Dated Images

Lucy Ellen Mears 1870 tintype

This is a tintype photograph. It may have had a paper sleeve covering it originally, but those often tear, and the tintype falls out. Someone has helpfully identified the subject, location and date for this image, and written it on a label pasted to the back. The inscription reads “Lucy Ellen Mears, 19 months, Neponset Mass, 1870″. We didn’t find her with a quick census search of the 1870 census — the name was probably indexed wrong — but in the 1880 census we find 11 year old Lucy E Mears living in Boston (Neponset is a Boston neighborhood), daughter of John and Caroline. So the identification and date is probably correct, though of course we can not be sure. Only other identified photos of Lucy at the same approximate age could confirm the identification.

Note that she is sitting on the typical tasseled photographer’s chair, with a plain wall for a background — a typical low-budget photographer’s studio for the period. Tintypes were cheap, often just a dollar for a dozen, and some photographers specialized in just that form.

Lucy wears an off-the-shoulder checkered frock with a thin matching belt, and short sleeves tied up with ribbons at the back. Her hair is center-parted and pulled back, probably into a pony tail. There are light smudges of rouge coloring on the cheeks — two quick dabs to add a ‘life-like’ color to the image.

Boy with Parents and Automobiles 1925

This is a snapshot photo from the middle of the Roaring 20’s. Prohibition was enacted in January 1920, no wonder the decade was roaring! Like illegal marijuana today, the criminalization of alchohol fostered a deep distrust and disrespect for authority in the Flapper age.

But none of that in this photo. Here we have a couple with their soon-to-be teenage son, standing next to an automobile, in front of another automobile, while a third vehicle to the right has a passenger and seems ready to escape. There is a barn-like structure in the background, suggesting a family get-together at the grand-folks farm.

The license plate on the leftmost automobile leaves no doubt this is 1925, and the lady’s hat, and just-below-the-knees skirt confirm that. Both gentleman and son have thin ties, left untucked, white shirts and dark trousers. Pop wears a fedora with silk ribbon band around the brim, and sonny has a typical newsboys cap.

What I really find interesting about this image is the frame around the picture. I have yet to find this exact pattern on any earlier image — though I have seen it as late as 1941. The 1920s, 30s and 40s had lots of different frames around snapshots, and in time I hope I can date the popularity span for each one. What about it? Got any snaps with framing lines around the image?

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.