And The Guest Author Is . . .

LISA JARVIS
(l-r Cole, Trent, Kari, Lisa, & Jake)

This Friday From The Collectors, Shades welcomes Lisa Jarvis and her story of a special family tradition with photographs. Lisa has long been interested in documenting her family life with photographs; she describes her interest and herself this way.

I am first a mother, second a teacher. I stayed at home with my kids for 10 years before heading back into the classroom. I wanted to be there for all of the 'firsts'; steps, haircut, tantrum(s), school days, etc.

I knew my memory was not a great record keeper, so my camera became a constant companion. I adore photography! Especially family photos - more the snapshot, unplanned type rather than the studio pictures. Which then leads to scrapbooking but I will confess that I don't do it as much as I should. My pictures have pictures! I pour over photography magazines so that I might get a new tip try that will yield photographic excellence.

I went back to work as a teacher when my youngest entered Kindergarten. I am lucky enough to work at the same school as my children. I am a 6th grade teacher in a K-8 school in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

I have always loved working with children and teaching is just a natural extension of that love. My photography obsession does not end with my own children. My computer is loaded with more pictures of my students than my own children! I can't help it. I want to get that one "perfect" picture of a child doing something wonderful. Sometimes it is rock-climbing or maybe it will be a student working diligently on a project on the computer. You never know where photo-inspiration will strike!

This will be a Friday not to miss
as this is "our California daughter!"

See you September 4th For
Friday From The Collectors
With Lisa Jarvis

Weekend With Shades - Sunday - August 30

APPEALING SUBJECTS
BY CRAIG MANSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

Photography was all the rage in the St Louis area at the turn of the twentieth century, and not surprisingly so. The city was "The Gateway to the [still wild] West." It would be celebrating the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase .and the Lewis & Clark Expedition. A World's Fair had come to the city. It was a photographer's Paradise.

When A.J. Magill had the chance to get into the photography business, he jumped at it--or at least he would have jumped had he had two good legs with which to do so. Magill had been one of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders at San Juan Hill; but he had survived that unscathed. However, when the handsome soldier with "a magnificent physique" returned to civilian life in Missouri, he had taken a job at the St Louis National Stockyards. Such work in that era was highly dangerous. A court later had occasion to describe what then happened to Magill:

Weekend With Shades - Saturday - August 29

THE HUMOR OF IT
BY DONNA POINTKOUSKI
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades -





Last month I took readers on a trip down memory lane with my recollection of the Fotomat kiosks. My young nieces are still trying to understand this foreign concept of film, as well as the fact that photo printing was clearly not a do-it-yourself venture until fairly recently in history. In college, I had a job that put me on the front lines of the photo developing world – the drop-off and pick-up segment of the process. I didn’t work at Fotomat, but I spent six years slaving at a supermarket in an aisle that included small appliances, music, cosmetics, perfume, movie rentals (VHS only!), and – film developing. Yes, I had access to the neighborhood’s photos and knew all the secrets. Well, maybe not. But I could have had I been less scrupulous and more curious.

Use Those Family Photographs In Calendars

This is an article that appeared in Shades in July 2008.

Recently I was asked by a family member to create a calendar that didn't hang on the wall. She wanted a desktop calendar.

So I looked around for inspiration and a method that would be plausible for a one time printing. I found a desktop calendar in a gift shop by a Seattle artist I liked. She created a calendar of her artwork that was printed on a 5 X 7 card and placed in an acrylic frame that sat on the desk. One card for each month.

I loved the idea! First I created a 5 X 7 template in Photoshop (any similar program would work - there is some trial and error but the results are worth the work). I used the twelve months of 2009, but as each month is a separate page you could include from now until the end of 2008 along with 2009. I also added a page that listed all the family birthdays. This page can be turned around to face out from the back of the frame.

~ Here Is The Frame On The Desk ~

Once you've created the template you can experiment with different type styles and colors. One style for all twelve months, or twelve different styles. The choice is yours and you are only limited by your own creativity.

Example A

Example B

Example C

Then if you have the time, you can get very creative.


As each month is only 5 X 7, I am able to print them at home on my inkjet printer using 5 X 7 photo paper. If I want to do more than one set and would like to save my printer ink, I can go into Issaquah and have them printed in Costco's Photo Department for $0.39 each. They are a photograph after all. (Other family members have now seen this and want one designed just for them. My daughter wants one using her boys' drawings.)

I bought the acrylic frame pictured above at Aaron Brothers (there are numerous online retailers that sell the same frame). The frame normally sells for $1.99. While I was there I also purchased a clear glass block 5 X 7 picture frame to see how it would work with the calendar. The glass block is very elegant. If you're giving the calendar as a gift, the glass block is a very nice presentation. The glass block sells for $14.99, however, it's the 1 Cent Sale at Aaron Brothers, so I bought the glass block and got the acrylic frame for 1 cent. The total calendar cost about $20 (using the glass block), about $7 (using the acrylic frame); and you have a unique and personalized calendar.

Now I didn't want to use the "X" word (Xmas), but if you're making gifts now is the time to start.

Let's Use Those Old Family Photographs!

There are five weekends in this month, but only four "Weekend With Shades" columnists. So a new edition of "Weekend With Shades" will be published next week. Today Shades will answer a readers' question.

Recently a Shades reader asked what I did with all the photographs I own. Besides framing them and hanging then on every wall in the house? I'm running a past Shades article on "Let's Use Those Old Family Photographs" to give you a few ideas. Notice I didn't say the Xmas word, but I should. Enjoy!

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. (This can be done in any imaging program.) 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.

Water Water Everywhere

And Too/Two Well-Dressed To Get Wet

There were many reasons for "real photo" postcards to be received from abroad. War, travel, diplomacy, and foreign residence to name a few. Travels and life became the subjects for 3A cameras and the real photo postcard. Kodak held an international audience as well as a U.S. market.

The ad states: "Convenient, efficient, made especially for those who want to take the most popular size of amateur pictures - 3 1/4 X 5 1/2. This size is just right for post cards . . ."

From 1902 on, Eastman urged dealers to encourage amateurs to take and make postcards. They developed advertising campaigns in magazines of the day to encourage this use. Kodak even developed its own line of advertising postcards that were introduced around 1902 and continued until 1916. These cards used images of "the Kodak girl."

Kodak Girl Magazine Advertisement

Kodak Girl Used On Postcard Advertising

The postcard craze plus life abroad is demonstrated in this postcard from Gatico, Chile; my submission for the "Water" prompt of the Festival of Postcards.

Gatico, Chile Postcard

Postcard Inset
Two Women Dressed Very Much As
The Kodak Girl Magazine Advertisement

The postcard reads:

Gatico
March 8th 1910

Dear Grace -

Received your
photograph and
many thanks. We
think it very good of you, but it
makes me realize that I am getting old
for only 10 yrs. ago you
came to Chile a little girlie.

Best love to all
Sincerely
Bessie Allen
This is a photo of Silla Brown & myself on arch north of Gatico.

En este lado debe escribirse unicamente la direction
(Thank you to an anonymous reader who has contributed in the comments. This means that the address goes here!) The Spanish at the top of the postcard translates to Postcard and Universal Postcard.

This is one of the postcards from the collection of Grace Mathewson of 422 Hickory St., Anaconda, Montana. In 1910 Grace lived with her parents Edward Payson Mathewson and Alice (Barry) Mathewson. At the time this postcard was written Grace was not quite fifteen years old.

Grace not only liked to collect postcards, but she also became accustomed to traveling herself as you will note from the reference in this postcard to her being in Chile in 1900.

Grace's father Edward Payton Mathewson was the superintendent of the Washoe Smelter of The Anaconda Copper Mining Company in Anaconda, Montana. Edward worked as a mining engineer in Colorado, Montana, Mexico, Canada, China and Chile. It is assumed that Edward and his family lived in Chile in 1900 as referenced in this postcard. More can be read about Grace and her family here.

The card starts its journey in Gatico, Chile, located in Antofagasta. During the time discussed in the postcard and the time the post card was written a great deal of copper mining was being done in this area. It would make sense that Grace had lived here and knew people, as mining was Grace's father's profession.

The card references a trip to the arch north of Gatico. I believe this to be the now National Monument La Portada, a huge arch of volcanic rock of the Jurassic period (approx. 200 million years old), and the monument marking the imaginary line of the Tropic of Capricorn.

I do not believe the rocks the women are standing on are volcanic so I doubt this photograph was taken at the arch, perhaps somewhere on the road during this trip.

~ All This From A Simple Postcard ~
Wander The World & The Web
You Never Know Where You Might Find A Connection

Other Postcard Articles:

A Sign Of The Times - The Candlestick Telephone In A Postcard

Big Wheels - President Theodore Roosevelt and Family.

Sometimes Main Street Is The Whole Town - Glendive, Montana

Papa Can You Hear Me - A young girl in Montana looks for her father.

From A Simple Postcard - Grace Mathewson and her collection.


Sources:

Advertisement:

Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920 - Ad #K0018
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa.K0018/pg.1/

Books:

Vaule, Rosamond. As We Were: American Photographic Postcards, 1905-1930. Boston: David R. Godine, 2004.

Eastman Kodak Company. Kodakery. Rochester, N.Y., Eastman Kodak Company, 1917.

Photographs:

Anonymous. "[No. 28 - The Kodak Girl.]" Photograph. 1909. From Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b17968. (accessed August 12, 2009).

Postcard:

Two Women On Rocks. Anonymous. Real Photo Postcard. 1910. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, Preston, WA. 2008.

Websites:

Kodak Girl. The Kodak Girl.com. 2008.

The Carnival's In Town

16th EDITION

Smile For The Camera
10 August 2009

Put on your Shades, the bling is blinding. We have a jewelry box filled with the images of your "Ancestor Bling." The common thread that runs through these submissions is that the true value of our "bling" is not the value used for insurance purposes, but rather the sentimental value of the piece or the photograph. That value can't be quantified, but we know it is priceless.

Again, you have outdone yourselves presenting a very interesting and varied group of photographs depicting friends and relatives and their "Ancestor Bling." From a fob made of hair to a tiara and everything in between, they're represented here.

Let's open the cover of this edition of Smile For The Camera's album of "Ancestor Bling."

Cyndi Beane Henry owns the bling she writes about at Ancestry Bling..., but what she'd really like is a photograph of her Great Grandmother wearing it. The beautiful handmade "Annette's Cross" is the centerpiece of this exceptionally well written family story at Mountain Genealogists.

Lorine McGinnis Schulze displays Grandpa's Gold Pocket Watch engraved, From Mum & Dad, April 24th, 1914 in her Smile For The Camera "Bling, ancestor Bling" post at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. The watch was a gift to him on his 21st birthday in 1914. Lorine gives us photographs of her grandfather and the watch as her "Bling" submission. She also teaches a lesson regarding displaying our cherished family possessions. Heed the warning!

A beautiful "Old World" photograph provides the backdrop for T. Casteel's Old World Bling submission at Tangled Trees. I wonder if the lockets worn by the two young women in this photo contained a photograph or some other memento.

"It's charming little girl, bling! A tiny child's bracelet that holds special memories and a place in my heart," Midge Frazel tells us in Watch Hill Bracelet posted at Granite in My Blood. "Forever intertwined with the peaceful sea and hurricane disaster, this bracelet is a precious reminder of life." We can always count on Midge for a wonderful story.

Three photographs from 1860 to 1910 show a Locket Forever, recycled, repolished, reset for a chain, repinned and obviously cherished in Leslie Mehana's submission, Wordless Wednesday: Ancester Bling at Rooting Around Genealogy. Leslie, do you own the locket? I'd love to know.

"Not on one strand are all life’s jewels strung." This is the beautiful quote Evelyn Yvonne Theriault attaches to her photograph La Dolce Vita: Italian Sophisticates from 1950s Milan (Italy) posted at A Canadian Family. A very intriguing photograph. And don't miss Evelyn's carnival, A Festival of Postcards. I love it.

"Raquel del Castillo wore this gold chain and pendant most often. This was her most prized 'bling'." Lucie LeBlanc Consentino also tells us that the woman behind the "bling" epitomized the old adage "pretty is as pretty does" in Acadian Ancestral Home: Rachel [Raquel] del Castillo Dumais posted at Acadian Ancestral Home. A lovely photograph!

Julie Cahill Tarr has posted a photograph of her Grandmother wearing a piece of photo jewelry in her post GenBlog: Grandma’s Bling at GenBlog. Julie believes it was a gift at a special occasion, the photograph showing that occasion. Lucky woman, Julie owns the "bling."

Linda Hughes Hiser says, "This is Ancestor 'Bling' featuring a little twist--rather than an ancestor wearing bling, the ancestor is on the bling." I won't spoil the surprise. Visit Linda's article 16th Edition of Smile for the Camera--Bling posted at Flipside. Hint - it's one of the three areas I collect.

Diane Manley's husband's family must have set great store on being on time. Take a look at the photograph posted on Smile For The Camera - Bling at Attic Treasures and see if you don't agree.

Alex Coles is from Aukland, New Zealand, and writes the blog Winging It. I love the name. Winging It is The Research Journal of the Wing One Place Study (and other genealogical ramblings). Alex has chosen to show us a little "bling" and its journey in From Wing To Eternity. Alex is a kick!

"My own knowledge about jewellery is almost non-existent but the brooch being worn by the young woman in this photo is one from which even I can derive some information immediately," says Brett Payne of the Photo Sleuth. Brett does it again. An amazing photograph and equally amazing research combine for The latest 1897 Paris fashions in Walsall. And Brett, there are extra points for the lorgnette.

Kay Bauman's Time for Bling is an excellent article and an education in timepieces. It should be required reading for those of us who have inherited a pocket watch. I suspect Kay and her husband, as collectors of watches, have had quite an education. We're fortunate they're willing to share. Stop by Kay B's Place you won't be disappointed.

No matter what a woman wears she is perfectly turned out with the addition of one particular piece of jewelry as Ambar demonstrates in Great-Grandma's Pearls posted at Still More Genealogy. Timeless, the pearls and the photographs.

Mad, my friend Kiril Kundurazieff, displays his personal "bling" in a musical jewelry box that belonged to his mother. In his post Jewelry Box, Belonging To Mom, Still Plays Tune, and Now Holds My Class Rings, he takes us on a tour of the family "bling" chest at Musings of a Mad Macedonian.

If you're looking for a twist on "bling," make that "twisted bling," you need look no further than the Poinkouski clan and friends. These people are not only attractive, but inventive. Well, they say seeing is believing and this must be seen. So go, visit Donna Pointkouski at What's Past Is Prologue for a A Different Kind of Bling!

Miriam Robbins Midkiff weaves a garnet tale in Bling! Bling! My Garnet Ring at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors. A bitter sweet story where one ancestor fails to understand the significance of something sentimentally precious and another understands completely. The result appears in the photograph.

It's good to see Dru Pair at Smile and she's accompanied by the Bling of Aunt Lucy Bullock Russell, a sister of her great great grandfather Andrew Bullock, and some of Lucy's daughters. From a chatelaine to a string of pearls you'll find them in Dru Pair's photographs in The Russell Family's Bling at Find Your Folks.

"In a series of posts called 'Please Keep These Things' I have been cataloging items that I want my daughters to keep to pass down to their children," Greta Koehl tells us. "This article covers the few items of jewelry that I inherited from my mother and grandmother. When I was going through my pictures to find a photograph showing my mother wearing some of this jewelry, I found three pictures that brought back a fond memory of my mother and me playing Fashion Show." You can attend the show at Please Keep These Things: Mom’s and Grandma’s Jewelry on Greta's Genealogy Bog.

Tina Micheal Ruse tells us her family was pretty much blingless, yet a tiaraed Tina graces one of the photographs in 16th Edition of Smile for the Camera--Bling posted at Highway 99. It's a wonderful post in which we are given the provenance for each of the items pictured. The value of ancestor bling rarely lies in diamonds and gold. Tina knows where it is.

I am a fan of Caroline Pointer's Family Stories blog. She is one very creative woman. In The Family Jewels we are treated to a photographic feast of "ancestor bling." Caroline has done an excellent job of representing both the men and the women of her family. There is some very unique "bling" to be seen here. Don't miss this fantastic submission!

Becky Wiseman has a photograph of a lovely woman in a lace accented dress wearing a chatelaine. Attached to the chatelaine is a watch tucked into a hidden lace pocket in the lace accents. They've got just a little bling posted at kinexxions treats us to more of Becky's wonderful family photographs. Here she also has a family group in which one of the little boys wears a medal pinned to his jacket. Could it be an attendance medal for Sunday school or a medal belonging to his father that he's allowed to wear? What do you think?

In Not much Bling in the Carringer-Auble families posted at Genea-Musings, Randy says, " My grandparents and earlier generations were frugal and simple people. They did not spend much, if any, money on jewelry or expensive things. I managed to find a photograph of my mother and her mother wearing beautiful pearl necklaces dated around 1930. The best part of the picture is the beauty of these two special people in my life. That's my favorite bling!" Randy knows true jewels when he sees them.

Jasia creates another beautiful digi-scrapping page in A Woman's Hair is Her Crowning Glory, And it Makes Good Bling Too! at her blog Creative Gene. Jasia tells us, "This was a tough theme for me fM. Being as I'm a bling collector, I had so many possible choices! In the end, I opted for one I do not own (my brother does) but I think it's the most precious of all the family jewelry." Yes, Jasia's family has something very unique. Queen Victoria gave pieces of jewelry made from her hair as gifts, many given to her children and grandchildren. Napoleon wore his watch on a chain made from the hair of his wife Empress Marie Louise. Your family is in good company.

"Almost all the women in our family are definitely" into jewelry...for that matter what woman isn't?" says Leilani of FamilyHistoryImages in her post "Life with a Spy." Now this is a family that knows its "bling" and Leilani has the photographs to prove it. Her mother had a story to go with every piece and Leilani inherited them stories and all.

Vickie Everhart's digi-scraping work is so beautiful. Just when you think she won't be able to top her last creation, she does. Here she has something specifically for Smile for the Camera :: Girls and their pearls at her Blog -- BeNotForgot. Vickie tells us, "The family history collage I created for the 'bling' edition of Smile for the Camera is not very 'blingy,' but it does feature three generations of women who are all wearing their pearls and a slight smile as they pose for the camera. And just for fM, two of these women are even wearing glasses!" Love them!

Ruth Stephens of Bluebonnet Country Genealogy has given us the post not to miss. This is an amazing collection of photographs of The Broach being worn from about 1865 to 1994. It's beauty is timeless.

Illuminated Ancestries' Carol Genung introduces us to the signature pearls in Smile for the Camera, 16th Edition. There are some women who are not properly attired until they have closed the clasp on their beloved pearls. Carol is related to one such woman.

foonoteMaven closes the album cover on this edition of Smile For The Camera with Diamonds Are Not This Girl's Best Friend posted at footnoteMaven. My ancestor bling contains no diamonds, no sapphires, no gold. It wasn't crafted by Tiffany. It is a simple brooch. A brooch that contains something near and dear to the footnoteMaven's heart. It is a brooch that contains a photograph.

Thank You All!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this fantastic 16th Edition of Smile For The Camera and welcome to all the first-time contributors. It is evident from each and every article that a great deal of time, effort, love, and research went into each photographic contribution. As Randy Seaver would say, please take a moment to stop and comment and show your appreciation!

Now The Call For Submissions!

17th EDITION

Smile For The Camera
10 September 2009

The word prompt for the 16th Edition of Smile For The Camera is "School Days." It is September, historically the month when a new school year begins. We all have images of the days spent in school. The barefoot children gathered together with their teacher in front of the rural school your ancestors attended. Children at their desks, children at play in the school yard, and those obligatory school photographs - one for every year. Show us your family memories of school days. 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 2009
Posted - 16 September 2009

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, your name, 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!