos by Dickopf, at the department store in Siegburg. Any German speakers out there, please feel free to correct my translation.

Old California 1

I picked up this small collection of California snapshots from an on-line estate sale. There are 33 images in the group, which I will be posting as three setts of 11. The photographer's life seems to have been centered around the bay area, both San Francisco and Oakland, and the Los Angeles area, for the first ten years or so of the twentieth century. The photo of the tower is easily recognizable as the ferry building in downtown San Francisco. It's still there and still in use. The Lyric Theater sign isn't much use in identifying a location. Lyric Theater was just too common a name for early music halls and Vaudeville theaters. The mansion on the hill photo is labeled, "Home on hill above Ocean at Santa Monica." For those who don't know California, Santa Monica is right next to Los Angeles. The house looks familiar to me, and the next time I'm in Santa Monica, I'll see if I can find it. Pacific palisades, I would think. The football statue from the Berkley Campus is printed on postcard stock, and while it could be a commercially produced card, the lack of patent and copyright info on the back makes me think it might have been printed in a home darkroom. The baby carriage photo is labeled, "Betty at 241 E-31 ST, Los Angeles." The ostrich pictures could have been shot at any of the farms in California that raised exotics for meat, and hides, but it looks like the sight of the commercial ostrich farm in South Pasadena. There is an apartment building on the sight now. The two children photo has a difficult to make out embossing, but under a magnifying glass it looks like, "Mushet Los Angeles." The two Asian gentlemen image has Chinese letters down the left margin, and in English, "Heap Good." And my favorite from this group; the Shriner's photo. California has always been a state that puts a value on boosterism. It's our real estate based economy, I think.

Another CDV From C. C. Shadle

Most of the carte de visites I own were purchased when I first started collecting photographs and most are from my home state of Pennsylvania. C.C. Shadle was born in 1817 and learned photography at the age of 45, around 1862. After working as an engineer for three years, he opened a photography studio in Apollo, Pennsylvania, (My home town.) around about 1865, the year that the Civil War ended. He then set up a studio in Tarentum, PA, and then moved to Kittanning, (The town where I was born.) in 1869. For more detailed information on the life of C. C. Shadle go to www.freepages.geneology.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~treasures/pa/.../ccshadle.pdf Written on the back, "Nancy's Grand Pa." Stamped on the back, "C. C. SHADLE, Photographer, TARENTUM, Penna."

A Masonic CDV

I haven't suddenly gone crazy for the carte de visite. It's just that, in sorting through some old boxes, I found a cache of them and almost all of them are from my early days of collecting from when I was living in Pennsylvania, and when I first started collecting I put too much emphasis on age. I liked this one because of the Masonic symbols on the back of the card.

Middle Aged Woman With Brooch

I'm not even going to take a guess on when these two pictures were taken other than to say that they're probably not too old. This lady has the all most generic look of middle aged woman transitioning into an early old age. Also, the look of an official portrait, a teacher, local council member, or church lady. Say aged 50 to 60. A bit of a snarl in the first picture.

A Third Creighton?

In the last two posts, I've put up CDVs of Kate Creighton, who I think is the mother of Louise Creighton, featured in the second of the two Creighton collections. Is this a third Creighton? This portrait is labeled "Kate Creighton" but the hair is straight and a different color. I thought it might have been mislabeled, but the chin shape differs from Louise and is much closer to Kate. There is a third possibility. While it is far more common for sons to named after fathers, it's not unheard of to name a daughter for a mother. The one thing that I'm curious about is that this young lady has pierced ears. Nothing decorative about the photographers stamp on this one, so I didn't bother to scan it in. "JOHN P. ORR. Photographer, 4 doors East of Lowery House, Jefferson Street, BUTLER, PA"

Kate Creighton, the Mother

I have five images of the Creighton family, this one of the mother and three more of the daughter which will be posted within the next couple of days, and a wild card mystery image. This carte de visite was taken by a photographer in Philadelphia. The child, taken at three different ages was taken by three different photographers in three different communities in western Pennsylvania.

Carte de Visite, CDV With Hat

This CDV was rather crudely made. I used the scanner to square up the image, but the actual picture, an albumen print, was trimmed out with a very ragged edge, and then pasted, off center, on the card. Unlike the Daguerreotype and ambrotype, carte de visites were cheap to produce, and made it possible for lower income people to have their picture taken and for a young man on the make to get into a non labor profession for a small up front investment. The high collar makes the subject look very statue like, at least to me.

The Rose Parade, January 1, 1926 Part 5

The fifth and final part, and the only one with a picture of the big game. Known as the "game that changed the south" that ushered in the "age of Dixie." Underdog Alabama, 9-0, was the second choice to face the mighty Washington Huskies. Led by star running back, George Wilson, the Huskies ran up 300 yards of total offence when he was on the field. After he left the game with an injury, Washington was limited to 17 yards of offence. Trailing 12-0, Alabama half back, Johnny Mack Brown led Alabama to 20 points in the third quarter. Final score, Alabama 20, Huskies 19. The Crimson Tide was awarded it's first national championship. It was also the first Rose Bowl to be broadcast on radio. While he was in southern California, Johnny Mack Brown signed a contract with MGM. He would appear in "Our Dancing Daughters" the movie that made Joan Crawford a star, and "A Woman of Affairs" with Greta Garbo. Sound was not good to Brown, and he ended up as the star of a series of B westerns.

The Rose Parade, January 1, 1926 Part 4

This is part 4 of 5. This grouping has my second date clue. The photograph with the marching band wearing fezzes, there is another movie theater marquee. This time, Old Clothes, with Jackie Coogan, released November 9, 1925. And, on the guys in the fezzes...are they Shriners?

The Rose Parade, January 1, 1926 Part 3

This is part three of five. Just for a bit of variety, I'm going to be putting up some other things for a bit, but check back, because the last two parts should be up by the middle of next week. Stamped on the back of each photo in the set, "NEW PHONE VErmont 4184 AEROGRAPH CO. 1763-5 W. Vernon Ave. LOS ANGELES,-CALIF. No_Price_ Mail Orders Receive Prompt Attention." All of the photos had a punched border, and were bound in a plain card folder. I suspect this might have been a salesman's sample book, marketing to people involved in the parade. Note the Angelus Temple banner. The Angelus Temple was the church founded by sister Aimee Semple McPherson, one of the first major radio evangelists in the United States. She had a national, rather than just a local following.