Found Photographs [Archive] - Page 2 - Large Format Photography Forum

Vincent Pidone

10-Dec-2012, 16:48

The uniform looks later than the Civil War. There were quite a large number of big urban fires throughout the 19th century, and the print and matting have a later feel to them than the Civil War period. I'm no expert on Victorian period uniforms though, so he could be regular army or he could be a state militia. Are you sure it's an albumen print?

Scott,

I did not think it Civil War for the reasons you mentioned, but someone who should know better than I, thought it was.

I was hoping that some reenactor could state for certain.

I think it's albumin. Maybe I don't know that either.

Scott Davis

12-Dec-2012, 12:13

The reason I asked if it was an albumen print is the silvering-out. I've seen that on albumen prints, but I've also seen it on later silver-gelatin prints too. I've been collecting a lot of 1860's-1890's CDVs which were all albumen prints, and have seen very little silvering-out. I've seen more of it on large (and later) albumen prints and on silver-gelatin prints of all vintages. I'd try military historians before re-enactors, because the re-enactors may well know distinctions within the Civil War but not uniforms beyond it. Do a google search on US Army Historian's office - they are an official department of the Army in the Pentagon, and they live for stuff like this - they're generally very approachable and will respond (although not necessarily in a timely fashion).

leighmarrin

13-Dec-2012, 01:59

http://imageshack.us/a/img33/8285/rrtelegrapher.jpg
A railroad telegrapher from about 1900--original is on 1/4 plate size paper, and marked on back FLOYD HEARST. Using a loupe I can barely read the chart above the desk: BUFFALO, ROCHESTER & PITTSBURGH RAILWAY TIME TABLE. In the center of the desk are two straight telegraph keys, and a "sounder" to the left of them. Immediately beneath the chart is what may be a magnet holding three pens or pencils. The young man's ear appears to have a cyst on the earlobe, or maybe a defect in the emulsion--not sure.

The lighting appears to be single-source and harsh--flash powder?

I hope this young telegraph operator was able to upgrade to a Vibroplex "Bug" key--carpal tunnel was a common problem with telegraphers using "straight" keys. As ham radio operator KM6JE I sometimes "pound brass" sending radio Morse, and really like those old semi-automatic Vibroplex keys.

--Leigh M. in Santa Barbara, Calif.

goamules

13-Dec-2012, 06:02

What a great archive of an almost forgotten occupation, Leigh. I've read that telegraph operators were considered the most technical people of the day, and often went on to other scientific endeavors.

Right now on Ebay there is someone selling some great old halfplate glass negatives by Tibbets. 170952329728 for example. There have been Yosemite, Arizona trains, Indians, Calif resorts...tons. I couldn't help buying a couple of them. These are the best quality of the right turn of the century subjects. I just had to have a couple that resonated with my life. Check em out before they're gone! Here are a couple linked pics from the ads, will disappear when the auctions are over.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/CARS-HORSE-PEOPLE-at-WATER-HOLE-TUBA-CITY-AZ-1915-Tibbitts-Glass-Negative-/00/s/MTEzNlgxNDQ1/$(KGrHqJHJE0FB5Z6yOR8BQo9UDEPkQ~~60_57.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/NATIVE-AMERICANS-ON-HORSEBACK-Ganado-Arizona-1910-H-C-Tibbitts-Glass-Negative-/00/s/MTQ4N1gxMTYx/$(KGrHqZ,!o!F!NG+C1yMBQT7uc(MMw~~60_57.JPG

ROL

13-Dec-2012, 12:08

I recently came into possession of a box of old photography collected by one individual, broadly classified into 4 types. I have posted scans of all that I have on my derivative Tumblr site, Found Fotos (http://foundfotos.tumblr.com). I am not a collector, nor do I have much knowledge of old photography other than the cursory information presented therein. Here is a representative sample of each category of photography (clicking on any image will take you directly to the other images in any category):

Ambrotype
http://www.rangeoflightphotography.com/SupportPics/LFPF/FoundFotos/Ambrotype-3.jpg (http://foundfotos.tumblr.com/ambrotypes)

Albumen Carte-de-Visite
http://www.rangeoflightphotography.com/SupportPics/LFPF/FoundFotos/CVA3.jpg (http://foundfotos.tumblr.com/cartedevisite)

Tintype
http://www.rangeoflightphotography.com/SupportPics/LFPF/FoundFotos/Tin-Type-18.jpg (http://foundfotos.tumblr.com/tintypes)

Glass Negative
http://www.rangeoflightphotography.com/SupportPics/LFPF/FoundFotos/Mug-Shot.jpg (http://foundfotos.tumblr.com/glassnegatives)

Notice the low, sloping brow of the criminal, the beady eyes, double chin, unkempt hair, all indicative of...

Jim Galli

13-Dec-2012, 13:06

Notice the low, sloping brow of the criminal, the beady eyes, double chin, unkempt hair, all indicative of...

...his last name was probably galli....
....and he probably sells stuff in the classifieds....here.

mdm

13-Dec-2012, 14:07

Maybe dagor in his username, a verbose .....

Scott Davis

14-Dec-2012, 05:08

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/miguelcriadomaunourylimacdv.jpg

Here's another interesting one. I've got a friend whose father is a high-ranking officer in the Peruvian military (now retired I believe). I'm going to ask him to see if his dad can look into who this person was. Regardless, it's fascinating on multiple levels - the licensing of the Nadar studio name and logo in Peru, the hand-written note, the overall condition, and the presence of a precise date on the back.

Erik Larsen

16-Dec-2012, 21:09

I thought this was interesting (at least to me). My sister took all of my grandmothers old photos after she passed away and cataloged them. She sent me this one that must have been taken in 1918 or so. It is my great grandfather and his sons. My grandfather is the little guy in the middle. Taken in Tacoma, WA. I have no clue what kind of camera or printing process was used, I'm assuming it is large format - I just like it:)
erik

jcoldslabs

16-Dec-2012, 22:13

Erik,

That's a very nice image. I am fortunate to have some of similar vintage. Here is one of my grandfather, on the left, and his brother taken in 1920. Sadly, his brother drowned at summer camp within a year of this photo being taken. The photographer is listed as Gertrude Sayen of Philadelphia.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Deasy-Boys-1920.jpg

Jonathan

Scott Davis

20-Dec-2012, 08:50

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/1905cacardriver.jpg

A 1903 or 1904 Winton, I believe. If anyone has a better idea of the make of car, I'm all ears.

Scott Davis

20-Dec-2012, 08:52

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/daganonyoungman1840s.jpg

Ca. 1840-45 Daguerreotype. Although the mat has mild corrosion, the image plate itself is in remarkably good condition, and is a beautifully exposed and crafted image to begin with.

Jim Cole

20-Dec-2012, 10:12

My 88 year-old father-in-law passed away just before Thanksgiving and while going though his wife's house, looking for old photographs to use in a memorial, we came across several in an old box. I've presented a few below that were originally 2x3"to 3x5" prints. I scanned them and cleaned them up to make larger prints to give to the five siblings as remembrances. At the bottom, I've also shown the oldest print we found of my mother-in-law as a baby being held by her Godmother. The original prints are so small, that it's hard to see faces and details. Scanned at 2400 dpi, they begin to reveal real faces and places. I hope you enjoy them.

Edward J. Maexner, 1924-2012

As a boy with his two sisters, circa 1932

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8081/8290741989_05cd481358_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8290741989/)
Ed & Sisters (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8290741989/) by JCole2008 (http://www.flickr.com/people/jcole2008/), on Flickr

Ed with his unit, ski training. He is on the far left.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8354/8291798070_c877d4c96f_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8291798070/)
Ed on Ski Patrol (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8291798070/) by JCole2008 (http://www.flickr.com/people/jcole2008/), on Flickr

Ed with his unit in Europe, WWII. Again he is on the far left.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8364/8290742169_743da25790_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8290742169/)
Ed & Group WWII (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8290742169/) by JCole2008 (http://www.flickr.com/people/jcole2008/), on Flickr

Ed somewhere with his artillery unit, WWII. He is the guy in the center that looks like Radar O'Reilly.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8503/8290741725_7723c47405_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8290741725/)
Ed with Artilery WWII (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8290741725/) by JCole2008 (http://www.flickr.com/people/jcole2008/), on Flickr

Continued...

Jim Cole

20-Dec-2012, 10:13

The last two of Ed & Mary Maexner:

And here he is after the war in 1947 with his buddies at the Palisades. They look like a bunch of movie stars here. He's back row, center.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8084/8291798566_628839a2ca_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8291798566/)
Ed & Friends at Palasades (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8291798566/) by JCole2008 (http://www.flickr.com/people/jcole2008/), on Flickr

And finally, this is my mother-in-law, Mary, now 85, at about 2 years of age, circa 1929 on one of the beaches near New York.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8500/8290742481_ae515377b2_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8290742481/)
Mary Maexner with Godmother (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcole2008/8290742481/) by JCole2008 (http://www.flickr.com/people/jcole2008/), on Flickr

Winger

23-Dec-2012, 10:58

My grandmother passed away in 2010 at the age of 97. Among everything else, my parents found a fair number of photos (not many negatives, unfortunately). Here are two. One is my grandmother being held by an aunt (presumably in either 1913 or 1914). The other is my grandmother's mother at the age of 3 1/2. That one is taped to a piece of heavy paper and the tape and paper have all yellowed.
8591185912

C. D. Keth

24-Dec-2012, 16:50

Jim, the moviestar look is really completed by that painted backdrop. It must have been a small studio to stick them that close to it in the corner! :D

Fred Leif

25-Dec-2012, 08:44

Here's a photo of my grandfather and grandmother on their wedding day in Tacoma, WA. Neat how the photographer used a horseless carriage as a photo prop, and the painted background.
86015

Jim Cole

26-Dec-2012, 05:42

Yeah, it's a shame that it was so noticeable. It was taken in somewhere in the Palisades in NY or New Jersey. I'm thinking it might have been at the Bear Mountain Park. All the photo shows on the back is a handwritten note, "The Palisades, 1947".

Jim, the moviestar look is really completed by that painted backdrop. It must have been a small studio to stick them that close to it in the corner! :D

Jim Cole

26-Dec-2012, 05:45

Here's a photo of my grandfather and grandmother on their wedding day in Tacoma, WA. Neat how the photographer used a horseless carriage as a photo prop, and the painted background.
86015

That's a classic, Fred. Love the hat on your grandfather.

Randy

27-Dec-2012, 16:02

This is turning into an obsession for me. Now my girlfriend is buying old pictures and giving them to me as Xmas gifts...and I love it.

The envelope this one came in says "1939" but I have no idea if that is correct. I googled the photography studio but came up with nothing. Sure would be nice if there was an internet resource of photography studios, say WWII and before, with their years of operation so we could narrow it down.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52893762/img042a.jpg

Randy

27-Dec-2012, 16:20

The date on the back, besides the German writing, is 1929. Envelope says a Union protest.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52893762/img043a.jpg

mdm

27-Dec-2012, 16:26

I love the jagged edges. They scream wedding photos of a certain era. Some of those guillotines must still be around somewhere.

Vincent Pidone

27-Dec-2012, 16:31

MDM / David: try "pinking shears"

Also, the craft stores are now selling inexpensive scissors that make decorative edges for "scrap booking."

Randy

27-Dec-2012, 16:39

One from a stack of many prints and tin types I picked up at an antique store just before Xmas. The tin types are small, no more than 3" on the long side. I have noticed on many that the photographer, I assume, colored the cheeks and lips of the subject, a pinkish color, and colored the buttons, rings, necklaces of the subject, a sparkley gold color, that has lasted these hundred + years.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52893762/img045a.jpg

Randy

28-Dec-2012, 11:55

A friend had a glass neg of her great, great (don't know how many "greats") grandfather. It was in rough condition but managed to get a decent scan and make some prints for her.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52893762/buggy.jpg

Jim Cole

28-Dec-2012, 12:03

Randy, this is very cool!

Steven Tribe

28-Dec-2012, 14:17

It is quite often possible to find details of the Photographic Studios - especialy using name and town.

I have had success finding a whole group of women studio photographers in Sweden (there were a lot) around the turn of the century (19/20th!) and all the active photographers in a "small" town in Göttingen, Germany.

Sometimes the same premises were occupied by different photographers at different times.
Local historians' often have websites with "no name" and named/dated CdV and Cabinet images. The decorative backs and front logo will often give a clue as to date - if you get a match. The cards were changed quite often by the Printers to meet changing public tastes.

rich815

29-Dec-2012, 01:44

I won an auction with some tintypes and a couple of stacks of negs too. Here area couple of the first I've scanned. A real mixed bag. Some from Europe, some from what might be just outside of St. Louis. Some bear and moose hunting shots too coming...

8621986220

rich815

29-Dec-2012, 10:25

C. D. Keth

29-Dec-2012, 11:36

Yeah, it's a shame that it was so noticeable. It was taken in somewhere in the Palisades in NY or New Jersey. I'm thinking it might have been at the Bear Mountain Park. All the photo shows on the back is a handwritten note, "The Palisades, 1947".

I just see it more as the hallmarks of a particular style than mistakes.

jcoldslabs

7-Jan-2013, 04:38

Found some old Ektachrome slides dated June, 1960. They could be from my wife's family, but I'm not sure. Color correction is not my strong suit, although I tried to take out some of the strong magenta cast as best I could.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Ekt-Beach-01.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Ekt-Beach-02-8-B.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Ekt-Yosemite-01-.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Ekt-Yosemite-02-.jpg

Jonathan

Tim Meisburger

15-Jan-2013, 06:24

In a thrift store in Tucson I found a box of old glass plates, about 3x3. I went through them and saw two that looked interesting so bought the box for five bucks. I left the box in Tucson, but brought the two home to Thailand and scanned them last night. Here is the first one, followed by a crop

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l496/Tim_Meisburger/2012-12ChristmasinUS008.jpg

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l496/Tim_Meisburger/2012-12ChristmasinUS011.jpg

Tim Meisburger

15-Jan-2013, 06:26

And here is the second.

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l496/Tim_Meisburger/2012-12ChristmasinUS009.jpg

I'm guessing between 1890 and 1910, but others may have a better sense.

mdm

15-Jan-2013, 12:02

That first one has an amazing photographic quality about it. Beautiful.

Jim Cole

15-Jan-2013, 14:17

Very cool plates. I love the hat on the tall guy in the middle of the second one.

jcoldslabs

15-Jan-2013, 22:46

I have such mixed feelings about finding these collections of old photos at thrift shops and what not. On one hand I really enjoy looking at them; on the other, it's sad to think that some family somewhere would love to reconnect with photos of their distant relatives but likely never will.

On a lighter note, these "exotic" painted backdrops crack me up. Were photos like this typically lit by window light or skylights? It looks that way to me.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Boy-and-Girl.jpg

Jonathan

Tim Meisburger

15-Jan-2013, 23:54

Thanks Jim. If you look close you will see the woman next to him wearing his hat. Victorian humor I guess...

jcoldslabs

16-Jan-2013, 03:32

This one was cut into a precise oval and mounted very carefully, but with the couple tilted at an angle. I wonder if the goal was to make the man appear taller than the woman. Maybe she should have just been seated on a shorter stool for the portrait.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Couple-01.jpg

Jonathan

jcoldslabs

16-Jan-2013, 03:59

Scanning through some of my 'found' stash tonight.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Two-Gentlemen-01.jpg

Jonathan

jcoldslabs

16-Jan-2013, 06:52

Not sure what's going on in this one or where it was taken.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Man-with-Ladies.jpg

Jonathan

Gary Sommer

16-Jan-2013, 11:30

Jonathan, if you get down to southern Oregon, the museum at Jacksonville, Or has the interior of pioneer photographer Peter Britt's studio on display. Lots of backgrounds, posing props, and cameras from the early days of photography. It's been many years since I've been there, but I seem to remember a skylight in the ceiling.

Randy

16-Jan-2013, 17:02

Not sure what's going on in this one or where it was taken.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Man-with-Ladies.jpg

Jonathan
Looks like a storm cellar. The wheel looks like the brake wheel (http://www.hughweaver.com/gal/Vehicles/12Train%20Brake%20Wheel,%20Otago,%20NZ.jpg) on an old train. As for what else is going on...I guess we will just have to use our imagination.

C. D. Keth

17-Jan-2013, 10:32

Not sure what's going on in this one or where it was taken.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Man-with-Ladies.jpg

Jonathan

I'm not sure why one might do it, but I think that machine wheel is either a comp job or its shadow has been retouched out. The people have such long, strong shadows and then the wheel has a little smudge, just a suggestion of a shadow really.

Jac@stafford.net

17-Jan-2013, 11:13

I'm not sure why one might do it, but I think that machine wheel is either a comp job or its shadow has been retouched out. The people have such long, strong shadows and then the wheel has a little smudge, just a suggestion of a shadow really.

What appears to be a shadow is probably just a dark, beaten path to the cellar.

jcoldslabs

18-Jan-2013, 06:51

I found a bunch of Kodachrome slides from my aunt's stint with the Red Cross in Korea in the 1960s. She's in the first two shots.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Susie-01.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Susie-03.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Korea-01.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Korea-02.jpg

Jonathan

Winger

18-Jan-2013, 09:08

I'm still going through the various things my parents have dropped on me from my grandmother's house. The house was built in 1832 and was occupied by family until this past year (my grandmother died in 2010 and the house was sold this fall). So, here are scans of a few glass negatives my parents found. I'm fairly sure my great grandfather (Loomis Burrell) was the photographer, but I have to find my genealogy stuff to know how old he would have been when these were taken. They're labeled as 1885 through 1900. Several are about 2 3/4 by 3 1/4 and some are 4x5. Of these, the single portrait is a small one and the others are 4x5. All have some silvering, but are in mostly good shape. I have no idea who anyone is, but I'm going to try and figure them out.
875748757587576

C. D. Keth

18-Jan-2013, 09:52

What appears to be a shadow is probably just a dark, beaten path to the cellar.

Oh, you're right of course. I feel silly now.

Jim Cole

18-Jan-2013, 14:33

I found a bunch of Kodachrome slides from my aunt's stint with the Red Cross in Korea in the 1960s. She's in the first two shots.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Susie-01.jpg

Jonathan

Wow, she looks like she stepped off the set of the TV show, "China Beach". She could have hung out with Dana Delaney.

jcoldslabs

18-Jan-2013, 18:43

Wow, she looks like she stepped off the set of the TV show, "China Beach". She could have hung out with Dana Delaney.

I know what you mean, Jim. These old Kodachrome slides keep their color so well that with a little bit of color correction they look like contemporary movie stills and not vintage photos.

Jonathan

Keith Fleming

18-Jan-2013, 21:21

jcoldslabs

18-Jan-2013, 22:23

Jonathan,

The last Red Cross photo surely is a soldier taking part in a training exercise dealing with casualties. The ragged shirt is too clean and recently washed, and he looks far too relaxed to be actually wounded. And he's too clean also. Even the helmet cover has that clean, ready-for-inspection, garrison look about it. In Vietnam, real casualties with wounds as bad as the ones in the photo were always sitting or lying down from the shock of being wounded. But that photo shows training that was as realistic as it could be in an exercise.

Keith

Thanks for clearing that up. I admit that something seemed fishy to me: why would he be casually posing for a photo if he was as injured as he appeared? Still, not having been in the military, I wasn't sure what was up with that one.

Jonathan

Jac@stafford.net

18-Jan-2013, 23:08

Jonathan,

The last Red Cross photo surely is a soldier taking part in a training exercise dealing with casualties. [...]

Yes, the injury is a poorly done moulage.

jcoldslabs

19-Jan-2013, 07:37

This one is circa 1910 and features a "phantom arm" shrouded in black--most likely the mother's--to help support the child's head.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Baby.jpg

Jonathan

Scott Davis

23-Jan-2013, 12:02

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/affectionateduodungareestin.jpg

A loose tintype of two friends, ca. 1860-1865

jcoldslabs

23-Jan-2013, 12:25

Scott, that's a good one. The rouged cheeks--typical of tintypes of this era, I know--seem a bit out of place on these fellows.

Jonathan

Scott Davis

24-Jan-2013, 11:55

I think even the jacket/sweater of the one on the right was colored a little. Frequently, the hand-coloring was applied with what looks to the modern eye like a garish hand, but it must have been all the rage in the day. I even have a daguerreotype or two with hand-coloring, sometimes sublte, sometimes not.

Fred Leif

26-Jan-2013, 09:16

Found in a pile of old family photos, 90% without captions.
88013

Jim Noel

26-Jan-2013, 09:49

It is too bad the negatives haven't survived. There are several magnificent images here.

Thad Gerheim

26-Jan-2013, 11:30

Great photo Scott, I wonder if its two brothers or father-son before they went off to war. This photo was taken before two of these guys left for WW2, just incase they didn't come home.

Thad Gerheim

26-Jan-2013, 11:55

This photo was taken in 1936. The forth guy in from the right is 92 and he identified everyone else, a few of the horses and one dog for me this week! I have forty some negatives from this era taken with a cirkut camera.
This is from a scan of a 5"x15" negative, some of the negs are 26" long. I scanned this on my Tango scanner and printed it 24"x 60" (cropped the guy off on the left) framed it and donated it to the library in Stanley ID.

jcoldslabs

1-Feb-2013, 00:29

I found this 8x10 Ektachrome transparency in my grandmother's things after she died. It is a photo of my uncle, who was born in 1939, so that dates this image somewhere around 1943 or 1944, but I am really bad at determining how old kids are from photos. Not sure who ripped it up or why, but it was taped together with yellowed cellophane tape. The second image is my attempt to repair it in Photoshop. My photo restoration skills aren't all that great, but it looks better.

I find it interesting because just about all other family photos from this period, with the exception of some 35mm Kodachrome slides, are in black and white.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/8x10-Scott-Torn.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/8x10-Scott-Rough-Rejoin-I.jpg

Jonathan

Jim Galli

1-Feb-2013, 10:13

I found this 8x10 Ektachrome transparency in my grandmother's things after she died. It is a photo of my uncle, who was born in 1939, so that dates this image somewhere around 1943 or 1944, but I am really bad at determining how old kids are from photos. Not sure who ripped it up or why, but it was taped together with yellowed cellophane tape. The second image is my attempt to repair it in Photoshop. My photo restoration skills aren't all that great, but it looks better.

I find it interesting because just about all other family photos from this period, with the exception of some 35mm Kodachrome slides, are in black and white.

Jonathan

Ektachrome of Kodachrome. Usually an Ektachrome is almost monochrome icky pink by now while Kodachrome's and Anscochrome look just as they were taken.

jcoldslabs

1-Feb-2013, 11:03

Jim, I'm sure you're right about that. I think I absent-mindedly assumed Ektachrome because of the blue look to the image (my contemporary Ektachrome is much cooler than my Kodachrome), but that probably has more to do with the background and the outfit.

Below is a close-up of the film edge and notches. Does this confirm the Kodachrome hypothesis?

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/8x10-Notches.jpg

Jonathan

Jim Galli

1-Feb-2013, 11:26

Wasted more minutes that I had on this. I guess if you're not a member of the library at the u of kentucky at louisville you'll never know. After the 3 you can see the beginning of the word "ko which is very likely kodachrome. Maybe some one else can help. This notch code was probably re-used for something else later on. Kodak did that.

Bernice Loui

1-Feb-2013, 11:33

Color rendition (even on this note book) says to me Kodachrome.. which has a rather distinct color rendition even with the screaming blue back ground.

Bernice

Jim, I'm sure you're right about that. I think I absent-mindedly assumed Ektachrome because of the blue look to the image (my contemporary Ektachrome is much cooler than my Kodachrome), but that probably has more to do with the background and the outfit.

Below is a close-up of the film edge and notches. Does this confirm the Kodachrome hypothesis?

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/8x10-Notches.jpg

Jonathan

MMELVIS

4-Feb-2013, 21:12

Found this negative in a Kodak Brownie Enlarging Camera #4
Not sure who the couple is

88715

Leigh

4-Feb-2013, 21:39

Below is a close-up of the film edge and notches. Does this confirm the Kodachrome hypothesis?
http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/8x10-Notches.jpg
According to Google, the VUU notch code was used for Kodachrome.

- Leigh

Scott Davis

25-Mar-2013, 16:24

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/harrietbeecherstowe.jpg

Here's a rare (as far as I can tell previously unknown) image of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin and instigator of the Civil War (according to a joke by Lincoln when they met). Proof positive that bargains can still be had on Ebay if you pay a little more attention and do a little more research than the seller.

jcoldslabs

25-Mar-2013, 17:57

Wow, Scott. Great find!

Jonathan

Jac@stafford.net

26-Mar-2013, 12:48

Found a lot of glass plates from WWI era taken in Newark, New Jersey. This is a classy young gentleman.

92077

Jac

Scott Davis

28-Mar-2013, 12:10

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/anon1930sstrongman.jpg

Here's a little (as in about 1 1/2 x 2 1/4 image area) print. It has some really neat qualities for an anonymous vernacular image (quite probably taken by someone with a box camera attending a traveling carnival) that remind me of some far more recent work, like Reuven Afanador's "Sombra" series. Even though it's a hand-held box camera shot, it has formal qualities that make me think the photographer was more than a snapshooter.

jcoldslabs

22-Apr-2013, 04:59

A photo of my great-grandparents and their kids. My grandmother is the little girl second from right. Photo circa 1927.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---McDougall-Clan.jpg

Jonathan

Scott Davis

25-Apr-2013, 17:31

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/gleastmannatamrecto.jpg

I've already found out a fair bit about Mr. Eastman (no relation to Kodak), but what I'd love to find out is more about the sitter - what tribe, and if possible, who he was. The basics I do know- from the Portland, Oregon area. The photo would have been taken between 1886-1900. Beyond that I'm guessing wildly.

mdm

25-Apr-2013, 19:02

That's quite a find. A really interesting one.

Peter Gomena

25-Apr-2013, 22:39

The Oregon Historical Society has a reference book listing most of the photographers working in the state up until about WWII. In fact, the first of the three listed studios would be seven blocks east of the OHS central library and museum. The actual building where the studio would have been is long gone. I'm not familiar with the photographer, but there may be a couple of paragraphs about him in the reference, and OHS may have some pictures in its files. OHS can have a volunteer look up information. I'm not sure if they'll charge you a fee.

Leszek Vogt

26-Apr-2013, 00:57

Wow that looks like something from E. Curtis's portfolio. That was cool to revisit the old times.

Les

Colin Robertson

26-Apr-2013, 01:58

Scott Davis- re your post no 15 in this thread. The odd variety of ways the subjects are looking may be because this is a composite image.
I recently spent an evening in the company of some neighbours, and whilst there commented on an old photograph they had on the wall. It was a family group portrait from (they think) around 1914-15. The woman I was talking to then explained that one of the sisters in the photograph had been living abroad when the photo was taken, and the unknown photographer had added her to the scene from a separate photograph. Armed with that knowledge it is just possible to see a difference in the angle of the lighting, but otherwise it is a completely convincing composite.
It interested me because, by chance, I was recently attempting to blend two negatives. It proved more challenging than I had expected, as did the spotting and bleaching required to finfish the project. A whole raft of darkroom and printing skills will soon be all but extinct. I did a little googling after seeing my neighbours photo, and some of the Hollywood studio portraits show extraordinary levels of negative retouching.

Scott Davis

26-Apr-2013, 07:09

Peter-

I found something online through a posting someone made on Ancestry.com about the photographer. He was a Civil War veteran, from Maine. He then moved out west, set up shop in Portland (and from the blurb on the back of the card, had quite the booming business, as he had three studios in Portland and East Portland), until about 1900, when he was listed in the census in Boise, Idaho. I'd love to find out more about the sitter - what tribe he belonged to, if the attire he is wearing is genuine, and indicative of some specific role in the tribe, or is this a Curtis-esque "well, you look like you could use some feathers and a bearskin, so here you go...". I might pop out to Portland (haven't been there before, so it's a good excuse) to go research the image.

Colin - that could be, although in the wet plate era it would have been even harder to do (not that it couldn't be done) as they were contact-printing glass plate negatives. I don't think the level of effort required would have been justifiable for a CDV-sized print. In the dry plate era it would have been much easier.

Leszek Vogt

26-Apr-2013, 10:56

Scott, you might want to contact some of the seats for the tribes...and they may be able to give you some clues...or where to look. Here is some generic info.....

http://www.native-languages.org/oregon.htm

http://www.washingtontribes.org/default.aspx?ID=48

Les

Scott Davis

26-Apr-2013, 13:25

Les-
thanks for the links! The Oregon one seems most promising - I found a link to the Chinook tribal website that has contact info for the tribe. I'm going to email them and see if they can be of any help.

Peter Spangenberg

27-Apr-2013, 08:55

I love this one with its tongue in cheek humor.
94139

Jim Galli

27-Apr-2013, 13:39

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/McGowan/OldTonopahNevada/JeffriesMobilGasS.jpg
Tonopah Mobilgas Station circa 1951

I just scored a huge stash of professional negatives from a dusty basement in Tonopah, so I'll be posting here from time to time. This station was at the Y in Tonopah where one road went east to Ely and the other road went south to Goldfield. It's long gone now but the family that owned it is till around. I think these are the Jeffrey brothers.

Gas was .31 cents regular and .33 cents ethyl. Highway robbery but Tonopah has always been a long ways from anywhere and the stuff has to get shipped in.

Jim Galli

27-Apr-2013, 14:52

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/McGowan/TexGroceryHootOwlCafeModelAs.jpg
tex grocery, joe the jeweler, and the hoot owl cafe

Classic! The car is a 1930 -31 Ford Model A rumble seat coupe. Don't think this is Tonopah. Anyone recognize where this is? Probably 1940 - ish. Obviously warm.

invisibleflash

27-Apr-2013, 17:46

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv219/keepitlow456/Misc/img651LLR_zpsf828a213.jpg (http://s685.photobucket.com/user/keepitlow456/media/Misc/img651LLR_zpsf828a213.jpg.html)

Lawrence, Mass 1940's

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv219/keepitlow456/Misc/img652LLR_zps2ead0210.jpg (http://s685.photobucket.com/user/keepitlow456/media/Misc/img652LLR_zps2ead0210.jpg.html)

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv219/keepitlow456/Misc/img653LLR_zpsc157f5bf.jpg (http://s685.photobucket.com/user/keepitlow456/media/Misc/img653LLR_zpsc157f5bf.jpg.html)

1950's

Scott Davis

3-May-2013, 05:03

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/chascainshewcdv.jpg

I love the personal touch on this card – “Yours with Respect, Chas. Cain” and “Emma” in the negative number spot. He looks like he’s barely old enough to shave, yet out in the world on his own. The handwriting is somewhat unsteady – teenage nerves at dedicating the card to an intended? At first I thought the phrasing was a bit odd for a teenage boy, but that was the 19th century, now we are in the 21st. A 21st century kid would probably not send a picture of himself in an ill-fitting suit to a girl he liked with the inscription “yours with respect” (he’d probably sext her with a photo of his nether anatomy from his cellphone), but “yours with respect” is VERY much in keeping with a 19th century teenager’s style of expression.

Jim C.

4-May-2013, 14:06

Got these glass plates as part of a bunch of old photographic paraphernalia, the 4 x 5 came out of a box
of dry plates, not sure if the other plates in the box are negatives or unexposed plated.
These are quick and dirty scans -

6 3/8 x 8 3/8 glass plates

http://www.jameschaifx.com/pub/lfforum/foundplates/foundplate_01-6.-375x8-375.jpg

http://www.jameschaifx.com/pub/lfforum/foundplates/foundplate_04-6.-375x8-375

http://www.jameschaifx.com/pub/lfforum/foundplates/foundplate_02-6.-375x8-375.jpg

4 x 5
This one is probably the most interesting.
http://www.jameschaifx.com/pub/lfforum/foundplates/foundplate_4x5-02.jpg

cuypers1807

5-May-2013, 18:07

Found this tintype hiding in a box of small prints acquired at an estate sale. I will post more of the photos once I get them scanned. I can't imagine why that beard style went out of fashion.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8418/8712720470_741004f7be_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8712720470/)

Vincent Pidone

5-May-2013, 18:12

Mink collar?

Scott Davis

6-May-2013, 07:39

He looks like he's been decapitated and the beard is the buffet garnish a-la John the Baptist and Salome.

Primo I.

6-May-2013, 08:18

I purchased a huge lot of 4x5 and 8x10 negatives and scanned them a couple of years ago. here are some of them.94624

cuypers1807

6-May-2013, 11:20

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7361/8715234160_053a677691_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8715234160/)
Photographer:
E.A. Lewis
New York

Scott Davis

6-May-2013, 12:44

E. A. Lewis, or R. A. Lewis? Do you have a scan of the back of the carte? I have multiple cdv's from R.A. Lewis at 152 Chatham Street, an address that no longer exists due to urban renewal in the early 20th century - that part of Chatham street is now approximately where 1 Police Plaza and the New York City Civic Center are located.

cuypers1807

6-May-2013, 13:03

Scott,
You are right. It is R. A. Lewis. It was very small on the back with the address you mentioned.
Joby

Scott Davis

6-May-2013, 13:09

I never assume it's just one possibility - there were so many studios in Lower Manhattan at the time. Just down the street from R. A. Lewis there was an R. A. Lord. Literally, about three doors down. I've been mapping them on a Google Map-

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205198909339471971650.00049ac15830c6fc71cdb&msa=0&ie=UTF8&t=m&vpsrc=6&ll=40.720982,-73.995495&spn=0.061798,0.068665&z=13&source=embed

The very obvious north-south line of them running through that map is Broadway, and if you check them over time, it marks the northward growth of the city - the studios moved to follow the upper and upper-middle class as they moved northward in the later 1800s. Some studios moved 3 or more times between 1870-1900, and usually further uptown each time.

cuypers1807

6-May-2013, 13:12

Here is another Lewis photograph:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7373/8715597802_4f16d60bb4_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8715597802/)

cuypers1807

6-May-2013, 19:44

Scott, have you found any photos with revenue stamps on the back? The box of photos I picked up over the weekend had several. It appears their value (stamps) more than covers the price of the photos.

cuypers1807

7-May-2013, 05:50

Unknown subject and photographer:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7347/8715230764_e070fa74a9_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8715230764/)

Scott Davis

7-May-2013, 07:52

Scott, have you found any photos with revenue stamps on the back? The box of photos I picked up over the weekend had several. It appears their value (stamps) more than covers the price of the photos.

I've seen quite a few, and have a number of CDVs with revenue stamps in my collection. I'm not a stamp collector so I don't know the value of any particular revenue stamp. I notice that people often reference the stamps in ebay listings for CDVs, but it's hard to separate the two items because in all likelihood you'd damage both in the process.

cuypers1807

7-May-2013, 08:33

Some of the stamps are worth up to around $100. I have seen a few attached to photos that were selling in the $60-80 range.

cuypers1807

7-May-2013, 10:42

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7335/8715233578_3efc0388e4_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8715233578/)

Scott Davis

7-May-2013, 12:04

Some of the stamps are worth up to around $100. I have seen a few attached to photos that were selling in the $60-80 range.

Therein lies the rub- removing the stamp from the photo will damage the photo and reduce the photo's value. Leaving the stamp on reduces the stamp's value because it's now part of the photo and stamp collectors are more interested in the stamps than the photos.

Amedeus

7-May-2013, 19:48

94724

I found this photography in an auction ... Mrs Clara M. Wooster, born Smith, sister of Henry Smith of Pinkham-Smith Co fame. There's a handwritten note on the back of the image "8 jan 1912". The image is set in heavy card stock. Great detail and gradations ... scan doesn't do it much justice ...

Would love to find out who the photographer was ...

Scott Davis

8-May-2013, 06:40

cuypers1807

8-May-2013, 08:24

A happy young man:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7345/8719809051_3c514f9867_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8719809051/)
R.A. Lewis
New York

barnninny

9-May-2013, 01:20

Unknown subject and photographer:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7347/8715230764_e070fa74a9_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8715230764/)

I'm reasonably certain the subject is a child. :P

cuypers1807

9-May-2013, 10:46

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7457/8724045086_61b594e423_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8724045086/)

Scott Davis

9-May-2013, 10:55

Cuypers-

looks like you hit a stash from the same family that kept going to R.A. Lewis... that's always pretty neat to find something like that where you can tell someone was the "family photographer".

cuypers1807

9-May-2013, 12:06

Scott,
I do have a lot of Lewis photos.
This last one was J. Gurney & Son
707 Broadway, NY

cuypers1807

10-May-2013, 19:15

A happy couple:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7340/8722924861_92e0655e50_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8722924861/)

cuypers1807

14-May-2013, 10:29

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7348/8722931125_1e2724b188_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8722931125/)
Unknown photographer

Scott Davis

15-May-2013, 18:19

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/anonmanhansonnycdv.jpg

This one was interesting because of the notation in the lower-left corner of the verso - "Formerly with Brady, New York". This is the first time I've seen one of Brady's camera operators/studio assistants marketing himself with the association with Brady.

jcoldslabs

15-May-2013, 22:04

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Child-01.jpg

Jonathan

cuypers1807

26-May-2013, 20:07

Probably the most elaborate photo I have found:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7291/8722927935_542569d75b_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24021575@N02/8722927935/)

Thad Gerheim

29-May-2013, 07:01

Does anyone know what plane this is? The Boy Scouts were flown into the Idaho Primitive Area (later named the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness) for a backpack trip. The one boy is armed for bear with slingshot and hatchet on his belt! Two of them are wearing cowboy boots, probably the only shoes they owned since they were actual cowboys. The photo is from the 1950s.

95988

Mark Sampson

29-May-2013, 08:46

The plane is almost certainly a Fairchild of some sort, late 1920s-early 1930s vintage. Look at the work of Bradford Washburn and you'll see similar aircraft- they were popular bush planes.

Thad Gerheim

29-May-2013, 10:04

Thanks Mark. Hard to believe they built such air worthy planes at that time.

Jim Galli

29-May-2013, 10:22

Does anyone know what plane this is?

Thinking maybe a modified Curtis Robin. Doesn't really look big enough to be an 8 seat Fairchild.

mdm

29-May-2013, 11:10

Thats a cool photograph. Its interesting that found photographs are nearly all people.

Scott Davis

30-May-2013, 19:56

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pattersonhousecloseup.jpg

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/pacificinsurancecdv.jpg

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/agardnercdvstpaulschurchdc.jpg

https://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/rugersonhodgespostofficecdv.jpg

Not that they're impossible to find, but architecture photos especially from the 19th century, are much rarer than portraits, in part because wet plate technology was a pain in the neck to take in the field, even then.

Scott Davis

30-May-2013, 20:37

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/bradypleasantvalleywinerycdv.jpg

One more, from the vaults.

Scott Davis

2-Jun-2013, 19:09

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ccnativeamericanschoolgroupsdak.jpg

A school photo from a Native American school in Springfield, South Dakota. Given that it says S.D. instead of Dakota Territory, it would have been taken after 1889, and from the looks of their outfits, probably in the first decade of the 20th Century. The inscription on the reverse reads: “With best wishes, Your loving teacher, Mary B. Benedict, North Walton, Delaware Co. New York. Alice & Lucy Cougar”. I’m assuming that Alice & Lucy Cougar are two of the Native American girls in the photo, but which two I’m not sure.

barnninny

2-Jun-2013, 19:17

That one's fascinating, Scott.

Scott Davis

3-Jun-2013, 07:13

That one's fascinating, Scott.

Yeah- you can tell that among the Native American pupils, there's perhaps two families, three at most, represented. Then there is the Anglo teacher, the African-American girl, a couple of white girls, and a girl and a boy who look like they could be mixed Native/Anglo. Nobody looks happy, but then it's a school picture, and probably shot with a dry plate, which was still a tediously slow emulsion.

barnninny

3-Jun-2013, 21:04

Yeah- you can tell that among the Native American pupils, there's perhaps two families, three at most, represented. Then there is the Anglo teacher, the African-American girl, a couple of white girls, and a girl and a boy who look like they could be mixed Native/Anglo. Nobody looks happy, but then it's a school picture, and probably shot with a dry plate, which was still a tediously slow emulsion.

I always like looking at old school pictures like that and puzzling over the ways that time of their lives was like and dislike the same stage of life today.

Scott Davis

18-Jun-2013, 06:35

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/bradycdvgent1866washingtondc.jpg

Subject unknown - but I'm guessing someone out there will recognize this guy - he's too well-dressed, and he's at Brady's Washington studio, so I'm guessing he's a western (well, midwestern) politician or businessman. Anything from Representative to cattle rancher. I'm still puzzling over the inscription on the reverse, "Please Exchange". Exchange as in make a new copy, or as in trade with someone else for their photo?

RHITMrB

11-Jul-2013, 09:59

http://i.imgur.com/cZfwzd9l.jpg

Verso: handwritten note - "didn't know Robin was in the photo."

Robert Oliver

11-Jul-2013, 11:20

Top photo in this looks like Avila Beach, CA...

Found some old Ektachrome slides dated June, 1960. They could be from my wife's family, but I'm not sure. Color correction is not my strong suit, although I tried to take out some of the strong magenta cast as best I could.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Ekt-Beach-01.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Ekt-Beach-02-8-B.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Ekt-Yosemite-01-.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Ekt-Yosemite-02-.jpg

Jonathan

Harley Goldman

11-Jul-2013, 11:41

Robert, love the classic old Yosemite image and all are enjoyable to view. Thanks for sharing them.

jcoldslabs

18-Aug-2013, 04:31

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE---Two-Girls.jpg

Jonathan

Fred Leif

18-Aug-2013, 08:51

A photo of my great grandfather and great grandmother with one of their 12 children.
100363

Don Dudenbostel

18-Aug-2013, 09:40

100365Excuse the poor photo but I didn't want to remove the image from it's case.

I've had this authenticated and is an original tintype of George Armstrong Custer made by Mathew Brady in his Washington Studio.

My wife and I were scouring through a junky little antique shop in East Tennessee about eighteen years ago when we found this image. I didn't recognize the subject and the person who owned it didn't either. I didn't buy it and left the shop but on the way back home I thought about it more and since the person was wearing a military uniform I figured it might be worth something. I turned the car around and went back to the shop and the owner said he would take $67 for it. I purchased it and went back to town and started researching and found it was Custer. A couple of years later i took it to an expert on such and had it authenticated as an original tintype by Mathew Brady.

The image is in near mint condition on tin. Examining it under a magnifier it's amazing how sharp it is.

Don Dudenbostel

18-Aug-2013, 10:07

100369100370100371100372A few more images of San Francisco in 1900 at the 4th of july parade and the bay.

Don Dudenbostel

18-Aug-2013, 10:10

100373100374Another interesting Indian Treaty signing in Washington DC. Photos were made of the signing and given to the indians. This is a tintype in a paper frame. My guess is around 1870-1875.

Another image shot with a #1 Bullseye camera.

Scott Davis

19-Aug-2013, 10:10

You do realize what that's worth these days?

You're holding a car in your hand.

100365Excuse the poor photo but I didn't want to remove the image from it's case.

I've had this authenticated and is an original tintype of George Armstrong Custer made by Mathew Brady in his Washington Studio.

My wife and I were scouring through a junky little antique shop in East Tennessee about eighteen years ago when we found this image. I didn't recognize the subject and the person who owned it didn't either. I didn't buy it and left the shop but on the way back home I thought about it more and since the person was wearing a military uniform I figured it might be worth something. I turned the car around and went back to the shop and the owner said he would take $67 for it. I purchased it and went back to town and started researching and found it was Custer. A couple of years later i took it to an expert on such and had it authenticated as an original tintype by Mathew Brady.

The image is in near mint condition on tin. Examining it under a magnifier it's amazing how sharp it is.

Don Dudenbostel

19-Aug-2013, 10:56

You do realize what that's worth these days?

You're holding a car in your hand.

I do have a good idea. It might buy a new Cayman Porsche or at least get close. I've thought about cashing in on some of the images I bought back in the 60's and 70's when no one collected photographs but on the other hand if I sold them I would just invest the money and probably not do as well as these are increasing in value.

I never bought images with the idea they would ever appreciate in value. I simply bought the work I loved looking at. Fortunately for me folks appreciate fine photographs now and the work I bought back in the day is now worth 400-500% or even more than what I paid for it. I have to say I have been tempted to sell some work. I want to retire next year and investing this would produce some nice dividends.

Any offers? Might consider a nice new Cayman S.

My philosophy of life is even a blind pig finds and acorn once in a while.

Scott Davis

19-Aug-2013, 13:42

I do have a good idea. It might buy a new Cayman Porsche or at least get close. I've thought about cashing in on some of the images I bought back in the 60's and 70's when no one collected photographs but on the other hand if I sold them I would just invest the money and probably not do as well as these are increasing in value.

I never bought images with the idea they would ever appreciate in value. I simply bought the work I loved looking at. Fortunately for me folks appreciate fine photographs now and the work I bought back in the day is now worth 400-500% or even more than what I paid for it. I have to say I have been tempted to sell some work. I want to retire next year and investing this would produce some nice dividends.

Any offers? Might consider a nice new Cayman S.

My philosophy of life is even a blind pig finds and acorn once in a while.

I only got into it recently, but there are still bargains to be found if you're careful and bother to do your research (like my Clara Barton & John J. Elwell CDV). The research thing is key - lots of folks are looking to make a quick turn and can't be bothered to figure out who the photo is of and who it's by. As my collection is just beginning, however, I'm loath to start parting with any of them. I did sell one daguerreotype to someone out of my collection, but she was a descendant of the individual in the photo.

David Schaller

19-Aug-2013, 14:33

Thank you both for sharing with us. Just fantastic to see these images.
Dave

Don Dudenbostel

19-Aug-2013, 15:16

I only got into it recently, but there are still bargains to be found if you're careful and bother to do your research (like my Clara Barton & John J. Elwell CDV). The research thing is key - lots of folks are looking to make a quick turn and can't be bothered to figure out who the photo is of and who it's by. As my collection is just beginning, however, I'm loath to start parting with any of them. I did sell one daguerreotype to someone out of my collection, but she was a descendant of the individual in the photo.

I really have enjoyed the images I have. All are framed and hung on the wall to enjoy. Looking back I wish I had bought a few more when they were so cheap. Unfortunately in the late 50's I was too young and too sheltered to know to buy images. I remember when Edward Weston signed prints were $50. I bought six signed Adams prints under $100 each and one later on for $275 which is the most I spent on his work. I did however purchase an Edward Weston Platinum for under $500. Later on my wife bought one of my favorite vintage Lewis Hine images as the price was going up but no where near what it is today. We've added images all along when we found something we could afford. Again it's only things we love to look at which makes it hard to part with them. I guess I could really accelerate my retirement plans but I just don't think I want to unless there's a new Cayman S in the deal (any color but black) ;)

I still keep my eyes open for vintage work. You just never know where you'll find it but you have to know your stuff. I understand there are a lot of fakes now. Lewis Hine's work being one of the ones forged several years ago. The image of the boiler maker started turning up in galleries. There were just too many showing up on the market at one time. It was learned after several were sold by reputable galleries that a person that used to help Hine had printed multiple prints from his negative and held the images for some years and then put them on the market as Hine originals. I think what tipped folks off was there were just too many. I know one gallery that sold a print for over $100,000. I guess they had to refund the money. Ouch!!!

Rick A

19-Aug-2013, 16:02

100507

Ambrotype of my grandfather, age 3 or 4 years.

Soomuu

19-Aug-2013, 16:33

I wonder if this is actually a picture of a picture? (or tintype of a plate or print)
When compared with this image it looks as though it is an exact same, down to the curls in the hair.
Nonetheless a real rarity.
100508

100365Excuse the poor photo but I didn't want to remove the image from it's case.

I've had this authenticated and is an original tintype of George Armstrong Custer made by Mathew Brady in his Washington Studio.

My wife and I were scouring through a junky little antique shop in East Tennessee about eighteen years ago when we found this image. I didn't recognize the subject and the person who owned it didn't either. I didn't buy it and left the shop but on the way back home I thought about it more and since the person was wearing a military uniform I figured it might be worth something. I turned the car around and went back to the shop and the owner said he would take $67 for it. I purchased it and went back to town and started researching and found it was Custer. A couple of years later i took it to an expert on such and had it authenticated as an original tintype by Mathew Brady.

The image is in near mint condition on tin. Examining it under a magnifier it's amazing how sharp it is.

Don Dudenbostel

19-Aug-2013, 17:04

A short time after I purchased the image I had it authenticated by an expert who confirmed it is the real thing. The tin on the back shows age for one. Not that it couldn't have been shot through a prism or mirror but it is the correct orientation which is reversed. Also its very sharp and there's no evidence of a dot pattern or other evidence of a copy. The tonal range is also what woukd be expected in an original. A copy would gain contrast. Aging of the edges of the image also suggests its a very old image. Someone would had to have gone to a great deal of trouble to do this. If it had a price tag of $50,000 I might be suspicious because there would have been motivation to forge it. Also how many people were doing wet plate eighteen to twenty years ago?

I've seen two others of this pose. I'm guessing Brady made several sets of plates for each pose. Perhaps he had a multi shot split back AKA 4 way back. This is just a guess. I have seen two more of the same image in archive environments. One is in the National Archives.

Don Dudenbostel

19-Aug-2013, 17:38

Here are a few more images. The Bullseye image is particularly interesting. Obviously it's a train but there are soldiers around it with rifles. The original is better than this but the curl badly on their mount making it tough to scan them.

100512100511100510

I don't believe the image of the two young men in uniform is as early as the civil war but perhaps they fought in the war. In Charleston it's known as the war of Northern Aggression.

Soomuu

19-Aug-2013, 18:15

Oh no, i'm not disagreeing with you. I have no doubt that the tintype is of real vintage. It's just one can't help but notice how strikingly similar if not exact in the way of his outline and angle of his figure, waves in his hair, creases in his jacket etc.
I know that there were many tintypes of Lincoln that were pictures of pictures as well.

A short time after I purchased the image I had it authenticated by an expert who confirmed it is the real thing. The tin on the back shows age for one. Not that it couldn't have been shot through a prism or mirror but it is the correct orientation which is reversed. Also its very sharp and there's no evidence of a dot pattern or other evidence of a copy. The tonal range is also what woukd be expected in an original. A copy would gain contrast. Aging of the edges of the image also suggests its a very old image. Someone would had to have gone to a great deal of trouble to do this. If it had a price tag of $50,000 I might be suspicious because there would have been motivation to forge it. Also how many people were doing wet plate eighteen to twenty years ago?

I've seen two others of this pose. I'm guessing Brady made several sets of plates for each pose. Perhaps he had a multi shot split back AKA 4 way back. This is just a guess. I have seen two more of the same image in archive environments. One is in the National Archives.

Don Dudenbostel

19-Aug-2013, 18:59

I really can't say anymore than what I was told. He was the expert and it was his opinion after very close examination that is was genuine and an original. ???????

I'll assume it's such till I find out otherwise from a higher authority.

Scott Davis

20-Aug-2013, 12:50

Don- given the potential value of the image, I would have it authenticated, in writing, by someone at either the Library of Congress or the National Portrait Gallery, or if they won't do it themselves, get a referral from them and take it there. It may very well be an original Brady, but images of Custer would have been forge-worthy back in the 1870s and 1880s, when contemporary wet plate was still a viable practice, and supplies of things like image cases would have been sitting around as NOS at E&HT Anthony's store. I have a stereoview of a native American brave in my collection that is absolutely a period original stereoview, but is a copy. In this case, the quality difference is obvious (mine is lower in contrast and softer). But people in that time period were very happy to make copies of other people's photos and sell them without attribution or licensing. Looking at the photo that Soomuu posted, yours looks like it could be a high-quality crop from the shot he posted. This may be an issue of digital reproduction technology, but the image you posted appears to have much less detail in the jacket, and higher overall contrast, consistent with being a copy photo. It may be a copy made for sale by the Brady studio, but most likely that would have been made as a glass negative and printed on albumen paper (I'm not an expert on Brady's studio output, but from my experience of collecting his work, especially his celebrity photos from the Civil War and beyond, they would have been shot as negatives to be printed and mass-produced. I haven't found any images of his as tins or ambros (and certainly not dags) post-Civil War or even intra-War). This is not to say it CAN'T, but rather it raises questions. The place(s) to start would be the National Portrait Gallery and the Library of Congress, who have major holdings of Brady's original studio output. Someone there would have a good idea as to if this could be a product of Brady's studio or not.

jcoldslabs

20-Aug-2013, 12:57

Not trying to debunk anything one way or the other, but pursuant to Scott's post above here is a side-by-side:

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Custer%202-UP.jpg

Jonathan

Don Dudenbostel

20-Aug-2013, 13:57

Tin Can

20-Aug-2013, 14:46

I posted this last week in the wrong place.

This is obviously found, but never developed. I opened the Premo 4x5 wood holder and found a plate with this image. It appears to be fixed and no longer light sensitive. The other 3 plates just were mottled.

100584100585100586100587

jcoldslabs

21-Aug-2013, 00:40

Two photographs of women with photographs. Was this a thing?

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE---Woman-with-Photo-.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE---Woman-w-Photo-02.jpg

Jonathan

Scott Davis

21-Aug-2013, 10:51

Two photographs of women with photographs. Was this a thing?
Jonathan

I don't know about those images per se, but in older (read daguerreotypes and cased tintypes/ambrotypes) it was not rare to see photographs of (mostly) women holding photographs. The women were often dressed in traditional mourning attire, and the photographs they hold are usually of either dead husbands and/or children. These two photos you show here don't look anything like that, so I'm not sure what's going on with these two.

Tin Can

21-Aug-2013, 11:08

The bottom is a time traveler using a cell phone.

jcoldslabs

21-Aug-2013, 13:49

I don't know about those images per se, but in older (read daguerreotypes and cased tintypes/ambrotypes) it was not rare to see photographs of (mostly) women holding photographs. The women were often dressed in traditional mourning attire, and the photographs they hold are usually of either dead husbands and/or children. These two photos you show here don't look anything like that, so I'm not sure what's going on with these two.

These are the only two like this in my small collection of vintage photographs. In those days I would guess that a young woman would likely have a photograph taken in order to give it either to her family or her spouse or fiancé. Maybe this was some sign of fidelity if the woman posed with a photo of the man to whom she would be sending the photo of herself? I have no idea.

The bottom is a time traveler using a cell phone.

That hadn't occurred to me, but you're right, it does look somewhat like that!

Jonathan

Robert Oliver

21-Aug-2013, 15:42

1 out of a hundred found 4x5 negatives bought in a lot of old photographic equipment... Some really cool stuff in there of 1940's Louisiana, Texas amongst other places.

great people shots including this shot of Margie Noble in 1945... love it because I'm working on shooting this same style in 8x10 now.

Photographer unknown....

100670

jcoldslabs

22-Aug-2013, 05:36

The quality of some of these vintage prints is astounding to me. And most of them have held up really well, too.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE-Woman01.jpg

Jonathan

Scott Davis

22-Aug-2013, 07:08

These are the only two like this in my small collection of vintage photographs. In those days I would guess that a young woman would likely have a photograph taken in order to give it either to her family or her spouse or fiancé. Maybe this was some sign of fidelity if the woman posed with a photo of the man to whom she would be sending the photo of herself? I have no idea.
Jonathan

Yours definitely don't look like mourning photos - in the one case where you can clearly see the photo she's holding, my guess is the man is her fiancee/husband and she's promising to wait for him while he works overseas/is deployed with the military/establishes his career in another city. The other one - that could even be a very small book she's reading. People have been posing with books in hand since the dawn of photography. Often it was done as a sign of literacy or to project an image of education and culture (although sometimes this was a put-on - I have one photo in my collection where the man posing is holding an accounting textbook, upside down. I suspect he may have been illiterate, either that or REALLY nervous in front of the camera).

jcoldslabs

23-Aug-2013, 00:23

Just imagine if all of these "lost" portraits could be returned to the families of the people depicted in them. Makes me wonder if there aren't photos of my ancestors sitting in someone's attic that I'll never know about.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE-Man01.jpg

Jonathan

jcoldslabs

23-Aug-2013, 01:10

I wish they were all this easy to date. (See detail below).

"Rowing Not Drifting?" Ha! I'm still drifting myself....

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE-Woman03.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE-Woman03a.jpg

Jonathan

jcoldslabs

28-Aug-2013, 22:58

My wife's grandfather at work.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE---Phil-at-Work.jpg

Jonathan

Ari

29-Aug-2013, 09:20

Great thread, I've been reading it for days.

Somewhere between Casablanca and Essaouira, Morocco c.1940

My grandfather is fifth from the left, wearing khaki pants and a white hat

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5476/9623981594_e2cf27106a_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zsari/9623981594/)
Essaouira168-full (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zsari/9623981594/) by Ari4000 (http://www.flickr.com/people/zsari/), on Flickr

Jim Galli

29-Aug-2013, 10:25

Ari

29-Aug-2013, 11:04

Far less important...

Only to some :)

Tin Can

29-Aug-2013, 11:11

DNA is forever, rust never sleeps.

Only to some :)

photonsoup

31-Aug-2013, 19:54

Michael Kadillak

31-Aug-2013, 20:56

I picked up a Polaroid a while back and found someone's Christmas Morning.
This one is my favorite, because I had the exact same sweater! Actually I had two of them! My wife's grandmother gave me one for Christmas, and I told her I liked it so the next year she gave another one. Mine were blue.

101120

I'll post a few more later

Nice to see members from Montana. I grew up in Butte and love to photograph there. Heading there in October to visit my Mom and go through another chore list.

DannL

1-Sep-2013, 08:09

Original portrait by Olive M. Potts, Photo-Secession Associate; she is listed in Camera Work, no. 3, Supplement, July 1903 (http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/contents/fra/_photo_secession_members_01/). Signed in red paint. This photograph was found in a little antique store in Shawnee, OK.

101134 101135 101136 101137

Observation: Her signature block appears too have been drawn with a pencil, then painted over. There is also a period after the "P" in "OMP.", that I thought interesting. It seems to add balance to the block.

imagedowser

1-Sep-2013, 11:10

DannL, Nice find. Bill

mitch.goddard

2-Sep-2013, 17:23

A little more than a year ago, a friend of mine gave me a bunch of opened boxes of sheet film. One of them was some Tri-X that expired before I was born, and the box was simply labeled "Tony Bo - Lion". There were 3 sheets in the box. I exposed one of them, assuming they were blank, but when I developed the sheet I was surprised to see the image of this big cat which certainly wasn't in the back yard that I'd just photographed. These are the remaining two sheets. I found out much later that Tony Bo is the taxidermist responsible for mounting and stuffing the lion, but I haven't been able to get in touch with him.

photonsoup

3-Sep-2013, 16:06

Can't you just hear this sweet woman on Christmas morning
"Oh honey! A cougar! You really shouldn't have!"
101342

Peter Gomena

3-Sep-2013, 21:35

Look closely at the box at her feet. She also got a Veg-O-Matic!

photonsoup

6-Sep-2013, 20:41

Another from the Christmas find. Does anyone have a guess on the year? We had the same set of World Book Encyclopedias, I think we got ours in 64 or 65.
101482

Scott Davis

17-Sep-2013, 12:17

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/frankwilliamstwtolmancdv.jpg

guyatou

17-Sep-2013, 14:51

My mom was searching for something unrelated online a month ago, and came across this baby photo of my grandmother that we'd never seen! The poster said it was found in an antique store in California, where my grandmother was born. We plan to get in touch with the poster to see if we can purchase the hand-tinted photo.

So to answer your question, jcoldslabs, you very likely may have photos like this floating around out there of your relatives. Happy hunting!

101967
Ireleen Florence Borges (Simmons)

Just imagine if all of these "lost" portraits could be returned to the families of the people depicted in them. Makes me wonder if there aren't photos of my ancestors sitting in someone's attic that I'll never know about.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VINTAGE-Man01.jpg

Jonathan

Randy

17-Sep-2013, 18:43

Picked this up in an antique store in Floyd, VA. a couple months back.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52893762/elibrown.jpg

In pencil on the back - "Eli Brown, Apple creek, Ohio".

So I did a search for "Eli Brown, Apple creek, Ohio" and found a picture of his grave on findagrave.com. He served in the Civil War and died in 1912.

Randy

17-Sep-2013, 18:52

Picked up in the same antique store.

Alfred Cratty, born in 1864.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52893762/cratty.jpg

He was a sports correspondent in Pittsburgh in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
The back of the picture has written in very faded, almost illegible pencil "Alfred Cratty, Pittsburgh, PA"
The photography studio was Aufrecht Gallery in Pittsburgh.

jcoldslabs

17-Sep-2013, 20:56

My mom was searching for something unrelated online a month ago, and came across this baby photo of my grandmother that we'd never seen!

I have to think that at some point in the future as more and more analog content is digitized face recognition algorithms will make it possible to search for anonymous photos of family members online using a reference photo as the search term. I would love to be able to upload a scan of my great grandfather and see where else his image pops up, for example. That day is coming, no doubt.

J.

jcoldslabs

27-Sep-2013, 17:52

A portrait of my grandfather's grandfather taken in 1921.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Nelson-Kershaw.jpg

Jonathan

Tin Can

27-Sep-2013, 18:13

I posted a couple 35 year old polaroids on FB and faces were nearly instantly recognized and named.

I have to think that at some point in the future as more and more analog content is digitized face recognition algorithms will make it possible to search for anonymous photos of family members online using a reference photo as the search term. I would love to be able to upload a scan of my great grandfather and see where else his image pops up, for example. That day is coming, no doubt.

J.

MDR

28-Sep-2013, 06:35

102618102619

Tintype from around 1900 probably two sisters and portrait carte de visite of a croatian Lady (Widow)

numnutz

30-Oct-2013, 06:26

Jim Cole

30-Oct-2013, 06:32

mdm

30-Oct-2013, 11:42

That is a picture that says so much about the nature of photography. Interesting.

Jody_S

30-Oct-2013, 12:37

Brilliant.

Jim Galli

30-Oct-2013, 12:42

I was sent this wartime picture (WW1 or WW2?) by a friend who found it on the internet.

I though you all may be interested.

I assume some will tell us where it was photographed what camera is pictured and what process the camera man is using.

103857

hope you can help...

nn :)

This proves that before digital, every photograph was pure. Nothing was manipulated.

The camera is one of those contraptions they still use in Cuba that makes a paper negative then inside the camera out of the light somehow the technician makes a positive and gives it to the customer before they leave the scene. Most of them were made from old American cast off cameras.

Soomuu

30-Oct-2013, 22:38

I recently came into possession of a framed and sealed photo that looks like maybe it could be a photogravure print but i'm not sure as I haven't seen too many photogravures in the flesh. I was thinking maybe it would be in the Camera Work book but I did not see it nor have I seen anything on the net of this image. Maybe one of you guys have seen it before?

Gary103871

DrTang

9-Nov-2013, 16:18

Just got a whole stack of 4x5 negs - here's one that struck me:

104324

Lou Baleur

9-Nov-2013, 22:53

just got a whole stack of 4x5 negs - here's one that struck me:

104324

meatyard!

cuypers1807

11-Nov-2013, 10:13

That is creepy.

rich815

11-Nov-2013, 10:22

mdm

16-Nov-2013, 22:50

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n7eTXfD62_Q/UohYIGTVESI/AAAAAAAAB_U/zw4xwnA5z8E/s1600/Untitled-38.jpg
Scan of a glass plate

mdm

25-Nov-2013, 17:32

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_ijevl7_eIA/UpPrqO-HSUI/AAAAAAAAB_k/psbcS9hVBms/s1600/Untitled-30.jpg
Scanned from a glass plate

ImSoNegative

25-Nov-2013, 18:35

Michael Clark

25-Nov-2013, 20:13

guyatou

25-Nov-2013, 20:24

I came across these cool tintypes in my grandparents' estate. I have an e-mail out to all of my family members to identify who they are. The older lady is likely my great grandmother's grandmother. So, my great-great-great grandmother?

Anyway, this has sparked my interest in wet plate or dry plate photography. I may try my hand at dry plate first, with modern emulsions. I understand Bostick & Sullivan has a wet plate kit now!

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz188/downesphoto/SmallTintype1_zpse906ba57.jpg (http://s826.photobucket.com/user/downesphoto/media/SmallTintype1_zpse906ba57.jpg.html)

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz188/downesphoto/SmallTintype2_zps29a971a9.jpg (http://s826.photobucket.com/user/downesphoto/media/SmallTintype2_zps29a971a9.jpg.html)

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz188/downesphoto/SmallTintype3_zps852ea694.jpg (http://s826.photobucket.com/user/downesphoto/media/SmallTintype3_zps852ea694.jpg.html)

rich815

26-Nov-2013, 00:46

A tintype I picked up from a shoebox full I bought off eBay for less than $17. This was one of the best and one of the few hand-colored.

105363

Steve M Hostetter

21-Jan-2014, 13:00

This is my great grandpa Absalom Padgett born Nov.22 1843 and his discharge papers from the US military he was wounded in the civil war. 108924108925

Steve M Hostetter

21-Jan-2014, 13:04

This would be my great uncle James Padgett and a story about the history of the Mexico store which he owned108926108927

Steve M Hostetter

21-Jan-2014, 13:08

This is a picture of my great aunt as an infant, and a picture of her as an adult, name unknown.. She was of american Indian descent.108928108929

Steve M Hostetter

21-Jan-2014, 14:29

108951 Great Great Grandmother on mother's side

Chauncey Walden

21-Jan-2014, 17:30

I purchased an album of some family's trip to Europe. The album was nice in that it not only had the prints but each print had a sleeve for the negative. The trip began on board the SS Minnetonka and the processing was apparently done on the ship. By the way, the SS Minnetonka was the ship on which Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) returned from Europe. Here are a couple of shipboard scenes:
108979108980

Chauncey Walden

21-Jan-2014, 17:32

Once on a visit to England I picked up a collection of glass plate negatives. Here's one:108981

Tin Can

21-Jan-2014, 17:38

I would pay real money just to ride one of those rigs.

I really missed my century, by a century.

Once on a visit to England I picked up a collection of glass plate negatives. Here's one:108981

Jac@stafford.net

21-Jan-2014, 18:00

I found a lot of glass plates. This is only one.

108982

Steve M Hostetter

22-Jan-2014, 09:29

109007109008 My great aunt , Shawnee Indian

Jim Cole

22-Jan-2014, 10:48

Lots of great stuff here!!!

Jim Galli

30-Jan-2014, 18:44

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/McGowan/IPullForSilverPeakS.jpg
i pull for silver peak

I was able to buy a large collection of negs from a Tonopah NV. Studio photographers heirs. This was a parade in Silver Peak NV. Maybe 1949 ish. The car is a 1930 Chev with a Model A pickup bed and hoist.

Michael Kadillak

30-Jan-2014, 21:56

Oren Grad

30-Jan-2014, 22:33

Therein lies the rub- removing the stamp from the photo will damage the photo and reduce the photo's value. Leaving the stamp on reduces the stamp's value because it's now part of the photo and stamp collectors are more interested in the stamps than the photos.

I'm very late to this wonderful thread, so apologies for my late follow-up on this. But FWIW: there are plenty of stamp collectors whose interest is in postal history or revenue history and who highly value stamps on original "cover" or document that preserves the original context of their use. There are many situations in which a stamp on contemporaneous cover will be worth substantially more, not less, than the stamp in isolation.

To all: wherever you reasonably can, please do preserve the photograph or document in its full original condition, rather than "parting it out" to sell off pieces.

Fred Leif

31-Jan-2014, 10:11

My wife's great grandmother and great grandfather married in 1880, and had photos made to mark the occasion ... the original photos were enameled metal , but they got dented ... so the family had them copied and colorized.

109581;
109580

Chauncey Walden

31-Jan-2014, 10:19

Jim Galli

31-Jan-2014, 10:41

And there is Jim in the background doing his Hoot Gibson impersonation and looking for parts for his Fords!

Don't I wish. Time travel would suit me. I might not come back though. That guy was probably getting ready for the inevitable rodeo that followed the parade.

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/McGowan/OldTonopahNevada/Rodeo1946_005McGowanStudioS.jpg

The negs came out of the basement of the building behind the pretty lady on the horse.

smithdoor

31-Jan-2014, 11:03

My godfather on his horse Apil mid 1950's

Dave

Steven Tribe

1-Feb-2014, 09:47

The Tonopak images have real bite and freshness, Jim. What has the corner Studio become now?

Jim Galli

1-Feb-2014, 09:59

The Tonopak images have real bite and freshness, Jim. What has the corner Studio become now?

Today there is a Western Wear store with other general type merchandise also. And they have combined the 2 buildings, the corner one and the mission one with a 1960's 'facelift' to be one larger store.

Yes, the chap had a wonderful eye, and a good sympathetic humor. His name was Mac MacGowan. I am thrilled to have the negatives. It's my favorite era.

Randy

1-Feb-2014, 20:09

I have recently gotten kind of obsessed with collecting ambrotypes and some daguerreotypes. This is my first ambrotype.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52893762/ambro1.jpg

Got it off ebay from a seller in England. Once I had a closer look I could read some of the printing on the paper in the lap of one of the ladies. I could make out:
July 12
Modern Society
Cadbury's Cocoa
Sunlight

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52893762/ambro2.jpg

I could find nothing on a paper titled "Modern Society". "Cadbury's" Company was founded in England in 1824. So that adds to the idea that this picture was taken in England. "Sunlight" was a brand of household soap manufactured by the British company Lever Bros. But they didn't start making it until 1884. So, that shoots down the idea that the picture was made anywhere near 1854 to 1865, when ambrotypes were popular. Etched on the back covering of the 1/2 case that it came in is "1891", but under that etching it looks like it had originally had "1888". Then I got an email from one of my younger camera collector club friends, who's eyes are sharper than mine: "I'm reading Saturday, July 12th on the newspaper. Saturday, July 12th occurred in 1884 and again in 1890. July 12th did not fall on a Saturday in 1888 or 1891!"

I am guessing probably 1890.

anachromatic

4-Feb-2014, 14:08

An old Cabinet Card, view of the Plaza de la Victoria in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Circa 1865.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/703/o2zu.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/jjo2zuj)

anachromatic

4-Feb-2014, 14:19

A little treasure found in El Rastro, the fly-market of Madrid, Spain.
A nice portrait of Chorrojumo, a famous gypsy from the 19th century....

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/513/m1nd.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/e9m1ndj)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/853/73aa.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/np73aaj)

Jim Galli

7-Feb-2014, 15:36

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/McGowan/USArmyBombingGunneryRange-Tonopah_01s.jpg

Tonopah had a B-24 Training base in WWII.

Steven Tribe

7-Feb-2014, 16:21

"Modern Society" is, I think, a periodical rather than a newspaper. Perhaps aimed at either radical young women (emancipation?) or the usual fields of feminine interests at the time.
Having advertising on the front page (and at the rear too) was the norm for Victorian publications. The Times of London continued this until around 1960.
Cadbury's (cocoa and chocolate products) and Lever Brothers (soap makers who became Unilever) were giant companies at the time.
There are many sources on 19th C UK newspapers and Periodicals, including the British Library and the Waterloo Database. You need a readers ID and/or fee to enter these websites. There were thousands of these publishing activities in Victorian Britain - even Charles Dickens ran a national newspaper for a time as well as being editor of "Household Words" and "All the Year Round" and writing a few novels!

Amedeus

9-Feb-2014, 03:08

Not particular found but "acquired" or "saved" ...

Two glass plates from 1919, 5"x7" showing King Albert I of Belgium with Queen Elisabeth and Prince Leopold (who would later become King Leopold III) somewhere during a ceremony in the US.

110122
110123

Harold_4074

10-Feb-2014, 15:19

Amadeus,

The second photograph looks very much like it was the ceremonial unveiling of a sculpture, almost certainly connected with memorialization of the Great War. The soldiers in the background are presenting arms, which is the same thing as the hand salute being executed by the man in front. I think that I see on the ground in front of the plaque the drape which covered it before the unveiling.

There must be something out there on the itinerary of Queen Elizabeth in that year, from which the location and occasion of the photograph could be deduced.

Chauncey Walden

11-Feb-2014, 09:44

Definitely the occasion but that's Queen Elisabeth of Belgium not Elizabeth of Britain. Wonder why the photos are reversed - negatives scanned backwards?

Amedeus

11-Feb-2014, 10:07

Yep ... scanned backward ... lol

Indeed Queen Elisabeth from Belgium. Been looking at old newspapers but so far no clue.

Too bad the negative are damaged. As far as I can tell, the object unveiled sits in an ornate frame like typically seen around a painting ?

Definitely the occasion but that's Queen Elisabeth of Belgium not Elizabeth of Britain. Wonder why the photos are reversed - negatives scanned backwards?

cowanw

11-Feb-2014, 10:32

From September 23 till November 13, 1919, the Queen, together with the King and Prince Léopold, undertook an official visit to the United States of America according to Wiki
Here is a book account
https://archive.org/details/acrossamericawit027221mbp.
Maybe an American can recognize the buildings in the photographs.

Harold_4074

11-Feb-2014, 13:09

but that's Queen Elisabeth of Belgium not Elizabeth of Britain

Well, of course... Elizabeth II was -7 years old in 1919! Would have made it really hard to identify the occassion....

cowanw

11-Feb-2014, 14:34

Yah. Daddy hadn't even met Mommy yet

Tin Can

17-Feb-2014, 17:19

Found this in my family pics. May be my grandmother, no one left to confirm. I am half Norwegian. I found the photo studio was woman owned, by Karla Nyblin of Bergen, Norway. Evidently it was a very productive studio. This 2-1/2" x 4 inch image is on cardboard, 1mm. I use inches for measurement as the metric dimensions are odd. I suppose it's from the 1890's. My grandfather had 2 wives from Norway. When the first gave up life after 9 children, he went back to Norway and found another to bear my father. That may or may not be the correct story. My last name 'Moe' is a town in Norway.

Here is a link to Karla Nyblin's studio images. Some images are being sold on eBay. Of course. :(

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bergen_public_library/sets/72157623109427705/detail/

110653110654

jcoldslabs

25-Feb-2014, 19:33

Came across these two 6x9 negatives in my archives today. No idea where they came from, who they depict or what year they were taken.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-6x9-Boys+Cars.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-6x9-Cars+Boys-COLOR.jpg

Jonathan

Harold_4074

25-Feb-2014, 20:39

Looks like the entries for a soapbox derby. The clothing and haircuts suggest mid-1950s. I don't have any idea where it might have been taken, but those are some serious burglar bars in the windows of the building in back!

leighmarrin

25-Feb-2014, 22:14

The sign reads "Fremont Theatre". Perhaps it is the historic theater of the same name in San Luis Obispo, California?
http://www.arti-fact.com/architect/2777
Interesting photos, Jonathan.

jcoldslabs

25-Feb-2014, 22:17

It could be. Although there are no people I recognize in the photos, my wife's grandparents were from SLO. Maybe this is behind the theater? Interesting.

J.

Peter Mounier

26-Feb-2014, 11:31

From looking at this Google Street View pic of the back of the Fremont Theatre in San Luis Obispo, I'd say Leighmarrin is right on.
http://www.ipaforme.com/Fremont.jpg

jcoldslabs

26-Feb-2014, 12:59

Excellent sleuthing, Peter!

Jonathan

jcoldslabs

26-Feb-2014, 21:45

More recent scans. Some of these are relatives, some are unknown, all are on Kodachrome.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Scott+Susie-01.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Jean+Maggie.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-127NEG-01.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage---Thrift-Store-02.jpg

Jonathan

jcoldslabs

26-Feb-2014, 21:48

And a few more (the photo of the missles is on Ektachrome):

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Susie-SP.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Thrift-Store-02.jpg

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/VIntage-1964-Missles.jpg

J.

Jim Galli

26-Feb-2014, 22:08

More recent scans. Some of these are relatives, some are unknown, all are on Kodachrome.

Jonathan

Oh! What that '63 Bel-Air rag top is worth just now!

jcoldslabs

27-Feb-2014, 23:14

My wife's grandfather was a surveyor in the 1950s and 1960s. I don't know if this is a photo of his transit or someone else's.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Phil%27s-Transit.jpg

Jonathan

Tin Can

27-Feb-2014, 23:48

That thing looks like more fun than a view camera!

My wife's grandfather was a surveyor in the 1950s and 1960s. I don't know if this is a photo of his transit or someone else's.

Jonathan

billie williams

1-Mar-2014, 07:59

My wife's grandfather was a surveyor in the 1950s and 1960s. I don't know if this is a photo of his transit or someone else's.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Phil%27s-Transit.jpg

Jonathan

Holy crap. That is cool!

D-tach

2-Mar-2014, 10:40

My grandfather during his army training in Leopoldsburg, 1937

http://Tomkeymeulen.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v83/p200824529-5.jpg

http://Tomkeymeulen.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v45/p452726672-5.jpg

anachromatic

5-Mar-2014, 15:48

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/198/zq1f.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/5izq1fj)

Bought today in an antiquarian bookstore.

Newrustic

5-Mar-2014, 21:47

Old found tintype

111632

Thad Gerheim

6-Apr-2014, 13:37

This is a little more than 1/4 of a panorama made by a cirkut camera. 1929 rodeo, the 1928 rodeo didn't have the fence, only the cars in the circle.
113397

WmRenick

6-Apr-2014, 16:24

113401
I recently went to Kingman, Indiana and met some relatives I had not known. While there I was able to copy a photograph of my Great-grandparents with two of their children. The young girl was my grandmother. She was born in 1896, so I would estimate the age of it to be about 1904 ish. I had seen pictures of my Great-grandfather and a few faint recollections of him from my childhood, but never had seen any of my Great-grandmother. The image of my grandmother as a small girl was a joy to find.
The preservation of history and family has always been one of the primary purposes of photography. IMHO.
Wm.

Pfiltz

5-Jul-2014, 08:06

My brother found this 8x10 tintype.

Not sure but I think it was created on a thin copper plate. If you hold it in the sun, it gets hot quickly. I'm kind of pretty sure it's a photograph of some type.

Anyway, not sure how or what it was made from. It appears to be hand "tinted" if that's the correct term.

http://www.keepsakephotography.us/Tintype.jpg

Pat Kearns

8-Jul-2014, 20:37

A local antique dealer has a large estate sale warehouse sale at the first of every month. There was a box full of photo cans of b&w negatives from 1939 to the mid 1960's for 75 cents each. I picked up 26 rolls from 1939-1949. It will be interesting to take a look at home life during the war years. I also found these four little ambrotypes.

Jim Galli

8-Jul-2014, 23:33

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/McGowan/Joe_Ray_s.jpg
joe ray

parked in front of the Tonopah Post Office on Main St. probably about 1950

jcoldslabs

9-Jul-2014, 22:29

Found this in a stack of negatives from my grandfather's family. Not sure where it was taken.

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Car-and-Building.jpg

And a detail for Jim's benefit:

http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Vintage-Car-and-Building-DETAIL.jpg

Jonathan

Jim Galli

9-Jul-2014, 23:46

Found this in a stack of negatives from my grandfather's family. Not sure where it was taken.

And a detail for Jim's benefit:

Jonathan

Ah, the age of lumber. A lovely car but I can't identify it. Not a Ford or Chebbie. Maybe an early Chrysler. Anyone know?

Scott Davis

12-Jul-2014, 03:53

http://dcphotoartist.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/soldier_tintype_guttaperchacase_uncased.jpg

Any help in identifying the military unit this guy came from would be much appreciated. It could be he was attending a fair and someone had a dress-up kit he posed in and this is not an actual soldier at all. It is most probably American, not British, despite the pith helmet. Most likely pre-1880 from the various pieces of accoutrement he's wearing (if it is a US Army uniform, the belt buckle puts it before 1873, when they changed to rectangular buckles). Beyond that I can't tell anything for certain.

Michael_4514

12-Jul-2014, 04:57

Ah, the age of lumber. A lovely car but I can't identify it. Not a Ford or Chebbie. Maybe an early Chrysler. Anyone know?

That's a touring car from the early 20s. Very hard to identify, because it was a popular body style and many had a very similar appearance. To me, it looks a lot like a 1923 Oakland 6 Touring, but it could just as well be a Buick, a Dodge, a Chrysler or one of the many obscure cars still being manufactured at the time.