This fine gentleman is Willis. No other name was noted, and so we shall probably never know exactly who Willis was. Was Willis his first or last name? He was in his middle aged years when he sat for his portrait at the Sherman Vignette Gallery on Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY. Note his full beard, but his hair could have used a trim. You can just see his frock coat tails falling behind him. The photo can be dated to the latter 1860s by the square corners and borders around the image.
Just a little nap
For this week’s Sepia Saturday, I could have followed the prompt and given you a photograph of a nice, formal arrangement of soldiers.
But I just couldn’t resist this.
Click over to Sepia Saturday for military shenanigans and formal portraits alike.
Ten hut!
I particularly love this photo of a young girl taken during the 1860s. At first blush, it gives the impression that she doesn’t have much – her skirt and blouse do not match, the skirt drags on the ground on one side and is high on the other, little details. But, after I scanned and enlarged the image, I see that her bodice has trim on the cuffs, across the shoulder and down the front that likely coordinated with the skirt fabric. Also, the skirt has a deep chevron shaped trim at the hem, which was generally eschewed because a. trims were expensive and b. you need a lot to trim a skirt that could be 150″ circumference! For the math-challenged, that is 12 1/2 feet at the hem. I suspect this style of solid colored bodice to plaid skirt was on trend for her peer group.
The town she was presumably from – Skaneateles, NY – is quite small even today with only about 2500 citizens. It is in the Finger Lakes area of central New York state. Apparently it had a large Quaker population at some point. The photographer was – to the best guess I can make – Johnathan Edwards, who was listed on the 1860 census as an artist in Skaneateles. I have sent a message off to the Skaneateles Historical Society to determine of they know anything more.
UPDATE: Fabulous, I heard from Beth at the Skaneateles Historical Society who confirmed the photographer was in fact Johnathan Edwards. Hurray! Edwards was born April 18, 1826 and was the son of Thadieus Edwards. As a child he learned painting, and later became a daguerrian artist in the 1840s. This evolved into photography and he had a gallery in Skaneateles until 1870s. At that time, he sold his business and retired to be a farmer (some relaxing, right?). However, he must have missed his true calling and went back to painting in 1875. He continued at that until he died August 25, 1900. He and his wife Angeline Aldridge had been married 50 years by that point. They had a daughter and a son. Edwards outlived his siblings (4 brothers, 1 sister) and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Skaneateles. Also during the course of his life, Edwards had been a constable and deputy sheriff for the village. Thank you again, Beth!
This lovely young lady posed for her photograph at the studio of A. B. Post in Ottumwa, IA. Ottumwa is one of those words you just want to say over and over, right? Anyway, I like this photo because the girl’s hair is very interesting. I can’t quite decide if she has very short, curly hair, or if she has very curly hair that is pulled back from her face. However, I am leaning toward short curly hair just because it seems to really hug the shape of her head. She has numerous tiny pin curls across her forehead, which was quite a process to achieve. The short hair is appropriate for her age, which I am putting at around 14 or 15. The photo may have coincided with her “coming out” or possibly even her engagement. Things were just very different back in the 1880s! Note her pretty bar pin and fancy necklace. The lavaliere could have been a locket or even a watch.
Today’s CdV features a lovely young lady named Rose McEllinney Montgomery, with quite a lot going on with her ensemble. Her hair is in a combination of fat braids to the back and small ones in a coil to the front. Next, she seems to be wearing some kind of paletot or drape over a blouse – you can just see her white collar sticking out of her neckline. This garment has pleats on its pleats! There’s an ornate brooch pin and then one of these “lariat” style necklaces. I’m going to have to do some more research on the necklace because I have seen many of these in antique photos.
Rose selected Montfort & Hill of Burlington as her photographers. Unfortunately, they did not choose to name their state on the backmark.
Who Were They? 