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.
Emlen Cresson, his wife, mother and mother-in-law
Well, if I tell you this image features a man with his wife, mother and mother-in-law — can you tell which is whom? I think the family resemblances are pretty obvious. The original owner conveniently identified the subjects and date, making it easy for us to track them down in the records.
This group shows a standing gentleman, identified as Emlen Cresson. Emlen was born in 1811, so he was about 33 when this picture was taken. The Cresson’s were a prominent Quaker family in Philadelphia, known for their prosperity and philanthropy. The lady seated at the center is his wife, Priscilla (Prichett) Cressen, born about 1815 and so about 29 years old here. On one side of Priscilla, looking like an older version of herself, is her mother — identified on the photo as Mrs Prichett, research shows she was Edith (Hatten) Pritchett, perhaps the Edith Hatten born 1797 and so aged 47 here. The stouter lady, who clearly contributed to the physiognomy of Emlen, is his mother Sarah (Emlen) Cresson, born 1787, and thus aged about 57 at the time of this daguerreotype.
This image has the softer brownish hue typical of gold-toned images, a process that became widespread in 1843. And notice that the cased image has no preserver around the edges — those began to be used about 1845, though many images from 1845-1849 also do not have them. The high tight corsets of the two thinner women seem right for the 1840s as well, so all things considered it seems reasonable to suspect that the 1844 date is correct. The slightly off-center composition of this group suggests that the photographer was new to the art, but there is no other indication of who that may have been. The ClassyArts.com database shows that William Brown, James E McClees, and W A Retzer all opened galleries in Philadelphia about 1844.
