Dated Images

Tintype of Susana Krup 1868

Here is a typical tintype image from the 1860s, mounted in a CDV sized cut-out mat, with an embossed frame pattern. It is identified on back in pencil script as ‘Sister Susana Krup’ and date-stamped by the photographer, Thomas Cummings, Lacaster PA, July 22nd, 1868.

O W Marshall of Spring Valley OH 1848

I have some doubts about the identification on this image, not because it appears other than an 1848 daguerreotype, but because I could not find an O W Marshall to match the data provided by the inscription.

The case of this image is clearly marked: O W Marshall, taken at Spring Valley, Ohio in 1848, age 20. The age could be 23, but on enlargement it looks more like 20.

The problem begins with ‘Spring Valley’ — there are four such locations in Ohio, one each in Geauga, Guernsey, Lucas and Greene counties. I searched the 1850 census (just two years after the image was taken) for O W Marshall in any of those four counties. The only one I found was Oscar W Marshall in Xenia, Greene county, Ohio (which is only a few miles from Spring Valley). Problem is he was only 12 years old in 1850. I find him listed again in 1860 and 1870, and the dates are approximately the same. Clearly too young to be the subject of this photo.

That is if the date and identification are correct. The date certainly seems reasonable. The case has no preserver. The gentleman has a high collar and upswept shoulder-line. The hair is bell shaped. The vest is open, and different material from the coat. All of that is typical of 1848, though most of those features might equally be seen a couple years earlier or later.

The subject certainly looks closer to 20 years old than to 10. But is he O W Marshall? Or did someone write in the identification years later, mistaking this gent for Oscar?

We could find no daguerreian artist active in any of the Spring Valley’s in Ohio. There was one in nearby Xenia (where Oscar W Marshall lived) in 1850: J C Thorp (born ca 1827 in Kentucky). It would be no great stretch to imagine he was there in 1848, though we have no evidence for or against that hypothesis. Or the photographer could have been an itinerant.

Or perhaps the O W Marshall shown in the photo left the area before 1850, or came from somewhere else and was just visiting when he had his picture taken. In any case, this one I have not been able to confirm the inscription, but I find it plausible none the less.

1899 Bruno Nauschuetz photo of Boy in San Antonio TX

Here is a wonderful photograph of a boy about five years old, dressed in a frilly Little Lord Fauntleroy style, with his trusted dog at his side. The image is dated July 1899 on the back. The boy holds the dog’s chain in one hand, while in the other he clutches a hat that looks about two sizes too large for his head. I’m sure his mother loved this photo, but one has to wonder what he thought of it years later, when he had his Texan macho image to uphold. Lacey frills and big white collars and ruffles were very popular dress-up styles for little boys in the late 1890s.

The photo was taken by Bruno Nauschuetz at 224 Sharer Street, San Antonio, Texas. Bruno was a photographer in San Antonio from before 1891 until his death in 1914. We learn from the 1900 U.S. Census that Bruno was born October 1861 in Germany, and immigrated in 1887, so he probably opened a studio soon after that. He was married with one son, Max, born July 1891.

1871 Portrait of Two Ladies by William Shaw of Chicago

This interesting photograph shows two ladies, one seated(?) with her back to the camera showing her extremely long hair. No chair is visible, perhaps she is on a small stool that is completely engulfed by her dress. Next to her is a fashionably attired young woman, perhaps her sister, standing with a hand on the seated woman’s shoulder. The two women face one another, but at different levels, and appear to gaze beyond each other. The standing woman is wearing a dark dress with a pronounced bustle, and a flower and ribbon topped hat.

There is an inscription on back that reads ‘Taken May 71′, and a photographer’s imprint with the NPA (National Photographic Association) logo. That logo was mostly used 1871-74. The photographer is William Shaw, and the imprint shows his address as 137 Twenty-Second Street, Chicago IL. Shaw was at that address beginning in 1871, until some time before he moved to State Street in 1874 or 1875.

Since Shaw had a different address in 1870, we might think he moved due to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 — but this image argues against that supposition. This is dated May of ‘71, while the fire was in October of that year. Since the earlier address was 186 Clark — right in the heart of the fire zone — while 22nd street is far south of the central city and nowhere near the fire, it seems his move was prescient. Rather than being engulfed by the blaze, Shaw was in an ideal location to document the tragedy photographically, and several of his images were used to create engravings that newspapers of the day used to report the disaster.

1901 Wedding Party Cyanotype

Here is a wedding party photo, dated on the back December 1901. This kind of image is called a cyanotype, and was popular in the 1890s through the 1920s, though the process was invented way back in 1842 and made public in 1849. It is the same process as architects used for ‘blueprints’ before the computerized cad-cam systems replaced hand drawn plans. The prints are most often blue, but they can be brownish or yellowish.

In this photo we see the wedding couple near the center, surrounded by their friends, as they stand in front of the layered wedding cake. They all sport the early 1900s style tall upright collar — an unusual congruence of male and female fashion — almost everyone was covering their necks with these abysmally uncomfortable stiff collars! Womens waistlines are high, with full sleeves but not absurdly so, as had been the fashion a few years earlier. Skirts are not so bulky as they had been in the 19th century, but still reach nearly to the floor — though that is not evident in this image. The men are all clean-shaven except the groom, who sports a long mustache.