Cabinet Card Photographs #1 — Jay Vill Design

So a while ago, I was browsing my local SAXET gunshow. And while I have no interest in guns, I do have an interest in the candied pecans and antique items they sell there. This past time I went, I noticed a box full of old, disheveled photos and asked the seller how much for a photo. But she was willing to sell me the whole box for $10!! I took her on that offer and bought the whole box.

First of all, the box smells delightfully, and appropriately like a mix between a photo lab and an old library. But after skimming through it, I noticed that a lot of the photos were either torn, falling apart, missing from their frame, or extremely faded. Along with the old photos, there were also some cool vintage postcards.

Me, being a lover of lost media, and the thought of someone’s memory and a piece of someone’s life fading to dust in a box just makes me sad. So I decided to scan these photos, and maybe use them for other projects, or digitally restore them, and put them here for people to appreciate them, and maybe do a little bit of research on the photo labs watermarked on some of the photos.

It turns out that the majority of photos that I had gotten are called Cabinet Card Photos. This genre of portrait photography was really popular in the late 1800’s. It was later dethroned by Postcard Photography in the early 1900’s, which I have some and will get into eventually. Cabinet Card Photos are defined by being mounted on a small 4 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch piece of cardboard. It is also actually possible to date the photo by the cardboard it is mounted on. By examining the card stock weight, color, design, edges and ink.

The first photo is of a couple, done by Randall, of Anglin and Randall Photography, based out of Atlanta, Georgia, presumably in the 1870’s-1890’s. But what’s interesting is that after searching for this photo lab, is that it seems like they split up, which I guess left only Randall to take the helm. I have seen many pictures where the watermark only has the Randall part of Anglin and Randall, such as this photo of Civil War veteran, James H. Redmon from 1898.

And upon further research, it turns out J. Robert Anglin was a retoucher for MM & WH Gardner in the 1890’s. There’s also this interesting news clipping.

But unfortunately, there isn’t much else available online for these photographers.

Next up is a photo of what I can only speculate are siblings. Due to how much negative space there is, I think there might have a been a paper frame flap with an oval in the center that has since fallen off.

It was taken by Marceau & Bellsmith from Cincinnati, Ohio, and was taken sometime between the studio’s founding in 1887 and Bellsmith’s death in 1910.

Embedded below is the exact location they would have had their studio. But sadly now, it’s an empty lot under construction.

The photo seems to have an Imperial branded enamel photo fixing solution coated on the paper to protect it from scratches and grime. There exists a company named Imperial today that manufactures enamel coatings for paint, but that was founded in 1958. It turns out that the company behind the fixing solution, Imperial Dry Plate Co. Ltd. was a company located in London that produced dry plates and was eventually acquired by Ilford sometime in the 1920’s. Ilford still very much exists today and produces a variety of film developing tools and mediums like photo-sensitive paper.

Next is a photo of a man which was taken by Thomas Benton Blackshear from Macon, Georgia, who was a Confederate Civil War Veteran. Blackshear was shot in the leg but returned to battle soon afterwards, and lived on to become a photographer. Blackshear died from an attempted suicide after suffering from influenza in 1911. His obituary stated that he he had retired a year prior, which puts this photo from possibly the 1870’s to sometime in 1910, but I’d go so far to say it was most likely from the 1880’s.

From his advertisements on the newspaper at the time, it seems one dozen cabinet cards were worth $5 in 1903. That might seem pretty cheap, but today that is worth $145.

Above is a photo of a mother and her two kids, taken by the photographers Harry M. Slack & William H. Hatfield from Trenton, New Jersey. They were among the over 200 active photographers in Trenton in the 19th century and were active from 1889 to around 1903. They were located on 27 & 29 E. State Street, which as of right now seems to be a closed Center City Sports Outlet.

William H. Hatfield was born on May 1865, and according to the 1900 census was single, and living with his mother and two sisters. While Harry M. Slack was born on December 1864, and was also single living with his mother at the time of the census.

Next is a portrait of a young girl taken by John G. Hathaway in Chillicothe, Ohio sometime between the early 1880’s and the early 1900’s. He was born in Rochester, New York in 1849. He studied photography in Marietta, Ohio. In 1876 he opened a photography studio with another man; It was called Fuller & Hathaway. Sometime in 1882, Fuller retired leaving Hathaway to himself. Hathaway had gotten married in 1875 and had two children with Annett Morse. Hathaway sadly died September 5, 1905 due to a stomach hemorrhage.

Although the business did not die with him. The family business kept going strong in Chillicothe until 1959!

In 1991, The Hathaway Studio and original negatives were bought by local historian G. Richard Peck, and were subsequently utilized in his historical biography of the city of Chillicothe.

Below is an excerpt from a book that contains a letter Hathaway wrote to Canadian Photographer James Inglis.

**The Photo-beacon, Volume 10 - Page 29**

This photo, which is addressed from Jessie A. Marley, which I assume is the woman in the picture, was taken by J. E. McLain of Bluffton, Indiana. Not much is known about him other than the fact this his studio may have been located at 510 E. Cherry Street, and that he eventually opened up a studio in Oakland California in 1913. He was also documented to be a part of the Photographer’s Association of America as late as 1916.

Also, it seems as though his son, John E. McLain Jr. had a camera shop from 1936-1940 in Massillion, Ohio.

Also shown are other photos by McLain. One of an infant, found in an Ebay auction, and another being a postcard of a family, found on a postcard site.

This portrait of a woman was taken by one of the many individuals that dealt with photography that happened to have the surname Adams from Atlanta, Georgia, probably sometime in the 1890’s.

Firstly, there’s Frank K. Adams who worked in the Adams’ Photo Supply Co. in the late 1890’s, but only in a managerial sense, and very briefly.

Then there is J. Q, or John Quinton Adams, who was born in Lynchburg, Virginia on February 1, 1859. His first photography gig was with popular photographer C.W. Moted in 1890. But by 1895, he had bought the Atlanta Photo Co. and renamed it to Adams’ Photo Co. in 1896. It stayed that way until 1910, when he partnered up with William M. Edwards and founded the Edwards-Adams Studio until Edwards left in the early 1920’s. Adams died November 21, 1927 after receiving a skull fracture from an automobile accident. Here is a portrait of J. Q. Adams.

Next is a photo of a young man, with a handwritten note that says, “As Ever Yours - Buddy”. I’m not too sure who took this as it is not in a frame nor does it have a watermark, but it probably belongs to a loose frame floating in the box I fished this photo from. I might make an update on this photo if I can properly identify when and where it came from.

This next photo was taken by Walter L. Elrod in Louisville, Kentucky. The 1889 Louisville Directory first lists his place of business at 313 West Jefferson Street, but it soon moved to 323/325 West Jefferson Street in 1890, and then finally to 325 West Jefferson Street in 1891. This leads me to believe that the exact date that this photo was taken would be 1890. What is peculiar is that the directory name for 313 West Jefferson Street changes from being owned by John. C Elrod since 1882(He’s been situated at 144 W. Jefferson since 1862.), to Charlton Elrod in 1888, to Walter in 1889, back to John in 1890, to C. H. and Bro. in 1892, which could be Charlton and John?

And it stays that way until 1904, but C.H. is still listed as owning it past 1907. What is interesting though is that John C. Elrod is considered a sort of daguerreotype pioneer for the south. He was born sometime between 1824-1825, and one of his tintypes or ferrotypes was published as a wood engraving on then popular magazine, Harper’s Weekly in 1858.

After doing some more research, it turns out that Charlton Elrod is in fact the son of John C. Elrod. Charlton was born February 1, 1864 and died May 9, 1944. from Hypertensive Heart Disease stemmed from a Cerebral Hemorrhage, or at least that’s what I can make out from the death certificate. Seriously, shout out to my mom for being able to read ye olde cursive. While John Coleman Elrod died July 21, 1891 from Pneumonia. As for Walter Lee Elrod, he was born on March 3, 1851, and most likely died July 13, 1902. There is this interesting news clipping from 1894 however. It seems Walter Elrod was charged for publishing obscene photos.

Above is the front and back of a picture of a man possibly named Mr. Davidson. I searched online and found a man named Meijer Davidson who was born in 1873 in the Netherlands, so he could’ve possibly emigrated here and got a picture taken sometime in his late 20’s-early 30’s, but the brief biography of Meijer states he died in the Holocaust. The chances of him moving here in his early twenties, and the moving back and dying in the Holocaust are extremely slim, so I’ll just assume it’s another Davidson.

After digging around, I found a scanned 1881 Nashville Directory that had the names and professions of Mahon & Taylor, but it seems this was before or after their partnership. William Shute Mahon was a photographer at 119 N. College Street and was born August 12, 1847 and died April 3, 1915 due to intense Toxaemia. C Samuel A Taylor was a photo printer at 45 Union Street, but sadly that’s is all I could find out about them and their business.

Also I love the design for the back of the card. The Late-Victorian style means that there are less borders than is usually typical for this particular style, but it still has that flashy typography all over the page, little straight lines, and the Romantic imagery of the crest in the top left. Maybe I’ll experiment with the style someday, it’s very inspiring, and reminds me of the current chalkboard/calligraphy typography trend.

In contrast however, is the back to W. L. Elrod’s photo (pictured way above), which has much more of an Art Nouveau style, in that it it primarily shows a female figure, and has that geometrical, linear and intricate based frame. Which makes sense considering the directory I found Mahon and Taylor was from the early 1880’s when the Victorian Style was still very popular, and W.L Elrod’s directory listing was from 1890, which was when Art Nouveau was barely kicking off. (Which means it might have had more of an Arts & Crafts Style influence, since that was in full swing at the time, but it undoubtedly looks more Art Nouveau, or at least to me.)

This photo of a baby was taken by Rufus E. Hearn in Nashville Tennessee. Hearn initially forayed in to photography with partner C. W. Reeves in 1888, and together they had a brick and mortar studio and often traveled around Georgia along with their respective wives and kids.

Although sometimes in the late 1890’s Hearn lived in Nashville, and by the mid 1900’s, the partnership between Hearn and Reeves dissolved. But they still had ties as Rufus was married to Reeves’ older sister Augusta. The couple had given birth to Charles Walton Reeves in 1892, and he later died in 1989 after long career in photography, to which his family still shows interest in. Below is a picture of R. E. Hearn from a passport application.

Finally, this photo of this woman was taken by Daniel Roswell Cyrenus Redington who was born on October 3, 1840 in Covington Kentucky, and died September 1, 1900 from a sudden stroke of apoplexy. He moved to Birmingham, Alabama in 1886 where he opened up his first studio on 1914 1/2 Second Avenue North, but soon opened up a second studio at 2005 Second Avenue in 1887. After his death, the studio still operated under H.C Brown.

The design on the back was made using Intaglio, or metal plate printmaking, which includes finely detailed hatched illustrations of a photographer’s toolbox. You have the makeshift darkroom-tent, camera mounted on a tripod, a beacon of Silver Nitrate (The engraving is so detailed I can make out the ‘Si..’), a few brushes for touchups, a funnel, a photo tray, and what I can only assume is a lantern, and collections of lenses.

The rest had no extra information to go off of, but I still want to put them up for people to enjoy.

I’ve researched a ton for these few photos, so if you need to use the information here, please credit me, or the original source I had gotten the information from. When I say I researched a ton, I’m talking about delving into birth records, death records, marriage records, various censuses, city directories, old newspaper archives, books, other websites and blogs. If you want to use an image that I scanned or info I had gotten, just ask or credit me. :)

Tune in next time where I try my best to restore some of these photos, as well as introduce and talk about other Cabinet Card Photographers.

Sources:

Anglin and Randall Photography - Cabinet Card Photographers Blog

Marceau & Bellsmith Photography - Norwood Historical Society, Cabinet Card Photographers Blog

Imperial Dry Plate Information - Photomemoribilia.co.uk

Blackshear Photography - Find a Grave, Wikimedia, Macon Telegraph Archive

Slack & Hatfield Photography - 1900 U.S Census, Gary D. Saretzky 1 & 2

Hathaway Photography - USGW Archives, Chillicothe Ohio by Richard Peck, Death Registrar Report, The Photo-beacon, Volume 10 - Page 29

McLain Photography - Wells County 1908 Directory, Bulletin of Photography 1912, Photographer’s Association News, Camera Craft Vol. 18

Adams Photography - Georgia-photographers.com

Elrod Photography - May 16, 1894 Courier Journal, Death Certificate, Marriage Record, 1880 U.S Census, 1890 U.S Census, Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide by Palmquist & Kailbourn, Louisville City Directory transcribed by Anthony Foster

Mahon & Taylor Photography - Nashville 1880 Directory, Death Certificate, Marriage Record

Hearn Photography - Georgia-photographers.com

Redington Photography - bham wiki