Whistling Bird, the Arizona Cowboy and the Disappearing Lady

The 83rd Carnival of Genealogy, hosted by Janet Isles at her blog Janet the Researcher, is entitled Play Me, and encourages Geneabloggers to write about a musical instrument that they or other family members have played. Apart from my youngest daughter and aunt who both, like the elegantly coiffured and dressed lady in the footnoteMaven's inviting COG poster above, have learned to play the piano during their school years, very few of my family members have progressed much beyond the recorder in their early grades. However, my great-grandfather Charles Vincent Payne (1868-1941) did have something of a reputation for his singing voice.

Of course I never met my great-grandfather. He died twenty years before I was born and, since my father and his sister were pretty young at the time, they never recalled much about him either. He has therefore been far less prominent a figure in the family history than his younger brother, Charles Hallam Payne (1870-1960), who lived almost two decades longer, was always known as "the grand uncle" and generally regarded as the head of the family.


Charles Vincent Payne, c.1915-1920
Post card portrait, possibly by Pollard Graham of Derby
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Colourised by Andre Hallam
I am interested, therefore, in how much we can deduce about the type of person Charles Vincent was from the photographs and meagre ephemeral clues that we have. The postcard portrait above, expertly colourised for me by Andre Hallam, was probably taken in Derby. Although not marked with a studio name it is of a style and format used by the Pollard Graham in the period 1915-1920, when he was aged about fifty, and the backdrop is very similar to those used in Graham's Derby studio. He seems rather pleased with himself, looking confidently at the camera, with his right hand partly in his jacket pocket, and holding his pipe in his left hand. He is dressed, as always, very smartly in a dark suit with waistcoast, collar and bow tie, and a light-coloured trilby with a dark hat band.

The earliest reference that I have found for his prowess as a singer is the report of a concert held by the Normanton Musical Society on 28 January 1889, probably at St Giles church, Normanton. [1] He was the first of a dozen soloists and duet performances in a lengthy evening's entertainment:

"Mr. Vincent Payne received a well-merited encore for his song 'They all love Jack,' to which he responded with 'The Old Brigade.'"

He was at this time working as a carriage finisher - in other words as a skilled joiner - at the Midland Railway works in Litchurch, Derby. He and Amy Robinson, daughter of a local policeman, were married at St. Thomas Church at Litchurch in May the following year, and almost immediately they headed off for Chicago, accompanied by another brother Frank Payne, to join Hallam who was working for the Pullman Car Company. After leaving the port of Liverpool in late May, they arrived in the port of Baltimore aboard the S.S. Nova Scotian on Wednesday 10 June 1891.


Charles Vincent Payne, August 1891
Cabinet card by Harrison & Coover, Central Music Hall,
cnr. State & Randolph Streets, Chicago, Illinois
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Why did they go to America? Was it the allure of the forthcoming World's Columbia Exposition, which attracted millions? Although it is likely that Charles Vincent and Frank had both planned to join Hallam working at Pullman - their destination is listed as "Pullman, Ill." on the passenger list - it seems this did not happen. The only clues that I have for Charles Vincent's activities during those first few months are some notes made by my father of a conversation with his great-uncle Hallam in 1959 [6]:

"After one year Vincent, newly married, came out and for some time was jobless. Eventually got job, was to go with a troupe touring States as a singer. They fell on CV as makeshift - but the other fellow turned up so that was off. CV gets along with a man one of these variety artist blokes who had been an Arizona cowboy - he did tricks and Frenchman who did vanishing lady. Went round village in Illinois, CV handing out bills in am [morning]. After show was over fetch bills back. Frenchman used to go to next place and spout about the show. They went to a place called Warconder, 10 miles from Chicago."

It must have been at around this time that Charles Vincent visited the photographic studio of Harrison & Coover in the Central Music Hall, on the corner of State and Randolph Streets in Chicago to have a portrait taken. We have three copies of the portrait shown above - one of them has the date "August 1891" written in an apparently contemporary hand on the reverse.


Central Music Hall, Chicago, c.1890s
Stereoview (Left half) by unidentified photographer
Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views
Image © and courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection
Image ID: G90F171_006F
A quick search on the net reveals that Harrison & Coover's subjects were often from the music and entertainment industry, which is perhaps not surprising since the studio was located in the building which housed the popular Central Music Hall. The image above, taken from a stereoview of the period, shows a likely studio location with a frieze of large plate glass windows on the sixth floor. It seems likely to me that Charles Vincent had his portrait taken here as a means of furthering his job prospects.


Cad. Wilson & Madge Davenport, c.1891-1892
Cabinet card by Harrison & Coover, Central Music Hall, Chicago
Image © The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Kirstein Collection & Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery
Ref. MOMA_0077V
The Chicago industry was perhaps a little different from the musical society gatherings that he was used to. Harrison & Coover's other clients included Cad. Wilson and Madge Davenport, who provoked the following review in The Buffalo Courier of 22 September 1891:

"In the Congo dance Cad Wilson and Madge Davenport create a sensation. When women dance, however, their movements should be graceful rather than exhibit [missing text] audience, it is reasonable to suppose, who enjoy seeing a woman twist herself into the postures of a contortionist." [8]

... and in June-July 1892 appeared in the musical "A Trip to Chinatown" at Hoyt's Madison Square Theatre in New York, but "failed to please" and their dance was soon withdrawn from the repertoire. [9] Cad Wilson later gained notoriety as one of the most successful of the "good time girls" of the Klondike gold rush [10][11], while Madge Davenport appears to have ended her days in much less fortunate circumstances. [12] Another customer of Harrison & Coover was the provocative Kittie Wells, dubbed Chicago's "Queen of the Levée." [13][14]

Performances at the Central Music Hall, however, were not always of the musical variety, public lectures often attracting the "brains, fashion and wealth of Chicago society." [15] Charles Vincent was, no doubt, quite out of his depth in such a sophisticated entertainment industry, and my guess is that this is why he stumbled into a vaudeville outfit touring the towns surrounding Chicago.

"Hallam wanted to know whether CV wanted to go into fresh lodgings or a flat. So Hallam went by train to Warconder - but they'd left for Machenry 10 miles further on, so lodged in ice cream saloon for the night. Proprieter drove Hallam to Machenry at 5 am the following day. CV decided to take flat and told Hallam that at last place's performance they'd pinched Hall curtains. Followed by sheriff's posse. A black man called Whistling Bird joined troupe and CV left."

Wauconda and McHenry were very small towns 50 to 60 miles north-west of Chicago. The prospects seem to me to have been decidely risky, even without having the sheriff's posse on one's tail and Amy would, no doubt, have been relieved at Charles Vincent's role being supplanted by a man whose speciality was imitating bird whistles. Vaudeville whistling, and more particularly imitating bird sounds, became popular in the 1880s and 1890s, but has always remained the preserve of fairground-type performances. [16]


Unidentified man, possibly Frank Payne, 1892
Sixth-plate tintype portrait by unidentified photographer, Chicago, Illinois
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison

"To get back he got up on gravel truck with only a roll of music. Arrived early am. Got flat next day. Frank [his younger brother] was there then having come over with CV and wife. Frank and Hallam slept on mattress in front room. Heard burglars trying to get in a couple of nights. Sat up one night - but went to sleep, and then there was revolver shot. CV had shot at shadow on window frame, hitting frame. The burglars tried again and we told police - but they were never caught. At this time Hallam was joiner at Pullman Car Co."

This flat where all four of them stayed was possibly the 10810 Curtis Ave, Roseland, Chicago address where Amy later gave birth to my grandfather Charles Leslie Lionel Payne on 9 April 1892. By then Charles Vincent and Hallam had found jobs at the Chicago World's Fair, or to give it it's proper name, The World's Columbian Exposition, where they were employed as carpenters working on the dome of the Horticultural Building. Within seven months, however, they had decided to call it quits and returned home to England via Montreal, arriving at Liverpool on board the S.S. Circassian on 30 November.

From June 1894 until February 1896 Charles Vincent ran the family grocery shop and off-licence at 83 St James' Road, New Normanton and possibly assisted his father in the latter's building operations. After handing the shop over to Hallam he became an estate agent, and remained in this business until his retirement, probably in the 1920s.


Charles Vincent Payne, c.1894
Cabinet card by Pollard Graham, Derby
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This cabinet card portrait of Charles Vincent was taken by Pollard Graham in Derby, probably around 1894, after he had returned to England. He appears to be dressed in some sort of fancy dress with frilly shirt, jacket embellished with braid and velvet trim and cowboy's hat. I have always thought that this must be related to his singing career in some way, either a pose in clothes which he had brought back with him from the States, or part of an act which he performed in Derby. He certainly did continue with the amateur singing, as the following excerpt from The Derby Mercury (16 May 1900) demonstrates.

"A smoking concert was held in aid of the Normanton Reservists' Fund (now affiliated with the Derbyshire Transvaal War Fund) on Wednesday evening at the Sherwood Hotel ... The programme was as follows: Part 1 ... song, 'Skipper,' Mr. C. Vincent Payne ... Part 2 ... song, "Anchored," Mr. C. Vincent Payne ... song, "Drinking," Mr. C. Vincent Payne ... a most enjoyable evening was spent." [19]

Large group, Old Bell Hotel courtyard, Sadlergate, Derby, c.1920s
Post card portrait by unidentified photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
As he got older, I think the "drinking" aspect of these recreational activities may have taken over from the music. This postcard portrait of a large group of men, a young porter and a solitary, somewhat disgruntled, young woman (perhaps a barmaid unwillingly coerced into posing) in the courtyard behind the Old Bell Hotel in Derby is titled, "Ding Dongs." Charles Vincent is standing in the back row, second from right. The meaning of this title has sadly - or perhaps fortuitously - been lost over the years but, from the number of subjects imbibing beer and tobacco, they had obviously recently decamped from the bar.

Charles Vincent Payne died at his home at "The Hill", Chellaston, Derby on 25 July 1941 at the age of 73. The death certificate reveals that his lifestyle took its toll in the end.

Cause of Death:
a. Myocardial Degeneration
b. Cerebral Haemorrhage
c. Arteriosclerosis
d. Carcinoma of Tongue
Certified by MD Groves MRCS [21]

References

1. Post card portrait of Charles Vincent Payne, taken c. 1915-1920, by unidentified studio photographer [possibly Pollard Graham, Derby], Collection of Brett Payne. (Digital image colourised by Andre Hallam)

2. The Derby Mercury, 6 February 1889, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

3. Cabinet card portrait of Charles Vincent Payne, taken August 1891 by Harrison (Thomas) & Coover (D.R.), Central Music Hall, State & Randolph Streets, Chicago, Collection of Brett Payne.

4. Cabinet card portrait of Charles Vincent Payne, dated August 1891, taken by Harrison (Thomas), Central Music Hall, State & Randolph Streets, Chicago, Collection of Barbara Ellison.

5. Stereoview of Central Music Hall, Chicago, c.1890s, taken by unidentified photographer, Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views, New York Public Library Digital Collection, Image ID: G90F171_006F.

6. Notes of Conversation, 1959, between Charles Hallam Payne (1870-1960) and Charles Bernard Payne (1928-2006), Collection of Brett Payne.

7. Cabinet card portrait of Cad. Wilson & Madge Davenport, c. 1891-92, taken by Harrison & Coover, Central Music Hall, State & Randolph Streets, Chicago. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Kirstein Collection. Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery. Ref. MOMA_0077V.

8. Amusements, Extract from The Buffalo Courier, 22 September 1891, Buffalo, New York. Source: New York State Library Microfilm, from Newspaper Abstracts.

9. Odell, George C.D. (1949) Annals of the New York Stage, Vol. 15: 1891-1894. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, p. 41.

10. Morgan, Lael (1999) Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush: A Secret History of the Far North, Alaska Book Adventures, p. 72. [Partially available online at Google Books]

11. Berton, Pierre (1958) Klondike. London: W.H. Allen. 456p.

12. Morbid Fact du Jour - Archive, 1 June 2008, from Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, by Luc Sante (2003), Farrar Straus & Giroux.

13. Cabinet card portrait of Kittie Wells, c. 1891-92, taken by Harrison & Coover, Central Music Hall, State & Randolph Streets, Chicago. Courtesy of PictureHistory Prints, Ref. MES10765.

14. Stevens, Grant Eugene (1906) Wicked City, Chicago, p.108. [Available online at the Internet Archive]

15. Dedmon, Emmett (1953) Fabulous Chicago. New York: Random House, Inc. p.202.

16. Schlitz, J.M. (n.d.) Whistletainment, in Kunstpfeifen: an Overview.

17. Sixth-plate tintype portrait of unidentified man [possibly Frank Payne], 1892, taken by unidentified photographer, Chicago, Illinois. Collection of Barbara Ellison.

18. Cabinet card portrait of Charles Vincent Payne, taken c.1894 by Pollard Graham of Derby & Burton-on-Trent. Collection of Brett Payne.

19. The Derby Mercury, 16 May 1900, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

20. Post card portrait of large group, c. 1920s, Old Bell Hotel courtyard, Sadlergate, Derby, by unidentified photographer. Collection of Brett Payne.

21. Certified Copy of an Entry of Death for Charles Vincent Payne, died 25 July 1941, Registered at Derby, 28 July 1941. [Photocopy] Collection of C.B. Payne.

Digging for gold on the wild West Coast

Nola Sinclair recently sent me scans of a couple of engaging cartes de visite by H.H. Vorley of Westport, Charleston and Reefton, on the West Coast of New Zealand, who I have featured in a previous Photo-Sleuth article. She explained that "the subjects in the photo are likely to be a family of my husband's Shetland Island forebears who came to Charleston in 1876 to mine the sands at Nine Mile Beach for gold. We have been trying to get a fairly exact date so we can work out who the children are likely to be, in order to make sure that it is indeed the family we think it is."

This challenge required some considerable background reading on my part, but the subject is of particular interest to me. Not only was I involved in the gold exploration industry for some fifteen years, but I've long had a fascination with historic gold rushes and the motley cast of characters who often played a part in them, such as the Californian forty-niners (1849), the Witwatersrand uitlanders (1886) and the Klondike stampeders (1897).

Darran Mountains & Bowen Falls, Milford Sound, 1888
Print by Burton Brothers, Dunedin
Image © and courtesy of National Gallery of Australia
Accn No: NGA 2007.81.119AB
Prior to the 1860s the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island was an almost completely uninhabited no-man's land, the steep forest-encrusted and almost inpenetrable slopes and rocky, surf-pounded coasts with few natural harbours discouraging all but a few passing explorers. Maori visitors, who succeeded in extracting prized pounamu from the river valleys and mountain peaks, and pakeha whalers briefly occupied a few temporary shore stations, but neither group left much in the way of permanent settlements. District boundaries tended to be merely lines drawn on the maps by the colonial state authorities with little real meaning on the ground. In 1861 Charles Hursthouse described it as "a savage, gloomy country, silent, desolate and dreary ... this vast tract is unpeopled; millions of acres have never been trodden by human foot ... fresh from nature's rudest mint, untouched by hand of man.," but then went on to predict with pinpoint accuracy the forthcoming means of change: "... this part ... has as yet been very partially explored ... [but] may prove to be New Zealand's 'Gold Coast'." [1]

Wallace's Point, Otira Gorge, Canterbury, 12 June 1876
Wood engraving published in The Illustrated Australian News
Image © and courtesy of State Library of Victoria
Accession no IAN10/07/76/104
Between 1865 and 1867 a sequence of events shattered this isolation forever. In the early 1860s the province of Otago, situated on the other side of the Southern Alps, had experienced a gold rush the likes of which had never before been seen in New Zealand. As individual diggings like Gabriel's Gully suffered declining yields of the royal metal, prospectors looked further afield towards the West Coast, walking overland through the dripping, verdant forests and exploring by boat the shingle beaches and rivers along the wild, rocky coast. [2]

Charleston and Constant Bay, c.1880s (Dyson Album)
Albumen print, 120 x 200 mm, on album page
Image © Alexander Turnbull Library and courtesy of Timeframes
Reference No. PA1-q-069-02-1
On the 27th February 1865 the landing in Nelson of an single enormous shipment of gold from diggings at Hokitika, equal to the entire production from the previous year, precipitated a tremendous rush. Within a matter of weeks word had spread, not only to Wellington, across the Cook Strait, and more distant provinces such as Canterbury and Otago, but also across the Tasman to Victoria and New South Wales. Diggers braved the wild seas, cramming every available sea-going vessel, and travelled to the new finds by any means they could find. Settlements began to spring up in the Waimea Valley, Okarito, Greymouth and the Pakihi, between the Buller and Grey Rivers. [3]

Hotels & shops on Princes Street, Charleston, c.1869
Image © Alexander Turnbull Library and courtesy of Timeframes
Reference No. 1/2-055911-F
Almost overnight clusters of scruffy tents mushroomed into bustling towns with narrow streets, elaborate wooden buildings, hotels and dancing girls. [4] Perhaps the greatest of these in the history of the West Coast was the Charleston rush, reaching a peak between 1867 and 1870 with a population of around 5,000. [5] Boats bringing in both prospectors and supplies braved the narrow and treacherous entrance to the tiny Constant Bay, with wrecks and tragedy a common occurrence. [6]

Carte de visite card mount used by H.H. Vorley, c.1870-1872
Charleston, West Coast, New Zealand
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
One of the many hundreds of people who set up shop in Charleston to take advantage of the tremendous increase in trade was photographer Herbert H. Vorley. [7] Although born to a wealthy merchant family in London he emigrated to New Zealand in the mid-1860s, arriving on the West Coast and setting up as a photographer and phrenologist in the town of Westport prior to 1867. While maintaining this studio, he is also known to have operated branch studios in Charleston (1867, 1869, 1873 & 1875), Hokitika (1870), Buller (1874 & 1877) and Reefton (1877-78). [8]

Advertisement from the Inangahua Times, 15 May 1878
Image © National Library of New Zealand and courtesy of Papers Past
It seems likely from the nature of advertisements in the Grey River Argus, the West Coast Times and the Inangahua Times between 1875 and 1878 that the branch studios were open only intermittently, and on occasion staffed by managers or employees. A detailed examination of back issues of the Charleston Herald - sadly not yet included in Papers Past, the National Library of New Zealand's otherwise comprehensive digital coverage of old newspapers - may be they key to determining more precisely the dates of Vorley's presence in Charleston. [9] An inheritance received after the death of an English aunt in January 1879 enabled Vorley and his family to leave Westport in May that year and return to England, where he died a year later. [10]

A gold prospector tries his luck, California, undated
Image © University if Southern California Regional History Center, CHS/TICOR Collection and courtesy of the History Computerization Project
The gold output of the Charleston area, in tune with the "boom and bust" cycles experienced in all of the other gold fields, was already waning by the early 1870s and the population dwindled rapidly, with many leaving to try their luck in newer fields such as Thames on the North Island. [3] Other enterprising diggers remained in the area and a large and well documented group of Scots from the Shetland Islands turned their hand to washing gold at Nine-Mile Beach, a short distance north of Charleston. Although the alluvial beach deposits had been discovered and worked by other beachcombers using fairly primitive methods a few years earlier, the first of the Shetlanders to arrive, in January 1870, were Magnus Mouat and Gilbert Harper from the village of Norwick on the northernmost island of Unst. [11]

Shetlanders' settlement at Nine-Mile Beach, 1886
Lantern Slide
from Chips of the Auld Rock publ. 1997
Image © and courtesy of Wellington Shetland Society
Having spent a couple of years wandering the Queensland, New South Wales and Bathurst gold fields and eight months at Bradshaw's Creek near the Buller River with little to show for their efforts, the auriferous black sands at the southern end of Nine-Mile Beach appeared to offer more promise. [11] So much, it appears, that sent word to other members of the original Unst party who had wandered elsewhere in Melbourne and Otago, and wrote to friends and family back home in Unst.

The village of Norwick in August, Unst, Shetland Islands
© Copyright Mike Pennington, courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
& licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
A dwindling of traditional fishing and farming opportunities, as well as clearances in the Shetlands, coincided with timely offers of assisted passage from Sir Julius Vogel's recruitment drives and immigration schemes. [12] Over the next few years a large number of families joined them, such that by 1877 it was estimated that there were about a hundred Unstmen working the sands at Nine-Mile. In November 1875, the provincial government surveyor was kept very busy surveying new leases and extended claims on Nine Mile Beach. [13] Magnus Mouat himself went home for a couple of years, during which time he married, returning to the West Coast goldfields with wife and baby aboard the Howrah in November 1876. [14]

Shetlanders beachcombing blacksand for gold, Nine Mile Beach, c. late 1870s
(L-R) Magnus Johnson, John Madden, James Mouat, J.R. Mouat, Gilbert Harper & James Harper
Image © Alexander Turnbull Library and courtesy of Timeframes
Reference number: PAColl-6181-35
The Shetlanders were strong, practical men and soon improved their chances by purchasing most of the claims on Nine-Mile Beach and by developing new methods of extracting fine gold from the layers of black beach sands. Apart from the building of extensive tail races or flumes by Messrs. Hall, Parsons and Harle to bring to the beach the water so essential to the operation, already well under way by March 1872 [15][16], the Shetlanders made significant improvements to the washing process, designing the multi-tier mobile washing tables, or "beach boxes." These devices are illustrated in the images above and below, while the tail races are clearly visible in the background of the lower image.

Blacksanding at Nine-Mile Beach, undated
William Harper (left) and John Mouat (right)
Image © Alexander Turnbull Library and courtesy of Timeframes
Reference number: 1/2-015698-F
The Charleston Herald (reported in the Grey River Argus) remarked on their good fortune although it was, no doubt, mixed in with decent proportion of hard slog:

1 December 1876
The beach claims in Second Bay and on the Nile and Nine-mile Beach, have for the past five or six months been paying exceedingly well. The men on Nine-mile Beach have been very fortunate, they having during the above-mentioned term been earning on an average from 25s. to 30s. per day.

6 July 1878
since the late stormy weather, accompanied by heavy south-west gales, the Nine-Mile Beach claims are paying splendidly, some of the miners who work long hours netting as much as £12 per man per week. It is said, and with a good deal of truth, that the mining property, dams included, sold some six years ago by Mr Fred Hall for the sum of four or five hundred pounds, to-day is worth as many thousands. This tells well in favour of the healthy condition of mining matters in this district.

13 August 1878
One of the beach claims which was only the other day taken upon the Nine-mile Beach, on the Northern limit, having hitherto being lying idle, was sold last week by Mr Thomas Humphries to Mr Sullivan for the sum of £50. At present there are more beachcombers at work on the Nine-mile Beach than has been remembered for the last six or seven years, and the lowest wages made by them is £3 and £4 per week, the highest being £10 and £12. The beach has "made" so much that the men are sure that payable ground exists to within close limits to the Totara river - a distance from the north claim, now work of about two miles. At present the water is not conveyed any distance along the beach, so that there is little probability of the ground now lying dormant being worked just yet, though we hear that it would be a very easy matter to bring water to the ground.

Group of men, women & children in front of house, c. 1876-1879
Carte de visite by H.H. Vorley of Westport, Charleston & Reefton
Image © and courtesy of Nola Sinclair
Nola Sinclair's husband's ancestor James Mouat Harper (1832-1918) arrived with his wife Margaret (née Anderson) (1836-1918) and eight children [17] in Nelson in January 1876, after a three month trip from Unst. They were part of a large group aboard the Caroline making their way to Charleston where a great Unst reunion was subsequently held. [11] The carte de visite portrait shown above depicts a large group of nine men, women and children standing in front of a wooden building, with a backdrop of moderate sized trees. The house has a cylindrical water tank, apparently for collecting water off the roof via the visible gutters and down-pipes, and a timber(and corrugated iron?)-encased chimney to the left. There is also a wood picket fence in the right foreground, possibly enclosing a vegetable garden.

Group of 9 men, women & children in front of house, c. 1876-1879
Carte de visite by H.H. Vorley of Westport, Charleston & Reefton
Image © and courtesy of Joan Robertson
Nola also sent me this image of another carte de visite, which she had received from Joan Robertson, a distant cousin of her husband's still living in the Shetlands. It is very similar, although not identical, to the one that Nola has in her collection.

Group of 10/11 men, women & children in front of house, c. 1876-1879
Detail of carte de visites by H.H. Vorley
Image © and courtesy of Nola Sinclair
A comparison of detailed scans elucidates some differences: most of the figures have moved slightly, and in the second shot there is an additional male adult figure standing immediately to the right of the doorway. The only adult female is standing at the extreme left of the group. The youngest of the children, standing at second from left, is perhaps three or four years old; the clothes suggest a little girl - although one cannot be certain at this young age - who is holding his or her mother's hand. The figure to the right of this is almost certainly a boy, wearing a cap and long trousers, and probably five or six years old. Next are two girls, aged about 8-9 and 10-11, respectively. To the right of the doorway a further group of three girls are fairly similar to each in height - almost the height of the adult woman at extreme left - so it is difficult to estimate their ages beyond saying that they are probably in their mid- to late teens. They all have their hair in a style typical of the 1870s, partly in plaits tied up in a circlet on the crown, and partly descending in ringlets to the shoulders at the back.

All three men are bearded and wearing hats. I would suggest that the man to the left of the doorway, wearing a waistcoat, is older while the two to the right are somewhat younger, but it is difficult to be precise. The men to the left and right are wearing bowler hats, of a style with a moderately high brow which was common through the 1870s and early 1880s. The man in the middle has what appears to be a forerunner of the wider flat-brimmed slouch hat, and is wearing a jacket.

The reverse of the second carte de visite (shown below) is inscribed, in what appears to be a contemporary hand, "to Anthony." Nola tells me that the second photograph was a copy mailed back home to Anthony Anderson, great grandfather of Joan Robertson, possibly by Anthony's sister Margaret Yule Harper.

Detail of carte de visite by H.H. Vorley
Image © and courtesy of Nola Sinclair
If this is the case, then she may have been the woman standing at the extreme left of the group, and the remaining figures would then include her husband James Harper and at least some of their children. She is dressed in clothes typical of of the mid- to late 1870s. The bodice is tight-fitting with a prominent vertical row of buttons, and a bow at her neck, while the sleeves are narrow, a little looser at the wrist, and possibly with a frilled or pleated cuff. Although not actually visible, the bustle in her skirt is probably small, if present at all, and the skirt contains several layers, types of fabric or ornamentation. Her hair is parted in the centre drawn back tightly, probably into a bun at the back of her head.

Two further children were born to James and Margaret after their arrival in New Zealand, bringing the total to ten [17]:

James Mouat HARPER (1832-1918) m: 1855 Margaret Yule ANDERSON (1836-1918)
- Charlotte b. 24 Jan 1857 Norwick, Unst
- William b. 29 May 1859 Norwick, Unst
- Elizabeth b. 15 Feb 1862 Braefield, Norwick, Unst
- Williamina/Wilhelmina b. 23 Aug 1864 Unst
- Margaret b. 23 Jun 1867 Velzie, Unst
- Jemima b. 16 Apr 1870 Unst, Unst
- Gilbert b. 3 Mar 1873 Velzie, Unst
- Ann b. 3 Jul 1875 Norwick, Unst
- Isabella b. 7 Jan 1879 Charleston, New Zealand
- Anthony b. 24 Dec 1881 Charleston, New Zealand

Reverse of Carte de visite by H.H. Vorley of Westport, Charleston & Reefton
Image © and courtesy of Joan Robertson
The reverse of both card mounts have a design very similar to that of the Vorley carte de visite shown earlier, with the addition of studio locations in Charleston and Reefton, suggesting to me a slightly later date i.e. some time after c. 1870-72. We can be fairly sure, however, that the photographs were taken prior to May 1879, when Vorley left New Zealand for good. This rules out the possibility of the youngest child born to James and Margaret in New Zealand being in the photograph, since Anthony was born in December 1881. If height is used as an approximate indication of age, then the children in the photograph are arranged from left to right in increasing order of age.

Detail of carte de visite by H.H. Vorley
Image © and courtesy of Nola Sinclair
Now some theorising. If - and I agree with Nola that we should emphasize the 'if' - this were to be the Harper family, then the only young male child, aged approximately five in the photograph, must be Gilbert Harper, born in Unst on 3 March 1873, suggesting a possible date for the group portrait of 1878 or early 1879. How do the the ages of the remaining children and adults in the group fit with what we know about the Harper family? Well, I think they match very nicely. N.B. The numbers in the provisional list below refer to those shown in the silhouette index above.

1. Margaret Yule Harper née Anderson, aged 42ish - Margaret does not appear very pregnant in this photograph, and since she had her ninth child Isabella in January 1879, I suggest this is unlikely to have been taken in late 1878. It is conceivable, however, that it was taken after the birth of Isabella, and that the baby is asleep indoors.
2. Ann Harper, aged 3
3. Gilbert Harper, aged 5 - Gilbert died at Charleston on 14 March 1883, aged 10.
4. Jemima Harper, aged 8
5. Margaret Harper, aged 11 - although the top of Margaret's head is only slightly higher than that of Jemima, examination of her feet shows that she is standing in a slight dip, and is therefore somewhat taller than she appears in relation to her next youngest sister.
6. James Mouat Harper, aged 45 - James Harper's central position in the group and manner of standing with his feet slightly apart, hands crossed calmly and patiently in front of him, is commensurate with his status as head of the household.
7. This is probably a younger man, although the full beard does disguise the age to some extent. His is a youthful figure assuming a very relaxed pose, his legs crossed, leaning against the door jamb with his thumbs tucked into his belt, holding the flaps of his jacket open. The jacket may have fringe sleeves, in a "Western style." This is most likely to be William Harper, who would have been aged 19, and very much "at home."
8. Williamina Harper, aged 13 or 14
9 & 10. Elizabeth Harper, aged 16, and Charlotte Harper, aged 21
11. This man, perhaps a little older than the man postulated as William Harper, is standing well off to the right hand side of the others. With his elbow perched on the window sill and right hand to his cheek, he is facing and leans in towards the rest of the group, in contrast to all of the others, who look directly at the photographer and his camera. So, while he is clearly part of the group, one gets the feeling that he is somehow distanced from it, in both a physical and more social sense. The eldest Harper daughter Charlotte married James Harper Mouat (1849-1928) at Charleston on 3 May 1878, and my feeling is that this is young Mr Mouat. He would have been about 30 years old at the time, and the photograph may have been taken before the wedding - hence the distance between him and the Harpers. [17]

Detail of Shetlanders' settlement at Nine-Mile Beach, 1886
Lantern Slide
from Chips of the Auld Block publ. 1997
Image © and courtesy of Wellington Shetland Society
The house forming the backdrop in this group portrait looks very similar in shape and form to the second building along the beach in the 1886 view, as pictured in the detailed image above, although Nola has pointed out that the frieze of large trees behind the house has been removed.

So ... we can make several tentative conclusions:

(a) The carte de visite portrait was most likely taken between 1874 and 1879 at or near Westport, Charleston or Reefton on the West Coast of New Zealand.

(b) We have a possible identification of the house in the portrait as being one of those built by the Shetland community prior to 1886 on Nine-Mile Beach.

(c) The group shown matches very closely the Harper family that we expect to have been living at Nine-Mile Beach in 1878.

Although I feel we have a probable identification, to be more confident I would suggest examining the make up of the other Shetland families who were living at Nine-Mile Beach in the late 1870s, to see if any of them fit the pattern. Most of the families living there were fairly closely related, having emigrated from the same small district on the island of Unst, so it is conceivable that somebody else might have sent a copy home "to Anthony."

Powell's sluicing and elevating claim at Nine Mile Beach, c.1900
Image © Alexander Turnbull Library Ref. PAColl-6075-51
Courtesy of Matapihi - Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand
In the mid-1880s there were still between 70 and 80 Shetlanders working the sands at Nine-Mile Beach but eventually the deposits were depleted and by the turn of the century, when the above photograph was taken, the numbers had declined considerably. [14] In 1906 there were only 15, and the last of the original pioneer Shetlanders, William Harper, moved away in 1916. [11]

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Nola Sinclair and her husband for the opportunity to use her photograph as the subject of this article, and the Alexander Turnbull Library for permission to use scanned images of photographs in their collections.

References

[1] Hursthouse, Charles (1861) New Zealand, The "Britain of the South." 2nd Edition. London: Edward Stanford. p. 149. [Available online from Google Books]

[2] May, Philip Ross (1962) The West Coast Gold Rushes. Christchurch: Pegasus. 55p.

[3] Eldred-Grigg, Stevan (2008) Diggers, Hatters & Whores: The Story of the New Zealand Gold Rushes. Auckland: Random House New Zealand. 543p. ISBN 9781869419257

[4] Wood, Frederick Lloyd Whitfield (1971) Understanding New Zealand. Ayer Publishing. 267p. [Partially available on Google Books]

[5] Charleston, New Zealand. Wikipedia article.

[6] Wall, Ella & Lewers, Neville R. (ill.) (1939) Gold Rush at Charleston. Adventure - In the Old West Coast Days. in The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 14, Issue 6 (September 1939) [Available online courtesy of the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC)]

[7] Payne, Brett (2008) Fraternal Organisations. Photo-Sleuth, 3 August 2008.

[8] Anon (n.d.) Vorley, Herbert Henry. Auckland City Libraries Photographers Database.

[9] Extracts from Grey River Argus, West Coast Times, Nelson Evening Mail, Inangahua Times & Evening Post. Papers Past, Digital images of New Zealand newspapers and periodicals, from the National Library of New Zealand.

[10] Rackstraw, Tony (2008) Vorley, Herbert Henry. Early Canterbury Photographers, including South Canterbury and the West Coast, 22 August 2008.

[11] Faris, Irwin (1941) Charleston : its Rise and Decline. Wellington : A. H. and A. W. Reed. Reprinted 1980 by Capper Press, Ltd. [Extract courtesy of Nola Sinclair]

[12] Scots - The Late 1800s. Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

[13] Grey River Argus, Volume XVI, Issue 2259, 4 November 1875, Page 2. Papers Past.

[14] Butterworth, Susan M. & Butterworth, Graham (1997) Chips off the Auld Rock: Shetlanders in New Zealand. Wellington: Shetland Society of Wellington. 251 p. [Extract courtesy of Nola Sinclair]

[15] Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1142, 26 March 1872, Page 2. Papers Past.

[16] Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1337, 11 November 1872, Page 2. Papers Past.

[17] The Family of James Mouat Harper & Margaret Yule Anderson, on the Shetland Family History Home Page.

Have space suit - Will travel

Almost a year ago I posted this image of a rather bizarre transportation device in an article on Photo-Sleuth in the hope that readers would be able to help solve the mystery of what exactly it was, and why it appears in my aunt's collection of old family photographs. The footnoteMaven's 18th Smile for the Camera Carnival has the theme of "Travel" and seems an opportune moment to revisit the subject, summarizing what I've learnt.


Transport contraption, St Malo, France
Carte de visite by unknown photographer
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
The carte de visite is part of the Payne family heritage, held by my aunt, which I scanned on a visit to England a couple of years ago. There is no background to it at all, except that it probably came from the collection of my great-grandfather Charles Vincent Payne (1868-1941). The photograph shows some kind of viewing platform on which at least two dozen people are crowded, itself mounted on stilts or a tower standing in water. Ripples in the water around the base of the legs suggest some movement, either of the water, or of the contraption itself. It is apparently located in a bay, as a shoreline with buildings is vaguely visible in the background.


Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein,
1958 hardcover edition illustration by Ed Emshwiller,
published by Charles Scribner & Sons, New York
The contraption is a little too rectangular - and authentic - to be one of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds tripods, but it does seem almost in the genre of science fiction, or what passed as science fiction in the Victorian era. Hence my somewhat off-the-wall visualization of the theme of Robert Heinlein's 1958 book which lends its title to this article.


There are some further clues to the moving tower. Handwritten in purple ink on the front and reverse of the card mount is the following text:

Passes between St Malo & ...
It goes by
Machinery
I passed over it last year
& again this year twice
Aug 1882
It takes about 3 minutes
to cross, its only 1 sous

By comparison with handwriting that I know to be that of Charles Vincent's father Henry Payne (1842-1907) - from an 1891 letter, reproduced in a previous Photo-Sleuth article - I believe this must be the hand of Henry. If he did indeed travel from his home town of Derby in the English Midlands to France a couple of times in the early 1880s, Henry must have been a pretty well travelled - and busy - man. In 1880 Henry, his wife Henrietta and children made a short-lived attempt to settle in America, spending a few months farming at Bladensburg, Maryland before returning to England late that year or in early 1881.

What was Henry doing abroad again so soon? Nigel Aspdin has suggested in a comment to the previous article that he may have used a separate and more circuitous route back from the United States, rather than the more direct Baltimore-Liverpool run which the rest of the family presumably took. He also postulates that wrapping up the farming business venture in North America may have required another trip, and it was easier, quicker or cheaper to "take a train Derby-Portsmouth, a ferry across to St Malo, and catch a ship in France, say Le Havre, St Nazaire, Cherbourg or maybe St Malo itself." All of these possibilities are worth thinking about and investigating in further detail some time, but I will resist getting too sidetracked for the duration of compiling this article.

Nigel also remarks on the sous (or should that be "sou") apparently still being used as the colloquial price for a fare, almost a century after the official currency had changed from livres/sous/deniers to francs/centimes. Another diversion which I shan't pursue for the moment, although still of interest.


Meccano model of the St Malo Transporter Bridge, Brittany
Image © and courtesy of the Melbourne Meccano Club Inc.
Nigel again provided the vital clue to the real nature of what I had referred to as a possible tourist trap with the key search words, "St Malo transporter bridge," which brought up a modern image of a Meccano model made by a hobbyist to a design from the May-June edition of Meccano Magazine.


Part of front page of Meccano Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 9, May-June 1919.
Image © and courtesy of Rémi's Meccano Pages
I also found an original image of the design in the facsimile online Meccano Magazine hosted by Rémi's Meccano Pages, which includes in its caption: ... an excellent representation of the Rolling Bridge which conveys passengers from St. Malo to St. Servan.


Côte d'Émeraude. 535. Saint-Malo - Le Pont Roulant à marée basse
Postcard published c.1900
Image courtesy of Wikipedia user Fibo.cdn
From this it was but a short step to several descriptions of the history and numerous images of what was more correctly termed the Pont Roulant of St. Malo. Two of the most informative are on the Tramway Information pages and in a Wikipedia article. The latter is in French, which I could conceivably have read (with some difficulty), but for which I more conveniently used Google's handy Translation Toolbar. The result is not too bad in terms of fluency, although as is common with most online translators, it produces an unintentionally amusing commentary on the workings of the unusual machinery:

The bridge was traveling on Vignoles rail 38 kg / m, whose spacing was 4.60 m. The truck was supported by wheels 1 m in diameter, which was placed before a stone-hunting.
The platform 7 mx 6 m, surrounded by a railing crossbar with benches in length, included a pool party where the passengers took shelter in bad weather.
The set of 14 tons was pulled by strings. A steam 10 c. was prepared in a wood shop located on the wharf. The driver of the platform indicated by the sudden departure of trumpet at machinist posted in this shop. The arrest was served by a second blow of the trumpet.

1509. Côte d'Émeraude. 19. Saint-Malo-Saint-Servan - Le Pont-Roulant
Image © John R.Prentice and courtesy of Tramway Information
The Tramway Information article reveals that the Pont Roulant was constructed in 1873 by a local architect, Alexandre Leroyer, who held a concession to operate it for sixty years. It spanned the entrance to the French port of St Malo, which at low tide could be traversed along a stone causeway, and was designed to transport passengers between the towns of Saint-Malo and Saint-Servan. The original two-minute (or three, according to Henry) passage on the 13 metre-high rolling platform was made between two specially designed "docking stations," powered by a steam engine housed at the St.-Servan end, and carried up to two thousand people a day. Later, after the Leroyer's death the new concessionaire replaced the steam engine with electric motors. The centre of the platform had a covered cabin with glazed sides, affording panoramic views even under inclement weather conditions. Despite being seriously damaged by fire on one occasion in August 1909, and by collisions with ships in February 1889 and November 1922, it continued running until its eventual closure in November 1923.


The tourist attraction has also, I have discovered, been the subject of a book, L'Épopée du Pont Roulant de Saint-Malo à Saint-Servan, by Henri Fermin.


I even found a stereographic image of the Pont-Roulant, presumably from around the turn of the century ...


Pont-Roulant, St. Malo, c.1890
Magic lantern slide
Image © and courtesy of Collecting House
... and a lantern slide from slightly earlier showing passengers alighting.


Côte d'Émeraude 226 - Saint-Malo - Le Pont Roulant
Postcard posted 1910
Judging by the number of extant used and unused postcards from the first couple of decades of the twentieth century, such as the example above posted in 1910, the ride continued to be a popular novelty with tourists right through to Edwardian times. I have noticed, however, that the postcard views rarely show as many customers aboard as Henry's carte de visite.

The final words I will leave to Phil Beard, who in his commentary on the visual arts and popular culture refers to the Pont-Roulant as Leroyer's "magnificent indifference to appearing ridiculous" and a product "of the Nineteenth Century imagination, notable for [its] impudent attempt to conquer time and space with the most slender resources." Perhaps so, but it succeeded in catching the tourists' imagination, and their sous.


References

St Malo Rolling Bridge from Tramway Information

Pont roulant de Saint-Malo from Wikipedia

Heilprin, A. & Heilprin, L. (1906) The Geographical Dictionary of the World. partially available online from Google Books.

Fermin, Henri (2005) L'Epopée du Pont Roulant de Saint-Malo à Saint-Servan, Nouvelles Impressions, ISBN 2951473508.

Le Pont Roulant by Phil Beard's Notes on the Visual Arts and Popular Culture

All lined up in the school playground in their Sunday best

I have wondered, when looking at old school photographs from the Victorian period, whether the children are wearing their ordinary everyday school clothes, or if an impending visit from the photographer was enough of an occasion for their parents to dress them in their Sunday best. I found mention of poor attendance on school photos day in 1881 recorded in a school log book from the Talgarth district of Powys, Wales (Victorian Powys), ascribing the childrens' absence to their not possessing decent clothes for the special day:

At 11 a Photographer came to take a view of the buildings. A very thin attendance, for some of the children did not come because of this. The Worths & Jones, Trebarried all stayed away at 11, so we stood in the playground that the view might have a lively appearance. The children who were away yesterday came today. I asked them why they were so silly yesterday & it appears it was their clothes that was the drawback.

Unidentified group of school boys & master, c.1873-1876
Carte de visite by William Pearson of St Peter's, Derby
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This carte de visite portrait of a group of 26 boys aged from about 5 up to around 10 or 11 with their master is from my own collection. It was a recent eBay purchase and, as is the case with most such purchases, has sadly lost its provenance. The group is a motley one, and there is clearly no uniform in use, although the appearance of a couple of striped scarves hints at possible school colours. Due to the large range in ages, it seems likely that this was either a small school or even a Sunday School.

The photographer obviously had some difficulty keeping the children still. I estimate from the card mount design and clothing that it was taken in the mid-1870s, say between c.1873 and 1876, when exposure times were still fairly lengthy, measured in terms of seconds rather than fractions of a second. It would not have been an easy task for the master to keep his young subjects' attention on the camera and stop them from fidgeting. He has two boys, probably the most troublesome ones, right by his side where he can keep them out of trouble. Several boys have moved during the exposure. None look particularly pleased with the experience, save perhaps the lad seated at the far right, who seems particularly anxious to demonstrate a devoted attention to his studies.

The brick wall forming the backdrop to the school group portrait is probably a school building but it has not been identified. The window shows a good reflection of another brick wall opposite, and some distance behind the photographer, judging by the apparent brick size.


Reverse of carte de visite by William Pearson of St Peter's, Derby
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
William Pearson (1827-1885) was one of Derby's earliest photographers, graduating to that occupation from being a chimney sweep. In fact, he is listed with both professions in several sources through to the early 1860s. He opened his first studio around 1858 and continued to operate in St Peter's, Derby until at least 1881. Although his output does not appear to have been as prolific as the studios of Derby's other early practitioners, such as that of James Brennen, the quality of his portraits was quite acceptable. Pearson is recorded as taking mug shots of prisoners at Derby Gaol in April 1863, and perhaps the venture into school portraiture was another attempt to expand his clientele and drum up new business.


Detail from reverse of carte de visite
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The most interesting feature of this carte de visite only emerged after I had sent scanned images of the front and reverse to friend and photo-sleuthing collaborator Nigel Aspdin. The sharp-eyed Nigel noticed there appeared to be something hand written on the reverse of the card mount. Although it wasn't clear from the detailed scan, I took out the original photograph and, by holding it at an angle to the sunlight, I was able to make it out as:

E. Bostock
Kensington Street
Uttoxeter Road

The natural assumption is, of course, that E. Bostock was one of the subjects of this group portrait. However, I was already aware that one Erasmus F. Bostock operated as a photographer in Derby in the latter part of the 19th Century, so I checked my notes. Indeed, Erasmus was living with his parents at 12 Kensington Street, off Uttoxeter Road, in the parish of St Werburgh, Derby, at the time of both the 1871 and 1881 Census.

An 1881 trade directory entry and the census enumeration of that year are the first records I have found of Bostock working as a photographer, at which time he appears to have been in partnership with a Mr. Carr, with premises at 8 Macklin Street. I also know that Bostock specialised in school portraits, from the existence of several cabinet cards from the late 1880s and early 1890s marked, "E. Bostock, Photographer of Schools, &c. Derby." It now seems likely to me that Bostock initially trained as a photographer in the studio of William Pearson, familiarising himself with the trade before opening his own business. Photographers had to learn their trade somewhere, and where better than as an assistant, and employee, in an established operation.

Much less information survives about the early careers of photographers, when they were usually training as photographic assistants. While census records might give their professions, they hardly ever show who they worked for, and trade directory entries provide the names of the proprietors, very rarely those of their employees. Anecdotal evidence is sometimes available. For example, the career of well known Derby portraitist W.W. Winter started with him being an assistant in the studio of E.N. Charles. After Charles died in 1863 his widow ran the studio briefly with Winter's help; she married him in 1864, and he took over the studio thereafter. Sadly, little detailed knowledge of studio history such as that preserved for W.W. Winter Ltd. exists for other Derby studios, so information such as this snippet from Bostock's early career are important.


Boys from Chelmsford Charity School, 1862
Image © and courtesy of Stuart Axe
I've had some difficulty in determining when school photography became commonplace, and I would appreciate hearing from readers who have or know of such portraits from the 1860s or earlier. The rather nice portrait included above, from Stuart Axe's Flickr photostream, shows a uniformed group of boys at Chelmsford Charity School in 1862. All of those in my collection, however, are from the 1870s or later.

Apart from Bostock, there do not appear to have been any other Derby photographers who specialised in school photography. George W. Holden was a wide-ranging scholastic specialist from Windsor who is known to have plied his trade in Derby around 1877. Benjamin Brough from Chesterfield advertised his services as a "Lanternist and Photographer, Schools & Gentlemen's residences, &c." in the 1880s, but is unlikely to have ventured as far south as Derby. R.K. Peacock, Gibson & Sons and W.W. Winter - and possibly others - took school photos on occasion during the 1890s and later, but did not specifically advertise this service.

References

Extract from Lanfilo School Log Book, 20 Feb 1881, on Talgarth & District - Victorian School Days, on Victorian Powys

Extracts from Derby Borough Police Watch Committee Records, Derby Local Studies Library, courtesy of Mike Baker

Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, 1881, Kelly & Co., London. publ. on microfiche by the Derbyshire Family History Society.

Stuart Axe's Flickr Photostream

Musing in Manhattan

Chrysler Building, New York City, 1931
Platinum print by Margaret Bourke-White
Image © Time-Life & courtesy of Gallery M
Motivated - perhaps inspired would be a better word - by Colleen Fitzpatrick's Forensic Genealogy mystery photo contest this week (Contest #226), I've been thinking art deco (or should that be Art Deco). I hope I'm not giving too much of the game away to say that I've always thought of New York's Chrysler Building as one of the more breathtakingly spectacular and visually effective examples, perhaps even the epitome, of this style of architecture. Although I've never visited New York, if I do one day, this will be one of the places that I'll be sure to visit, and not merely for the earthy marble walls and fittingly decorated lift doors on the ground floor.


Margaret Bourke-White, Chrysler Building, New York City, 1931
Unidentified photographer
Image © & courtesy of Time-Life Pictures
The photographer of the well known Chrysler Building image was photo-journalist extraordinaire Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971), whose autobiography (Portrait of Myself, published in 1963) featured a photograph (above) on its front cover showing her with camera in action astride one of the huge metallic gargoyle-like protruberances from the Chrysler Building. This photo, in turn, neatly echoes that which forms the subject of Colleen's photo contest.


Unidentified young woman, c. late 1910s to early 1920s
Mounted portrait by Sol. Young Studio
Image © & courtesy of Deena Mitsin
Quite by coincidence, this week I received an email from someone who had found my brief profile of photographer Sol. Young of New York, compiled some four years ago while researching a collection of photographs sent to me by Irene Savory. My correspondent wondered whether I might be able to tell her more about a mounted portrait photograph, illustrated above, of a young woman that she had discovered while cleaning out her attic. It's difficult for me to tell from her email whether the photograph has any family connection, so I can't really comment on the provenance. Merely from the hairstyle and clothing - and I'm not claiming any great expertise in dating fashions from this era - I estimate a rough date of perhaps the early 1920s. The young woman looks to me to be in her mid- to late twenties, which gives a birth date of around or just before the turn of the century.


Unidentified young man, c.1920s
Photo (107 x 151.5 mm) in embossed and printed pale brown card frame (153 x 229.5 mm) with oval aperture (92 x 133.5 mm), in embossed brown "leather-look" card folder (160 x 236 mm)
Image © & collection of Brett Payne, Courtesy of Irene Savory

Solomon Young was born in Kraków, Poland - then part of Galizien Kroenlande (Galicia Crownland), Austrian Bohemia - on 7 April 1865, son of Isaac L. Young and Lena Wachsmann. He emigrated to the United States in June 1882 (or 1883) at the age of 17, where he settled in New York and became a naturalised citizen some five years later on 1 August 1888. By this time several other members of his family, including his widowed mother and married sister, had also arrived in New York. He appears to have set up as a publisher and book seller from premises in Norfolk Street, in what is now the Lower East Side, until about 1891-1892.


Unidentified teenage girl, c.1905-1910
Mounted print (trimmed) by Sol. Young Studios, N.Y. Brooklyn, N.J.
Image © and courtesy of Etsy
Sol married Minnie Marx on Boxing Day 1892 in Manhattan, New York, and opened his first photographic premises near Union Square the following year. He continued to operate a studio at 17 Union Square West, with a home at 152 East 116th Street (East Harlem) until at least 1899. The trade directories list only his name, but since Sol and Minnie never had any children I presume that she too worked in the studio. One could easily imagine Minnie tending to customers at the front desk in the shop, while Sol. took portraits in the studio.


Unidentified young woman, Dated 1916
Mounted print (4" x 6") on matt (6¾" x 9¾") by Sol. Young
Image © and courtesy of ArtFire
The decade from 1900 until 1910 is something of a mystery, as no records have been found, although it is clear that Sol must have thrived and operated a successful photographic business partnership with his wife during this period. The 1910 Census shows him and Minnie living with his mother at Number 210, 107th Street (Riverside Park).


Augusta, c.1910-1915
Mounted print by Sol. Young, New York
Image © and courtesy of Rick Raven
Five years later, 1915 New York city directory listings show him with seven branches in New York, and a further studio in Bridgeport (Connecticut) which had been opened two years earlier.

Young Sol photo 40 W34th, 1807 Amsdm av, 1204 Bway 985 Lex av 142 W23d 109 W125th & 474 E Tremont av h600 W 116th
Young Sol, photographer, 129 Wall (Bridgeport, Conn.)

List of branch studios, c.1910-1915
Reverse of mounted print by Sol. Young, New York
Image © and courtesy of Rick Raven
However, a listing of branches on the reverse of a card mount from around 1910-1915 (shown above) suggests an even greater early expansion of the business, with at least twelve branches in existence across New York, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Jersey City and Newark by the time this portrait was taken. The device of a lion brandishing a sword was already well established as the studio's "mark" by this time.


George "Highpockets" Kelly, baseball player, c.1915-1920
Mounted print by Sol. Young Studios
Image © and courtesy of Vintage Ball
At about this time he and Minnie also moved their home to 600 West 116th Street, between Columbia University and the Hudson River. Sol and Minnie had been industrious, and it was obviously paying off. Between July and September 1914 they were able to take a long holiday with a trip to Europe, travelling to Germany, Austria and Holland, and presumably leaving their studios in the capable hands of their managers and employees.


Unidentified religious Jew, Brooklyn, c.1915-1920
Photograph by Sol. Young Studios
in Jews of Brooklyn by Ilana Abramovitch & Seán Galvin
Image © The Archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
& courtesy of Google Books
It seems likely that they had intended to visit family in Krakow but their timing was not the best. The outbreak of war throughout Europe in late July was perhaps unexpected, in spite of the build up in tensions between the Eurpean nations for some years. News of the Russian attacks on East Prussia in late August (Battle of Tannenberg), although well to the north of Sol's homeland in Bohemia, seems likely to have rapidly precipitated an early homeward departure.


Maria Charlotta Svahn Belin (1872-1927)
Photograph by Sol. Young Studios, taken c. late 1910s
Image © Michael-Ann Belin & courtesy of Flickr
The swift German invasion through Belgium and into north-western France in late August and early September, culminating in the First Battle of the Marne, may have disrupted the plans for their journey home considerably. In the event, they must have travelled with some trepidation across the German state which was now at war on several fronts, vying for space on trains full of Imperial troops mobilising for the front. They departed from the neutral Dutch port of Rotterdam on 12 September 1914 aboard the S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam, and arrived back home in New York nine days later, somewhat relieved, I feel sure.



Some time between 1910 and 1915, they had moved their primary premises from Union Square to 40 West 34th Street and it appears to have remained the main branch for many years. On Friday 23 September 1921, however, Solomon Young died, aged only 56.

New York Times, 24 Sep 1921
Sol Young, founder of a chain of eighteen photographic studios, died yesterday at his home, 600 West 116th Street, at the age of 56. He was one of the pioneers in the pastel and crayon industry, opening his first studio in Union Square in 1893.

The brief newspaper obituary states that eighteen branches were operating at that time. Minnie Young was clearly quite capable because she continued to operate many of these branches for some years with a posse of managers and assistants. They must have earned her a decent income, as she employed a chauffeur in 1922 and made an extensive trip to mainland Europe in the summer of 1923, visiting Germany, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Switzerland and France. In March 1931 Minnie travelled abroad again, paying a brief visit to London, England.


Unidentified young girl
Photograph by Sol. Young Studios, taken c.1920s
Image © Michael-Ann Belin & courtesy of Flickr
The charming portrait of an - as yet - unidentified young girl (shown above) is, sadly, undated, although Michael-Ann Belin is currently investigating who it might be. I suspect that it was taken in the early to mid-1920s.


Design on card folder from Sol. Young Studios, taken c.1920s
Image © Michael-Ann Belin & courtesy of Flickr
The portrait was sold in an elaborately decorated printed and embossed card folder, of a type which became very popular in the United States during the post-Great War years, particularly the 1920s and early 1930s. The front of the folder has a new emblem, somewhat more stylish than Sol's original lion & sword logo. The reverse of the folder has a large number of studio premises listed. They were situated throughout New York (Bronx, Brooklyn, Rochester), New Jersey (Jersey City, Newark, Trenton, Paterson, Union City), Connecticut (Bridgeport) and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).


Unidentified mother and daughter
Photograph by Sol. Young Studios, taken c.1920s
Image © Michael-Ann Belin & courtesy of Flickr
The business flourished throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s. By 1933 Minnie Young appeared to be in the process of handing over the reins of the business to her husband's nephew, Arthur Lewis Pawliger (1891-1970), who is shown as president and treasurer of Sol. Young Photographer Inc. in a directory of that year. Two years later, at the age of 63, Minnie Young died.

During the years of the Depression, the firm came up with a marketing plan to keep the once successful business afloat. They reputedly sent photographers out on the streets of large cities with ponies, hoping to entice customers with children to have "studio quality" portraits taken with the animals.

I haven't yet been able to determine how long it remained in business, but it seems unlikely to have survived much beyond the onset of the Second World War. In their time, however, they operated from a huge number of different addresses. I have attempted to provide an interim list of these, together with some dates of known operation.

35 University Place - 1893
840 Broadway - 1894
1204 Broadway - c.1900s, 1915
850-852 Broadway, Brooklyn - c.1910s, c.1920s
5606-5th Avenue, Brooklyn - c.1920s
17 Union Square West - 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, c1910s
40 West 34th Street, N.Y. - 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1925
38 West 34th Street (3d fl) - 1933
1807 Amsterdam Avenue - 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920
985 Lexington Avenue - c.1910s, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1925
970 Lexington Avenue, N.Y. - 1922, 1933
142 West 23rd Street - c.1910s, 1915
107-109 West 125th Street, N.Y. - 1915, 1916, 1920, 1922, 1925
111-113 West 125th Street, N.Y. - c.1910s
112 West 125th Street - 1933
474 East Tremont Avenue, Bronx - c1910s, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922
414 East Tremont Avenue - 1933
298 Willis Avenue - 1916
23 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn - c.1910s, c.1920s
24 Arlington Place, Brooklyn - c.1910s
129 Wall Street, Bridgeport, Conn. - 1913
129 Wall rms, Bridgeport, Conn. - 1918, 1923
207 Golden Hill, Bridgeport, Conn. - 1918
803 (6) Chapel Street, New Haven, Conn. - 1918, 1921, 1922, 1927, 1928
157 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, N.J. - c.1910s, c.1920s
923 Broad Street, Newark, N.J. - c.1910s, c.1920s
116 Springfield Avenue, Newark,N.J. - c.1910s
1622 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Penn. - c.1920s
31 Elm Street, Rochester, New York - c.1920s
2 North Broad Street, Trenton, N.J. - c.1920s
197 Market Street, Peterson, N.J. - c.1920s
700 Bergenline Avenue, Union City, N.J. - c.1920s

I welcome any additions to this list, in the form of new addresses or dates. If any readers are able to provide further information, please email me.


Site of Sol. Young's flagship studio, c.1915-1933
38-40 West 34th Street, Manhattan, New York
Image © & courtesy of GoogleMaps
Finally, I would like to focus on the premises from which Sol. and Minnie Young ran their chain of photographic studios: 38-40 West 34th Street, Manhattan, New York. At the time that Google Maps' StreetView camera car drove past a few years ago, this address was occupied by Porta Bella Fine Menswear & Shoes [although a June 2008 report suggests the store has since been remodelled.] To conclude this article, click on the image above to open the GoogleMaps Street View for this address, then pan upwards and to the left to see the building from which Colleen Fitzpatrick's Quiz #266 photo was taken, and which started this journey of discovery for me.

References

Abramovitch, Ilana & Galvin, Seán (2001) Jews of Brooklyn. Brandeis series in American Jewish history, culture, and life. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England. 355p. ISBN 1584650036.

Email Correspondence with Michael-Anne Belin, October 2009, and Maria Belin's Autograph Album 1893 on Flickr

Undated Photograph of Young Woman, c.1910-1915, by Sol Young Studios, 543 S. Salina St., Syracuse, New York, on Onondaga County Pictures

Photograph of young woman, 1916, by Sol Young, on Artfire

Photograph of young girl, by Sol.Young Studios, N.Y. Brooklyn, N.J., on Etsy

Photograph of George "Highpockets" Kelly by Sol Young, c.1910s, on Vintage Ball Photogallery

Message from Rob Stieglitz on Rootsweb GENMSC-L Mailing List Archives, 8 Jul 2000, re. portraits from Sol. Young Studios, dated c.1900 & c.1925

Message from "scardiel" on Ancestry WORTH Surname Message Board, 23 Jul 2004, re. 3 portraits from Sol. Young Studio, dated c.1925 & c.1930

Message from Randall McDaniel on Ancestry SANG Surname Message Board, 15 Apr 2007, re. portrait from Solomon Young Studio dated 28 Aug 1914

Message from Judy Cronan on Ancestry McCONVILLE Surname Message Board, 16 Sep 2005, re. portrait from Sol. Young Studio

Message from Shelley Cardiel on Winham Family Genealogy Forum, 4 Jul 2004, re. portrait by Sol. Young Studio, dated c.1914

Sol. Young - NY Photographer, Message thread by various authors (Sep 2002-Dec 2003) on Ancestry Message Board

Notes about photograph dated July 1913 by Sol Young, The Genealogy site of Zigelboim, Krotman and Kamm families

World War I from Wikipedia
- Battle of Tannenberg
- First Battle of the Marne

Keeping the Tradition Alive by Giddy Up Ponies Photo Services

Storecasting: Fossil Discovered in Midtown, by Cynthia Drescher, 27 June 2008, on Racked New York

International Genealogical Index (IGI) from the LDS Church & FamilySearch

US Federal Census Collection 1790-1930 Indexed images from Ancestry.com

Naturalization Index Card - Solomon Young, 1 Aug 1888, New York Petitions for Naturalization from Ancestry.com

Passport Application - Minnie Young, 28 June 1923, U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 from Ancestry.com

New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 from Ancestry.com
Passenger List: S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam, sailing from Rotterdam, 12 Sep 1914, arr. New York, 21 Sep 1914
Passenger List: S.S. Olympic, sailing from Cherbourg, 19 Sep 1923, arr. New York 26 Sep 1923
Passenger List: S.S. Statendam, sailing from ?New York, 29 Jan 1930, arr. New York, 23 Feb 1930
Passenger List: S.S. Majestic, sailing from Southampton, 18 Mar 1931, arr. New York 24 Mar 1931

UK Incoming Passenger Lists from Ancestry.co.uk
Passenger List: S.S. Homeric, sailing from New York, Arr. Southampton, 10 Mar 1931

New York Directories from Ancestry.com
Trow's New York City Directory 1888, 1891, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898
New York City Directories 1891-92, 1893, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1925, 1933
New Haven City Directories 1921, 1922, 1927, 1928
Connecticut City Directories - Bridgeport 1913, 1918, 1923
Connecticut City Directories - New Haven 1918
Connecticut City Directories - Bridgeport 1918

New York Times Article Archive
New York Times, 24 September 1921.
New York Times, 19 June 1922, p. 11.
New York Times, 26 October 1935.