Let's Use Those Family Photographs & Our Collections - Part 2

Shades has been MOOved to expand on the, Let's Use Those Family Photographs & Our Collections article. In this article MOO will be used to create a boxed writing set.

A MOO greeting card was designed using a family photograph to simulate a cabinet card. You open the card and write the message inside. (You could also use Victorian frames around a family photograph.) To accomplish this download the template from the MOO format guide. Here is an example of the card created to look like a cabinet card using a family photograph:

Greeting Card

To accompany the card and add to the writing set an address label was created using the MOO sticker template. Here is the address label with the family photograph in the background:

Address Label

Now there is a greeting card and an address label. What better addition to the writing set than a postage stamp with an image of one of the family photographs used to create the greeting card. Go to Stamps.com where they have a program called PhotoStamps for Mac. PhotoStamps is a FREE download that makes it incredibly easy to turn digital images into PhotoStamps, right from your Mac! PC users can create photo stamps directly on the Stamps.com site. The stamp created is illustrated below:

Postage Stamp

A beautiful box and ribbon makes this a lovely writing gift personalized with family photographs.

~::~ FAMILY PHOTO MAGNETS ~::~

Inspired by Thomas MacEntee's Friday From The Collector's article Don't Purge - Get Creative the following family photograph magnets were designed.

Magnet A

Magnet B

A template was created in Photoshop measuring 2.25 in. X 3.25 in. The selected photograph was placed in the template and a section of the bottom of the photograph filled with color for the addition of type. Sayings were added to each of the magnets. You could use some of those family sayings and words written about in the 54th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, add amusing sayings that fit the photograph, or list the name with birth and death date of the person in the photograph. Rather than attaching the photographs to a magnet why not purchase a magnet frame. This allows you to give several photos along with the frame that can be easily exchanged depending on the recipient's mood.

Next week Shades will discuss a calendar idea and something special to accompany a gift of a book. See you then!

Wedding Dress For Women - Twice Told Tuesday

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article reprinted from
my collection of old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

In keeping with the subject discussed in last Friday's Collector's Series (Brides and Weddings), here is an article on the proper wedding dress for women. This information is extremely helpful in dating old photographs.

Wedding Dress for Women

Chapter VII

Engagements and Weddings

BRIDAL DRESS
Ivory faille with trimmings of chiffon and orange- blossoms

IT is not necessary to give directions regarding the dress of women guests at a wedding, beyond suggesting that the most elaborate afternoon reception costume is invariably worn to a church or house wedding held in the morning or the afternoon. Hats are not put off at a reception or a breakfast; gloves are laid aside only while one is in the act of eating. Wraps, at a reception or breakfast, are left in the hall or the dressing-room. At an evening wedding feminine guests wear elaborate decollete toilets if they choose, or very elaborate high-throated, long-sleeved reception toilettes without hats or bonnets. It is not proper for those ladies who sit above the white ribbon at a church ceremony to appear in deep mourning. Even the mother of the bride or the mother of the groom should, for the occasion, put off her mourning dress for a costume of gray and lilac, or black decorated with purple, though the day after the wedding she may resume her mourning weeds.

A maiden bride should dress in white and wear a veil. There is a reprehensible tendency today against the use of the veil, unless the bride is in her first youth and her wedding is celebrated with the pomp and circumstance of an exceedingly fashionable function. This is contrary to one of the oldest and most charming customs which our civilization and society has inherited, a custom not to be lightly put aside. Even at the simplest home wedding, and when the bride perhaps has passed her first youth, the white gown, the orange blossoms and the filmy veil are essential outward signs of all the sweet dignity and precious sentiment that characterize this most important event of her life.

Whatever the material of the wedding dress may be its skirt should boast a train, and for a morning or afternoon wedding the waist should be high in the throat and long in the sleeves. For an evening wedding a waist cut open in the throat and without sleeves, is good taste, and it is optional whether the veil is worn on or off the face. Tradition, the voice of which in this instance should exercise great persuasive powers with a bride, speaks, and rightly, in favor of a tulle veil that envelopes the whole figure. There is a modern fashion which favors the use of a lace veil merely as a delicate drapery falling from the wearer's high-combed hair, out upon her shoulders, and then to her train.

A few jewels only, and those preferably the gifts of the groom or the bride's nearest and dearest relatives, should be worn to the altar. There is a suggestion of vulgar ostentation in the sight of a bride who displays the barbaric riches and splendor of ropes of pearls and blazing diamonds on her throat and arms, in her hair, and upon her gown.

The white glove for the left hand is usually removed when the ring is placed. In order to take it off expeditiously it is well to carefully stretch it and try it on frequently beforehand. When the groom is ready to place the gold circlet, the bride should rapidly bare her hand by simply pulling her glove off inside out. No attempt is ever made to replace it until after leaving the church or, in case of a home wedding, until the ceremony is over.

Though the white gown and veil is, for a maiden bride, preferable to any other wedding dress, occasions occur when a walking suit is the most sensible and tasteful costume. Brides who are married before twelve o'clock, or who go directly from the altar to a train or boat, wear a becoming street dress of ladies' cloth, veiling or silk, in a pale shade of blue, brown, lilac, green or gray, relieved by touches of a lighter color, and probably lace or some decoration of diaphanous material near the throat. Gloves of suede or glace kid are worn to accord in tint with the color of the gown. A becoming toque or hat, garnished with plumes or flowers, and a bouquet of flowers or a prayer-book, are the chief adjuncts of this toilette.

On the occasion of a second marriage a bride wears a traveling gown of the type just described, or, when her wedding is elaborately celebrated in church, a handsome reception costume is suitable. This dress and her bouquet must not be purely white. A toilet of silver-gray or mauve cloth, silk, satin or velvet, set off by trimmings of lace, embroidery or fur, seems befitting.
The skirt should be trained, the gloves white or of a very delicate tint, and a toque or bonnet of lace and flowers or jeweled net and tiny plumes, adds to the dignity of the wearer's appearance.

Source:

Holt, Emily. Encyclopaedia of Etiquette: What to Write, What to Wear, What to Do, What to Say: a Book of Manners for Everyday Use. New York: Doubleday, 1915.

August 22 - And The Guest Author Is . . .

BOB FRANKS
Itawamba History Review

What happens to our photographs when we're gone? Haven't you looked around and wondered why there are so many orphan photographs? How could no one have claimed them?

After all our efforts to preserve our family history, these are questions every genealogist and family historian finds unsettling. No one remains in the family with an interest in what is a photographic family treasure. What do you do? Shades has gone directly to an expert and asked those questions. On Friday, August 22, Bob Franks of the Itawamba History Review will discuss donating your photographs to an historical society.

Bob Franks is a sixth-generation Mississippian living in the same community his ancestors settled during the 1830’s. He served a twelve-year tenure as president of the Itawamba Historical Society of which he is currently the publications editor. The Itawamba Historical Society is a Mississippi non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Itawamba County, Mississippi's history and heritage.

During his tenure as president he oversaw the operations of the society’s facilities including Historic Bonds House Museum, The Gaither Spradling Library and The George Poteet History Center. He edits Itawamba Settlers, the 56-page membership magazine and is the webmaster of the society’s website, and society’s blog, Itawamba History Review.

He is also a member of the Mississippi Historical Society, The Vicksburg Genealogical Society, and The Mississippi Archaeological Association. He has contributed feature articles to such magazines as Mississippi Homes and Gardens, Local History (publication of the Federation of Mississippi Historical Societies), Mississippi River Routes, and Itawamba Settlers. He is also the project coordinator of the Issaquena Genealogy and History Project and enjoys historical and genealogical research, photography and the outdoors.

Join Shades 22 August when Bob Franks gives you the benefit of his expertise.

See You Then!

August 15 - Friday From The Collectors

I Do Collect Photos!

MAUREEN TAYLOR
The Photo Detective Blog

The Photo Detective Website
Family Tree - Photo Detective Blog

After six years of researching and writing about members of the Revolutionary War generation who lived long enough to be photographed, i.e. after 1840, I’m focusing my spare time on one of my collecting interests—weddings photos. See Projects.

I’ve been slowly building a collection of wedding portraits because they tend to be a little (!) more expensive than your average family photo. Digital collections are helpful. The Library of Congress has a nice group of various wedding pictures. Attendees at my lectures and readers of my blogs also volunteer images. The Revolutionary War project sidetracked my collecting of wedding pictures for a while, but now I’m back at it. My collection ranges from c. 1860 to the mid-twentieth century. I’m always looking for all sorts of weddings from theatrical depictions to the average bride and groom.

Several times in the last decade I’ve written proposals for a book on wedding history and approached commercial publishers. Don’t you think all those new brides would be interested in the traditions of past generations and love to look at old matrimonial photos. Nope! Not a single taker. Now I’m seriously thinking about self-publishing on the topic. I have files, books and electronic files all in preparation to start laying it out plus I have some great photos. Over the years I’ve written articles on the topic. For a couple of years I even wrote about contemporary weddings for a fashion magazine. (It was a lot of fun to interview living brides!). I think of these pieces as preliminary work towards a book. I’ve included a list in the bibliography at the end. Here are some pictures from my collection of wedding photos.

The earliest photo in my wedding collection is this couple from the 1860s. It’s a paper print. (I’d love to have a daguerreotype of a bride, but those are very far out of my price range. Gazing at them in auction catalogs will have to suffice.) In this photo the couple’s formal attire signifies a wedding. She wears a wreath on her head, a veil and a gorgeous dress. A corsage is pinned on her bodice. Her husband wears the long sack coat popular at the time and a white tie.

(Image 1)

A chance discovery at a photo show yielded this great image. Doesn’t it look like she’s just wearing a nice dress? Well, it’s a perfect example of how not every photo of a woman in a white dress is a bride and not all brides wore white. On the back is written, “Aunt Ella in her brown corded silk wedding dress 1876.” No way could she sit down with that bustle! In 1876, this bride wore brown to show that she knew what was fashionable for weddings. It’s my favorite picture. I especially like the fact that she’s a blonde but wore a brown hairpiece on the top of her head. Color coordinated hair?!

(Image 2)

I have a lot of photographs of brides from the 1880s and 1890s. Most are not in traditional wedding gowns instead they’ve accessorized with bridal details such as white veils and flowers like this young couple from the late 1890s. The bride definitely looks older than this groom!

(Image 3)

I think this tintype from the 1880s depicts a wedding. Jumping the broom (note the broom on the floor) was a wedding tradition in African American families and also some European families. Can’t imagine what the significance of the broom is, if this isn’t a wedding. I really like the fact that they are smiling; caught in a private joke.

(Image 4)

I’ll leave you with two (o.k. three) more pictures. I’m still investigating the significance of faux weddings with children called “Tom Thumb Weddings” after the famous nineteenth century personality.

(Image 5)

There were trends in wedding photos from portraits of a couple to those that I consider glamour shots of the bride. Then there are the photos that seem to include the entire extended family.

(Image 6)

(Image 7)

Obviously, I could go on and on about wedding photos. Had enough?


Sources: All photographs in this article are in the collection of the author.

Image 1: “unidentified” Bachrach Studio, Massachusetts identified as an undated copy. Original c.1860. Collection of the author

Image 2: “Aunt Ella’s Wedding Dress. Heavy brown “corded silk” “Compliments of Ella F. Miller, March 29th, 1873.” OOPS! Said 1876 in the article. J.W. Vail, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Collection of the author

Image 3: “Christian Lynge, Maria Gegusen, Mom and Pop Nelson” DeHart & Letson, Red Bank, N.J., c. 1898. Collection of the author

Image 4: “Unidentified tintype.” Collection of the author.

Image 5: “Unidentified.” Seaver, Hyannis, Mass., c. 1901. Collection of the author.

Image 6: “Unidentified.” c. 1925. Collection of the author

Image 7: “Unidentified ethnic wedding.” c. 1905. Collection of the author

Bibliography

“For Love or Money?” American Spirit (May/June 2004), pp. 40-43.
“Foreign Adventures,” Family Tree Magazine, Identifying Photos http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/mar1-07.htm
“ I Do!” Ancestry Daily News, http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=9046
“My Big Fat Vintage Wedding.” Family Tree Magazine (June 2003), pp. 34-39.
“The Story Behind the Picture,” Family Tree Magazine, Identifying Photos. http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/mar1-07.htm
“Wedding-Bell Clues, Photo Detective, Family Tree Magazine (December 2003), p. 66.
“Wedding Favors” Photo Detective , Family Tree Magazine (June 2006), pp. 72-73.
“Wedding Photos to Have and to Hold,” Ancestry Magazine (May/June 2002), pp. 16-21.

Article & Photographs
Copyright © 2008
Maureen Taylor
The Photo Detective Blog
The Photo Detective Website
Family Tree - Photo Detective Blog

4th Edition Smile For The Camera - A Carnival of Images

THE CARNIVAL'S IN TOWN

Welcome to the 4th Edition of Smile For The Camera!

My Favorite Photograph

This has been a Sofie's Choice Smile For The Camera. How could anyone choose just one photograph as their favorite, the one they wouldn't part with for a King's ransom? How indeed!

This carnival accomplished what I had hoped it would. Each participant stopped and reflected on every photograph they owned and carefully considered their selection and why it was chosen.

I did the same with my photographs. It was good to take another look at them and determine what each particular photograph meant to me and why. The album below is filled with very personal choices. Some amusing, some loving, some rare, and some heartbreaking for how important they were to you.

Open the cover and browse the 4th Edition of Smile For The Camera's album of favorite photographs.

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The first favorite photograph in the Smile Album is courtesy of Jessica Oswalt posted at Jessica's Genejournal. Jessica's picture of Montana, One of my Favorite Photos ...; is "one of" because she couldn't pick just one favorite.

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Jasia of Creative Gene also had a difficult time selecting one favorite, as her title so aptly indicates. How did she solve the dilemma? By creating a beautiful scrapbook page of two among her "one and only" photos in My Favorite Photo? Yeah, right.

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les dysom presents The Sartorialist: The Perfect Summer Look posted at Fashion Hobo. Follow the link to les' favorite summer wear fashion photograph. Very GQ. And while you're there check out the how to tie a tie video.

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Schelly Talalay Dardashti of Tracing The Tribe, offers Smiling faces: New Jersey, Moscow, Teheran, selections presented based on family geography. Schelly also offers some very good advice, "If you have inherited boxes of photos, do something about them today." I couldn't agree more!

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The commitment phobic Terry Snyder selects her favorite photograph, in Stories My Grandmother Told Me posted at the Desktop Genealogist, even though the selection might hurt the other photographs' feelings. This is a wonderful story by an excellent writer who never fails to deliver. The presentation of the photograph is ingenious!

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Wendy Littrell shows us and tells us of Two Sisters in Two Photos posted at All My Branches Genealogy. Wendy looks at her Grandmother Vesta "before" and "wonders." Reflections on the lives and the photographs not to be missed.

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Sasha Mitchell introduces us to Righteous Gladys! at Memory Lane. Sasha says, " I love this picture! . . . it speaks to me." One glance and you will understand why. I certainly "Took Heed" and so will you when you meet Gladys in all her glory!

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I am a fan of Rebecca Fenning's blog A Sense of Face. Her writing has a quiet confidence coupled with her photographer's eye for the accompaniment of a good photograph. One of her favorite photographs of all time is the mirror for her story ethel and arthur, ca 1927 redux. Hold up the photograph, look in the mirror, it's filled with a story.

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Oh what a life Becky Wiseman has led! If you don't believe me check out the story and photos in her article favorite foto - really? posted at kinexxions. Now I'm not sure that really is Becky in the freezer, you be the judge. And be careful when you visit this post, the government may be watching.

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Terry Thornton tells us his favorite history photograph is the JOHN SHERMAN THORNTON: Family Photo Circa 1915 posted at Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi. "Besides showing my grandparents, my father as a boy, several of my aunts, an uncle by marriage, and two first cousins, the photograph when removed from the frame shows two family pets --- two feist dogs. The photograph is thought to have been made at the family home at Weaver's Creek near Parham, Monroe County, Mississippi."

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Miss Jocelyn, our youngest carnival participant, visits again to show us Cowtown Boots posted at A Pondering Heart. Aren't those the fashion accessory used to kick cockroaches into corners? Welcome back Miss Jocelyn!

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Sheri Bush of TwigTalk participates in Smile For The Camera with her Favorite Photo - My First Carnival. The decision wasn't as difficult as Sheri had first thought. She also had the great good fortune to being able to question the portrait's sitter as to the circumstances surrounding the taking of her favorite photograph. This is a post not to miss!

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Laura immediately thought of The Goat Cart Picture when the "My Favorite Photograph" edition of the carnival was announced. Goats pulling carts in Queens, now there's a picture only seen at The Virtual Dime Museum! Although taken in 1896, Laura even knows the goat's name, thanks to the writing on the back. What a great photo!

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Kathryn Lake Hogan shares Kindergarten Baby with us at LOOKING4ANCESTORS. Oh, Kathryn, your photograph is just too cute for words. So don't spend any more time reading, go look at this little beauty!

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Randy Seaver introduces us to a period photograph of John Richman in his article Genea-Musings: John Richman (1788-1867) and Ann Marshman (1784-1856) posted at Genea-Musings. An expert commenting on this photograph said,"He is wearing a traditional Wiltshire smock, his neckerchief would most likely have been red and his hat was fashionable about 50 years before the picture was done, so he probably had it for years, but kept it for Sunday best. I think you will find he was a farmer as well as a butcher. . ." The entire article is extremely well researched and the photograph is captivating.

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Julie Cahill Tarr's Favorite Photo at GenBlog doesn't have any smiles in the photograph. But that didn't keep it from being one of Julie's favorites. Her mom, on the other hand, was smiling so much so that she ran and got the camera! The photograph is still capturing smiles and I'll bet yours is one of them. Take a look!

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Sheri Fenley shares her most cherished photograph in her Submission For Smile For The Camera. Sheri, of The Educated Genealogist, gets a bit of an education herself when she discovers her father had been a kid in the olden days! I see a family resemblance between your Dad and a certain photograph of you, Sheri!

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Ruth Stephens photograph, Smile For The Camera!, is her favorite. An extremely poignant snapshot in which Ruth expertly traces the timing and analyzes the three faces. You can see the resolve in the photograph, Ruth. A definite passage portrait and an important family treasure at Bluebonnet Country Genealogy.

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John Newmark found My Favorite? posted at Transylvanian Dutch to be a very unfair challenge. He rises to the challenge, though, as any good Missourian would! He creates a family tree photograph and shares a rare four generations portrait. As I've said John, my favorite changes by the moment. And if I ask him again, he will "Show Me" an entirely different photograph.

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A new home, a family heirloom and the lights of Miriam's life make up her favorite photograph in My Favorite Photograph posted at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors. One of those moments in time etched in your heart and captured in a photograph. The perfect favorite Miriam!

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Colleen presents an original solution to the "I can't pick just one photograph" in My Favorite Photograph posted at Orations of OMcHodoy. Colleen creates a collage. Very clever. In her collage she brings together parents, aunts, and grandparents in their youth . . . reminding her they brought their personalities and experiences to those roles. High marks for ingenuity, Colleen!

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Pam Taylor's favorite photograph, featured in her article The ride of a lifetime...., posted at Genealogy, doesn't show how much her mother challenged her to try something new. The story does. The woman in the photograph didn't know the meaning of the words "I can't," Pam says. And Pam was fortunate to inherit that attitude from her mother. This is an amazing photograph once you know the story and a tale as big as the Grand Canyon!

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I love the photograph Debra Osborne Spindle has chosen as her Favorite Photo posted at All My Ancestors. Two very sharp young men in a photograph that raises more questions then it provides answers. What were they up to Debra? If you ever solve the mystery be sure to let us all know.

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A whip, a wild horse, a boy in a dress are all part of the 1894 photograph Sue Tolbert has chosen as My Favorite Picture at Nana's Diggins. A smiling toddler in an 1894 photograph is hard to find. A wonderful family photograph, thanks Sue for letting us have a peek!

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A young life cut tragically short is the photograph Thomas MacEntee took only five seconds to choose. My Favorite Photograph posted at Destination: Austin Family shows a smiling woman who obviously loved life. The fashion conscious young woman modeling the hat and dress says it all. Thomas, we all want to know the truth of her unfortunate end.

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Stephen J. Danko really delivers with On the Glider posted at Steve's Genealogy Blog. This is a moment in time photograph and I just love it! A trip to the park, some quality family time, those are some of the best memories. Oh, and Steve, sorry but boys did wear those shoes way back when in 1957.

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Amanda Erickson couldn't select just one favorite so she treated us to the best of the best in Smile for the Camera - My Favorite Photos posted at Random Ramblings. There are some wonderful names associated with these photographs; Corrine, Drusilla, and Isabella. I can see why Amanda couldn't pick just one. And while your visiting at Amanda's blog take a look at her amazing drawings, such talent!

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Tim Agazio selects not a favorite, but an obsession with Smile for the Camera posted at Genealogy Reviews Online. I am a big fan of Tim's mystery photographs and I always stop by for a look. This is one of Tim's mysteries solved. Find out who the lovely young woman turned out to be.

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Denise Olson has a Sitting on the Moon portrait posted at Moultrie Creek. The moon was a very familiar prop during the period of time this photograph was taken. Trust Denise to add that something extra to her favorite's post though; a drawing by the young man in the photograph. An interesting photo and an equally interesting story Denise.

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Taneya, another digi-scrapper, places her favorite photograph in a "Spring Tulip" layout for My Favorite Photograph posted at Taneya's Genealogy Blog. Taneya also confesses she loves seeing her name in print because she loves her name. I love it too and will put your name in print every time you Smile For The Camera. And if you have any more photographs like this one we should be seeing your name in print often.

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Laura, does an excellent job of detective work in identifying the family members in her favorite photograph, Dating an Old Family Photograph - Case Study, at Life at the Home20. Laura created a time line and paid close attention to obvious and not so obvious clues contained in this photograph. A very logical look at photographic identification. I think she's got it!

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Lisa favorite photograph, If only this photograph had musical accompaniment posted at 100 Years in America, honors the man whose sacrifices benefited her life. His decision to immigrate and his tireless work to support his family started them off on a successful life in the new world. Lisa's excellent writing brings the photo, the man, and the family to life. You'll enjoy this one.

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Elizabeth O'Neal tells us that if her house were on fire, and she could only save one photograph, this would be the one for which she would risk life and limb to rescue, Worth More than 1,000 Words at Little Bytes of Life. When you see the photograph you will immediately understand the risk Elizabeth's willing to take.

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Susan J. Edminster isn't sure why she selected this photograph posted in Why Do I Love You? at her Echo Hill Ancestors Weblog. She is fascinated by the photograph and the mystery. So much so she took a road trip to find the answer. I know this fascination first hand. It can soon become an obsession, or has it already?

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Richard Creek's, My Favorite Photograph posted at The Cheek That Doth Not Fade, had me laughing out loud. A funny Irish priest? So Monty Python. And so is the photo that goes with the story. And Richard, you're something straight out of the Little Rascals. I really enjoyed this post, it's a hoot!

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Kathryn Doyle gives us a look at a then and then and then photograph in her article, A Photograph of Bygone Days, posted at the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. A glimpse of her home away from home, inside and out. I have been to this spot in Oakland, but never inside the Society and Library. Someday. The size of this photograph is remarkable as is the photograph itself and Kathryn's history lesson. Nice sourcing by the way!

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Janet Hovorka's favorite photograph is the family history picture she couldn't do without because "these are the people who brought our family name to the new world. The oldest picture we have of any Hovorka." It is a beautiful studio portrait found at Smile for the Camera, Carnival of Images--The Hovorkas posted at The Chart Chick. A lovely tribute Janet.

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George shows us two of but hundreds, his Favorite Photographs. A magnificent hat on a beautiful woman and a group of musicians having the time of their life! Yes, George, these are particularly cool. A feast for the eyes at George GederGenealogy-Photography-Restoration .

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Donna Pointkouski struggled with the selection of a favorite photograph, but in the end One of Many Favorite Photographs posted at What's Past is Prologue had won her heart. And the heart of another family member as well. We're anxious to see that corresponding photo and the story as only you can tell it, Donna.

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And closing the cover on this Smile Album is Yes, It's Who You Think It Is!, and no we're not related. A photograph taken by my Grandfather Edward Jesse Greene and displayed at footnoteMaven. As always, my ancestors and Clark Gable are here to Smile For The Camera!

Thank You All!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this fantastic 4th Edition of Smile For The Camera and welcome to all the first-time contributors. (40 participants!) A great success and a step toward a medal in the Genea-Bloggers Games! It is evident from each and every article that a great deal of time, effort and love went into each photographic contribution. As Randy would say, please take a moment to stop and comment and show your appreciation!

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Now The Call For Submissions!

5th EDITION

Smile For The Camera ~ A Carnival of Images

The word prompt for the 5th Edition of Smile For The Camera is Crowning Glory. Show us those wonderful photographs of hairdos and maybe even a few don'ts. Don't limit yourself to just hair fashion through the ages, got a great photograph of a hat, helmet, bonnet, or some other interesting headgear? Share!

Choose a photograph of an ancestor, relative, yourself, or an orphan photograph that is the epitome of Crowning Glory and bring it to the carnival. Admission is free with every photograph!

Your submission may include as many or as few words as you feel are necessary to describe your treasured photograph. Those words may be in the form of an expressive comment, a quote, a journal entry, a poem (your own or a favorite), a scrapbook page, or a heartfelt article. The choice is yours!

Deadline for submission is midnight (PT)
10 September, 2008.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

There are two options:

1. Send an email to the host, footnoteMaven. Include the title and permalink URL of the post you are submitting, and the name of your blog. Put 'Smile For The Camera' clearly in the title of your email!

2. Use the handy submission form provided by Blog Carnival, or select the Bumper Sticker in the upper right hand corner.

See you at the Carnival!

Past Editions Of Smile For The Camera:

1st Edition ~ Mother Love

2nd Edition - Belles & Beaus

3rd Edition - Celebrate Home

4th Edition - My Favorite Photograph

Dress For An Afternoon Tea

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article reprinted from
my collection of old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

A lesson in the dress for the era 1901 - 1915 for a special occasion. It's always good to know the proper dress required of the time period in which our ancestors lived. It just may help us date those old photographs. Ah, the rules. Come visit 1915 for afternoon tea.

THE AFTERNOON TEA

Chapter 11 - Receptions
Encyclopedia of Etiquette
By Emily Holt
1901 - 1915

The afternoon tea, or ceremonies at home, has for some years enjoyed a popularity that shows no signs of waning and has all but done away with the once almost universal evening reception.

Such teas are given throughout the winter season to introduce young ladies to society, to honor special guests, to give a young married couple an opportunity to meet their friends and to enable a hostess in a single afternoon successfully to entertain the whole list of her visiting acquaintances.

They are the least expensive and the least exacting functions in the list of social diversions and, considering the many good purposes they serve, the most useful and satisfactory.

Dress for an Afternoon Reception

The hostess at an afternoon tea wears a high-necked or moderately dècolletè gown of handsome material, elaborately trimmed, trained and set off with jewels. The women guests follow suit, and though a tailor-made or handsome morning dress may be worn to a reception, the fashion is now in favor of elegant slightly low-necked gowns of rich colors, fancifully decorated and worn with becoming afternoon hats, white or very light-toned gloves and dress shoes.

For a dèbutante and her assistants white or very light-tinted gowns are requisite, cut quite low in the neck. While the hostess, her daughters, and those ladies who pour tea for her, appear with heads bare and hair elaborately dressed, the women guests do not lay aside their hats or veils, or remove their gloves. Wraps, however, are put off in the dressing-room.

Don't forget to curl that little finger.

For an evening reception, the hostess wears a white, gray, black, or colored gown of silk, satin, lace or velvet, short in the sleeves and dècolletè at the neck, with a long train. Handsome jewels and an elaborate coiffure add to her appearance. All women guests imitate the hostess's example, wearing what is best known as elegant dinner gowns, with jewels, light or white gloves, slippers, and their hair elaborately dressed.

The host and all masculine guests at an afternoon reception in the fall or winter wear double- or single-breasted frock coats of black or very dark gray vicuna or soft cheviot, and double- or single-breasted waistcoats to match, or of fancy cloth. Trousers of gray, as a rule, look best; and with white linen, a broad folding tie of a light-colored silk, a top hat, gray gloves and patent-leather shoes, the reception costume is complete.

In the dressing-room or hall men lay aside their hats, overcoats and, if they wish, their walking sticks, and either take off but one glove, or take off both and carry them in one hand. Whatever course is followed, the right hand, bare of its glove, must be offered to the hostess.

For men at an evening reception the only permissible dress is full evening costume - a "full dress" coat of soft-faced black vicuna and trousers to match, a white linen, white bow-tie, patent-leather pumps or oxford ties and white gloves.

Notes:

Décolleté: Cut low at the neckline: a décolleté dress.
Vicuna: Fabric made from the fleece of a llamalike ruminant mammal (Vicugna vicugna) of the Andes.
Cheviot: a fabric of cheviot (small sheep) wool.

Source:

Holt, Emily. Encyclopedia of Etiquette - For Everyday Use. New York: Syndicate Publishing Company. 1901 - 1915.

Photo Of The Week - 11 August :: Hiram Heaton

HIRAM HEATON
Amherst Massachusetts

This cabinet card was featured in the Shades article Multigraph/Fivefold-Portraits. The unassuming looking gentleman had an extremely interesting life and an equally intriguing famous daughter. This week's Photo Of The Week explores the research found for Hiram Heaton of Amherst, Massachusetts.

Information taken from photograph:

(1) The card measures 4 1/4 in. (h) by 6 1/2 in. (w) and is 0.03 in. thick. The image measures 3 14/16 in. (w) X 5 1/2 in. (w). The corners of the card are rounded with gold edge. The card stock's original color appears to have been cream (matte finish) for the front and beige for the back. There is no border line. The ink used to identify the photographer is also gold.

(2) The photographer’s imprint on the front (recto) lists the photographer as H.E. Bosworth, Springfield, Mass. with the logo HEB.

(3) The back (verso) of the card is pictured below. There is a snapshot attached to the back. Below the snapshot is written, Mr. Heaton gardening - Oct 1909(?). Along the right side of the card is written (in a much stronger hand) Mr. Hiram Heaton - 1894 - Oct. - . Above the snapshot is written Photo By F. H. Marvin - Amherst, Mass.

(4) The card is a Multigraph, Fivefold-Portrait.

Analysis:

Card stock and size:

The card stock and size are consistent with photographs produced during the period of time on the back of the cabinet card.

Photographer:

H.E. Bosworth is listed as a photographer doing business at 321 Main Street in the Springfield, Massachusetts City Directory of 1894.

The photograph is consistent with the 1894 date handwritten on the back of the cabinet card.

Hiram Heaton:

Hiram Heaton was born 2 April 1844, in Moriah, Essex County, New York.

In 1870, twenty-nine year old Hiram Heaton worked for his mother, Mary Heaton, in the inn she owned in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, known as the Stockbridge House. It would later be called the Red Lion Inn because of the sign depicting a red lion that hung over the tavern in the 1700s. The Stockbridge House was immortalized in the Norman Rockwell painting Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas pictured below. The Stockbridge House is the last building on the far right. A literary colony was established in Stockbridge and the town and the inn were soon "discovered" by wealthy families who came to escape the hustle-bustle and grit of big city life.

Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas
Norman Rockwell

One such wealthy family was that of Ellen Cordelia Blackman Marvin, a thirty-nine year old widow with five children who traveled to Stockbridge in 1873 and vacationed at the inn. Ellen was the widow of Captain Charles Bernard Marvin who had made a fortune in the china trade during the San Francisco gold rush. He had also been a liquor merchant in the boomtown that was early San Francisco. Marvin married the much younger Ellen and purchased the governor's mansion in Burlington, Vermont, as their first home. The five Marvin children were Nellie, Charles, Frank, Bessie, and Sidney.

Ellen met Hiram Heaton and was immediately attracted to the young intellectual. Seven years her junior, Ellen convinced Hiram to marry her and travel the world. And travel they did for the next six years.

On 9 October 1874, in New York City Ellen and Hiram welcomed their only child, a daughter, Mary Marvin Heaton. It is a sign of the power wielded by Ellen Heaton and her purse strings that Hiram's only child had as her middle name the surname of Ellen's first husband. Hiram apparently became quite accustomed to wealth, listing his occupation in the 1870 census as a gentleman of leisure. I would guess his comfort with wealth was the reason Ellen continued to control the family.

Mary traveled with her parents attending kindergarten in Germany and art school in Paris. Hers was not a conventional education. She was educated by her father and his friends throughout the world. While Charles and Nellie Marvin both married and started their own families when Mary was very young, Mary enjoyed the company of her half-brother Sidney,who went to Europe to study medicine, her half-sister Bessie who was involved in music and her half-brother Frank who was a painter.

Frank H. Marvin, Hiram's stepson, was living with the family in Amherst in 1910 and is the photographer of the snapshot attached to the back of the cabinet card.

On October 7, 1879, Hiram Heaton purchased the house at 39 Amity Avenue in Amherst, Massachusetts, as the family's summer home. He filled its grounds with choice trees, shrubbery and flowers and took up gardening in his retirement. Amherst was a college town filled with intellectuals who often stopped to visit Hiram, share a beer and conversation. Emily Dickinson was one of the Heaton's visitors along with the writers and professors that populated the college town. It was here Mary Heaton learned to write stories that were almost as successful as Eugene Field's poems.

The home at 39 Amity Avenue

The Heaton's lived a very comfortable and sheltered life. At the age of twenty-three, Mary Heaton met Albert Vorse, a Harvard graduate, journalist, and aspiring author eight years her senior. They married secretly in New York after a five-week courtship, and again in a public ceremony at the Heaton home in Amherst on 26 October 1898. Vorse was a newspaperman and aspiring author. In 1892, Albert White Vorse had been a member of the Peary Relief Expedition for the Philadelphia Ledger and kept a keen interest in arctic affairs and in exploration. Vorse was interested in aeronautics and had made several ascensions. He and Mary had two children; Heaton White born 18 December 1901, and Mary Ellen born 8 May 1907.

The Vorses were happy in the first years of their marriage. Bert's career as an editor advanced and he was able to sell some writing on the side. Mary began her writing career by selling book reviews to the Criterion. Mary continued to write and became very successful penning her first book, The Breaking in of a Yachtsman's Wife.

Vorse not only resented her success, but was also a philanderer of whom Mary's mother Ellen disapproved. Albert and Mary led a lifestyle very similar to that of Mary's as a child. They traveled extensively in Europe. In 1910 Mary, Albert and their children again traveled to Italy and France. In Paris Vorse left his family and hurriedly returned home to complete a work on aeronautics for publication. He left behind his wife and children who were scheduled to return later.

To insure quiet Vorse took a room in a little Italian Inn on Staten Island. He was found unconscious in his room and was taken to the hospital where he died of a cerebral hemorrhage without gaining consciousness.

That same day, June 14, 1910, Ellen Blackman Marvin Heaton died in Amherst, Massachusetts of heart failure. Mary, at sea and on her way home, received a wireless message aboard the Prinzess Irene that her husband and her mother had both died suddenly on the same day. Mary arrived home to find that her extremely wealthy disapproving mother had written her out of the will. Mary became the sole support of her family and began her writing career in earnest. Her elderly father, Hiram, came to live with her in New York.

I have been unable to find the date of Hiram's death, but Mary writes of her father in the past tense in 1914 in her novel, A Footnote To Folly. I have assumed (rightly or wrongly until I have more information) that Hiram died sometime between June 1910 and 1914. He is not found in the 1920 census.

In 1912, Mary Heaton Vorse's observation of the Lawrence Massachusetts textile strike changed her life. From that day forward she only wrote fiction to support her children and finance her life as a foremost American labor journalist and activist. It was during this time she met and married the freelance writer, socialist, and suffragist Joe O'Brien. They had one child, Joe O'Brien, born 17 June 1913.

Here is one of those six degrees of separation moments. Mary and Joe held an International Conference Workers' meeting in Carnegie Hall in 1913. They would have had contact with my Great Grandfather Louis Salter as he was the Superintendent of Carnegie Hall and was charged with all lectures.

In 1915, Mary was again widowed when Joe O'Brien died of cancer. Shortly after O'Brien's death Mary attended the Women's International Peace Conference held at The Hague. Once again a widowed single, working mother and a suffragist, Vorse became even more concerned with feminist issues.

In 1920 Mary fell in love with Robert Minor, a cartoonist who eventually became the secretary of the American Communist party. They never legally married and had no children. They separated two years later.

The separation from Minor did not affect Mary's commitment to radical, democratic socialism, which prompted her coverage of the 1914 Industrial Workers of the World unemployed movement; the 1916 Mesabi Range, Minnesota, mining strike; the 1919 national steel strike; and the 1920 Amalgamated Clothing Workers' strike.

After traveling to the Soviet Union in 1921 and 1922, Vorse resumed her famous reporting on militant labor disputes. She witnessed the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey, textile strike and the Congress of Industrial Organizations battles waged across the nation in the 1930s. In 1931 she was driven out of "Bloody Harlan County," Kentucky, by night riders. In 1937 Mary was wounded by the gunfire of vigilantes at the Republic Steel Corporation plant at Youngstown, Ohio. She was covering the strike, in which two strikers were killed and many wounded, for the Federated Press.

She also covered Hitler's rise to power, events in Stalin's Soviet Union, the lives of American factory workers during World War II, and reconstruction in Europe after the war. Vorse's travels to Hungary in 1919 and to Moscow in 1921 and 1933 fueled her gradual disillusionment with Communism, which came earlier to her than it did to most of her liberal and leftist friends. Her critical reassessment of Marxism-Leninism diminished her popularity in some circles, as did her later refusal to embrace anti-Communist fervor once Stalin's crimes had become apparent and the Cold War had begun. Vorse would not sanction the persecution of American Communists or the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.

Mary Heaton Vorse died peacefully at home on 14 June 1966. She left two sons, Heaton Vorse of Provincetown and Joel O'Brien of Westport, Connecticut; as well as a daughter Mary Ellen Boyden also of Provincetown.

Note: This article deals with the family of Hiram and Ellen Blackman Marvin Heaton and their daughter Mary Heaton Vorse. It is not a discussion of Mary Heaton Vorses' career or works. That is outside the scope of this writing.

All this from one simple cabinet card. I had no idea when I purchased the multigraph the treasure that it held.

Sources:

Books:

Darrah, William C. Cartes de Visite in 19th Century Photography. Gettysburg: Darrah, 1981.
Garrison, Dee. Mary Heaton Vorse: The Life of an American Insurgent. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.
McCulloch, Lou W. Card Photographs, A Guide To Their History and Value. Exton, Pennsylvania: Schiffer 1981.
Mace, O. Henry. Collector's Guide To Early Photographs.Iola, Wisconsin: Krause, 1999.
Severa, Joan. Dressed For The Photographer. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1995.
Vorse, Mary Heaton. A Footnote to Folly: Reminiscences of . New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935

Census:

1870 U.S. census, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Stockbridge, p. 743, dwelling 397, family 398, Hiram Heaton (Head); digital images. Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/ : retrieved 7 August 2008); citing NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 602.

1880 U.S. census, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Amherst, p. 275, dwelling 402, family 434, Hiram Heaton (Head); digital images. Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/ : retrieved 7 August 2008); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 537.

1900 U.S. census, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Amherst, p. 2, dwelling 20, family 22, Hiram Heaton (Head); digital images. Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/ : retrieved 7 August 2008); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 653.

1910 U.S. census, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Amherst, p. 46, dwelling 20, family 22, Hiram Heaton (Head); digital images. Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/ : retrieved 7 August 2008); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 593.

Photographs:

Hiram Heaton. Cabinet Card. ca. 1894. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Hiram Heaton Gardening by F. H. Marvin. Snapshot. ca. 1909. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

House on Amity Avenue. Digital. 1879. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Passport Application:

Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Emergency Passport Applications (Passports Issued Abroad), 1877-1907 (M1834).

Web:

Harde, Roxanne. "Mary Heaton Vorse." American Radical and Reform Writers: First Series. Ed. Steven Rosendale. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 303. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Gale. KING COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM. 9 Aug. 2008 .

New York Times, 15 June 1966

American National Biography Online, Mary Heaton Vorse, accessed 9 August 2008.