Who Were They?

Lost and forgotten photos from the past

Mother, Father and two children

Mrs Marvel

3 comments

May 23, 2011

This photograph from the Green Fan Album features a mother, father and two small children. I think the children are boys. The setting is very natural, as if it were inside their living room. There is a mark on the photo next to the father’s mouth which makes it look as though he is frowning, when in fact it’s just a mark. The mother is quite lovely. The photo dates from around the 1920s by my guess, based on the blouse the mother is wearing. The photo itself is a slightly heavier paper than modern photos and has a lovely matte finish.

Sadly abused cabinet card

Mrs Marvel

4 comments

May 22, 2011

This cabinet card has really been abused. The edges are worn round, they have been cut and broken. The photo itself has suffered scratches and wear. While it could be a sign that the owner lacked care for the image, I will turn that round to postulate it a sign of much handling as the owner kept moving this to a nicer place for better viewing.

Although our previous image was the second photograph in the Green Fan Album, this man’s photo seems to me should be paired with the first image of the lady in the giant hat. The mounts are similar, thicker, rougher cardboard. He has quite an impressive mustache as well. I could not find a photographer’s name anywhere.

Lovely young lady with a choker necklace

Mrs Marvel

19 comments

May 20, 2011


Today’s offering is a 20th century portrait featuring a young lady in a ruffled white blouse with a thin choker necklace and a locket style pin or watch. Her hair hints at the 1910s. The card is 4.5 x 6 with the image centered. I can’t decide what the spikey things in the background are. That is quite odd. Written in pencil along the side of the image is the photographer’s name: Frumhoff.

This is a proud Sepia Saturday post, where the theme is generally Oxford and hospitals during the Great War. It makes me wonder if a copy of this photograph found its way to Flanders in 1917 and kept some doughboy from despair in the darkest hours before the Armistice. Please click through and enjoy sepia photos from around the world.

Lady in a giant hat

Mrs Marvel

4 comments

May 20, 2011

Today we start the brief odyssey of the “Green Fan Album.” The Green Fan Album is the cabinet album in green linen with the fan decoration on the front. There are only 22 photos in the album and the promise of the wedding photograph proved too enticing to pass up for long. As I worked through the album it partially fell apart in my hands. The clasp was patented in June 1882, although that doesn’t prove anything except it was not produced earlier than that. My suspicion is that the album dates from the 1880s though because of it being a cabinet style album. I found it difficult to take some of the photos out of the pages, not because they were too fragile, but because of the way the album was made. All the slits to insert photographs are at the bottom of the photo oval. Well, when the album is opened, it is really only open about 1/4 of the clock, if that makes sense, and access to that slit on the upper page is hindered by the presence of the lower page. I don’t think it was planned out very well by its maker.

So here is photo #1. A woman in a very large hat. She has a distinctly 1900’s Edwardian dress, with the epaulettes coming over the shoulder. Her blouse underneath is crisp white, probably linen or cotton, and with a high neck. She has a necklace with possibly a locket and also a brooch. Her hat is simple but lovely. The size of the hat is a hint to the size of her skirt. As skirts became bigger, hats became smaller, and vice versa. So this lady’s skirts were likely the “hobble” style skirt, which was straight and could possibly have a tie around the knee area forcing women to hobble in what was considered a ladylike pace of very small steps.

The mount itself is the rougher and thicker texture cardstock of post 1900 photographs and the photographer was not identified.

Treasures uncovered

Mrs Marvel

5 comments

May 18, 2011

You know I clearly have a love for the photographs of the past and what they can tell us about our predecessors. If you had not guessed, I also love photo albums. Maybe because I work on my own photo albums, I always think they can tell us a story if only we know how to read the clues. Over the past year I have been collecting antique photo albums with the intent of blogging them here, as I did most recently with the still-mysterious Dobb Long Book.

I am now in possession of six “new” antique photo albums, four of which I am going to show you now, with the intent of scanning the photos promptly so we can play with the clues. The remaining two are in terrible condition and I really need to consider how best to handle them, so that is a task for another day.

Here we have the “red album” which I found to be enticing with its hints at the Victorian whimsy.

The red velvet cover reveals its status as an important and loved object through the wear and tear. The ornate emblem that once proclaimed “Album” has long since fallen off and the velvet is worn through. It can hold 24 standard cabinet cards, 2 elongated cabinet cards and 28 CdVs. In truth it holds 12 cabinet cards and 17 CdVs.

  

Each span of pages is a different color and the openings vary in shape from oval to rectangle to arched rectangle.

Among the CdVs are some exciting and (new to me) finds having to do with the subject and the mounts of the photos. So far I have not taken any of the photos out to see if there are names. We may find ourselves on yet another photographer hunt.

Next we have another long book. The cover is ornately tooled leather and still in fine condition.  The immediate facing page upon opening the book holds my fascination pairing a boy and his dog with a distinguished and bearded gentleman.

 

Even better, several of the photos have been identified. This album can hold 64 cabinet cards although it has been pillaged by family and only holds 45. That is plenty to work with!

The next two albums are the type that gave rise to the term “cabinet card” as they are like a cabinet, standing up to display the photos rather than laying a book down on a table.

Cabinet number one in green linen with a fan decoration on it folds open to reveal pages for 30 cabinet cards.

 

Nearly every space is used, many with early 20th century photos. I expect it was not uncommon to use a photo album well into the 20th century as I have seen this in other albums as well.

Cabinet number two is larger than number one, as it holds two photos side by side in each page. Although you cannot tell, this album has two Liberty Bell emblems on the cover and a mirrored bell shape decoration. It is terribly faded and used to be dark green on a light green background! It also has significant cigarette smoke stink to it (I don’t know if it will ever come out) and the nasty gold color could be attributed to that as well.

Once folded open you see the green color around the mirror. Interesting! I don’t know why there was a mirror there, maybe just for visual interest. The pages are made to look like burl wood.

 

The album features many turn-of-the-century photographs and some lovely ones with a beautiful embossed decoration around the photo opening of the mounts. I believe they are post 1900, but we will take the time to research and learn as we progress through the photos.

Take a minute and vote….which album’s mysteries should I try to unlock first?

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