Thursday 7 February 2013

Sepia Saturday 163: A photographer at the front door


Sepia Saturday 163 - Courtesy of Alan Bennett and Kat Mortensen

The Sepia Saturday prompt photo this week shows a man standing in a deep bank of snow on a sidewalk in Keene, New Hampshire, "after the great storm, March 13, 1888." I'm sticking with the theme only peripherally, in the sense that it shows people in front of houses, and I'm once again grateful to Gail Durbin for giving me the idea for the topic.

Another area that fascinates me is images of people standing outside their houses in photographs that show the whole house. Was this a winter activity for beach photographer? I think one of my cards actually has a message saying that a photographer had come to the road that day.

Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr
Unidentified family in front of their home, postmarked Leytonstone, 1910
Postcard portrait by unidentified photographer
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr

On the reverse of this postcard in Gail's collection is written the following message.
A photographer came today to take the houses.
The family are posed along the short garden path in front of what is presumed to be their home. Whether the family or the house were the primary motive for the portrait is not clear, but it falls within a large genre of photographs of people taken in outdoors settings, and more specifically with their home featuring prominently in the view, apparently by photographers who roamed the suburbs touting for business.

Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr
Lovedaylemon's "Us outside our house" set at Flickr

Gail has a huge set of several hundred such images on Flickr, fittingly entitled, "Us outside our house," which are well worth a browse. The bulk of them are postcards, and probably date from the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s, with a few as late as the 1930s. I hadn't noticed previously, but Gail is quite correct that a large proportion of the portraits seem to have beeen taken in winter, as evidenced by the leafless trees and ivy. What is more unusual is to have a record of the circumstances surrounding the actual taking of the portrait.

Image © and courtesy of Jane Porter
Baker-Haseldine family in Derby, 1920
Mounted print by L.P. Hitchens
Image © and courtesy of Jane Porter

In an article written in April 2008 I discussed a family group portrait taken in an informal garden setting in the suburbs of Derby. According to the story told to photograph owner Jane Porter by family members:
It was 1920 in Derby. That was the year when my gran - Madge - was born. The story is that a photographer knocked the door and offered to take a photo of them. They rushed to get themselves tidied up and cut some roses from the back garden to hold. Ethel (the middle of back row) had just been doing the washing (she'd had her sleeves rolled up).
The photographer L.P. Hitchen (1877-1922) was a cotton weaver in Burnley, Lancashire for much of his life, and probably only tried his hand at photography for a brief period, not long enough even to have card mounts printed. I can find no other record of his photographic work apart from this portrait.

Image © and courtesy of Cynthia Maddock
Portrait of unidentified family group and house, c. mid- to late 1860s
Carte de visite by Thomas B. Mellor of Belper, Derbyshire
Image © and courtesy of Cynthia Maddock

Cynthia Maddock sent me this image of a much earlier carte de visite portrait in the same vein, featuring a large family, complete with baby and cat, arranged in front of an old thatched cottage. Thomas Barker Mellor of The Butts, Belper, Derbyshire practised as a photographer in and around that town for roughly a decade from the late 1860s until the mid- to late 1870s. While he may have had a studio, I have yet to come across an example of his work which hasn't been taken outdoors. Even an 1874 group portrait of Butterly Company workers appears to have taken place in a hastily constructed makeshift studio in an outdoors setting. A garden at Pentrich Lane End formed the backdrop to the charming Fletcher family portrait taken c. 1867, as shown in a charming carte de visite in Robert Silverwood's collection.

Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Portrait of unidentified family group and house, c. late 1880s-early 1890s
Cabinet card by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin (Hewitt collection)

I am particularly interested in such examples, as they provide valuable information on a group of photographers who otherwise tended not to leave much in the way of documentary evidence of their work, even though their output was often prodigious. I can't be sure, and certainly can't provide any sources for it, but I believe some photographers may have specialised in this house-to-house trade. From as early as the 1850s there were itinerant photographers who would frequent country fairs, but I believe there were also plenty of practitioners who never had permanent studio premises, and sought out customers wherever they could find them. If that meant going from house to house in the suburbs, then that's what they did.

Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The Payne family at home, c.1894-1895
Cabinet card portrait by A & G Taylor of Derby
Image © and collection of Brett Payne

In spite of the photographer's imprint suggesting a studio in Queen Anne Buildings, New Briggate, Leeds, I believe this portrait of my grandfather and his parents to have been taken in the garden of their house (and grocer's shop) at 83 St James' Road, Derby, not long after their return from Chicago in late 1892. A greenhouse is visible in the background, and my great-grandfather is sitting on a newspaper to prevent his suit trousers from being ruined by sitting in the rockery. A & G Taylor was a huge firm with branches country-wide; several of these branch studios in the Midlands (Derby, Nottingham, Leeds & Sheffield) were run together by a manager William Middleton in the 1880s and 1890s. I suspect that they temporarily ran out of stock of card mounts for the Derby branch at this time, and used some old card stock, since the Leeds branch was by that time being managed by someone else. I think it likely that the photographer was touring the neighbourhood, and the Payne family made the most of the unexpected opportunity.

Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
Uncle Hallam, Aunt Sarah & Leslie Payne, St James' Road, Derby
Postcard portrait by unidentified photographer, c. 1907-1909
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison

A decade later this postcard portrait taken on the street outside the same house and off-licence, then occupied by my grandfather's Uncle Hallam, was almost certainly taken by a similarly opportunistic photographer. It depicts, from left to right, an unidentified female shop worker, Sarah Emma Payne (1870-1946), Charles Hallam Payne (1870-1960), my grandfather Charles Leslie Lionel Payne (1892-1975) handling an early form of shopping cart - presumably used for transporting beer deliveries indoors - and an unidentified young man in charge of Hallam's horse and brewer's dray.

Image © and courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection
Charles and Maud Gunson at their house near Tauranga, c. 1911-1913
Postcard portrait by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection

Part of my work as a volunteer at the Tauranga Heritage Collection involves scanning of old photographs in the collection. This image of a postcard is from a group which belonged to the Stewart and Gunson families of Tauranga and Katikati, and shows Charles and Maud Gunson in front of a wooden house with enclosing verandahs and a fenced garden with several shrubs. No photographer's imprint is shown on the back of the postcard. Since no children are shown, it is likely to have been taken shortly after their marriage in 1911. At that time, the most likely type of camera used to produce this format would have employed glass plates, and is therefore less likely to have been in the hands of an amateur, since roll film cameras were easily available by then and were far more portable. It is likely, therefore, that this too was taken by a travelling, or at least roving, professional photographer.

Image © & courtesy of Alan CraxfordImage © & courtesy of Alan CraxfordImage © & courtesy of Terry Smith
Various unidentified children, late 1890s - early 1900s
Cabinet card portraits by Frank Day of Heanor
Images © & courtesy of Alan Craxford and Terry Smith

Although his portraits concentrate on the human subjects and give little prominence to the houses and gardens, Frank Day was another Derbyshire photographer who made a practice of visiting customer's homes in Heanor from the late 1890s until about 1912. The Ray Street address given on some of his cabinet card mounts is where he was living in 1901, so perhaps he had a darkroom and processing facility at home, but no studio. It is interesting to note that in April 1911 the census shows him near Pontypridd in Wales. He described himself as a photographer working on his own account, so perhaps he was preparing for the influx of spring visitors to Wales. If so this would lend support to Gail's idea that such photographers may have followed the seasonal trade.

Image © & collection of Brett Payne
Child and caged bird in conservatory, c.1890s
Cabinet card by unidentified photographer
Image © & collection of Brett Payne

I have many portraits taken in similar settings, sadly now bereft of any documentation to demonstrate how the photographer and client found each other. More often than not, they don't even have the photographer's imprint or location to show where they are from. For a more affluent family, I suspect that a studio photographer might be summoned from his regular premises to the client's home, and would perhaps expect to charge somewhat above his standard studio rate for the extra effort involved. However, a less well known practitioner sans premises in the High Street, and consequently without the attached overhead expenses, who was touting for business by door-knocking in a residential suburb might be able to reduce his charges to somewhat less than the going rate in order to attract customers. I suppose it was a niche readily filled by those without the resources to rent and fit out expensive studios with backdrops, furniture and props.

I suspect I've moved well away from the theme that most Sepians will follow this week, so if you want some variety, please pay them a visit. There are a few to get around, so it might be an idea to bookmark Sepia Saturday and make it a regular haunt.

38 comments:

  1. Very nice post. The date on the description of the SS theme photo says March 13, 1988, though I believe that should be 1888.

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  2. Before I started blogging, I wondered how my ancestors who always seemed rather poor managed to have such fine studio portraits, and how a small town like Shenandoah, Virginia could support so many different photography studios. You've educated me about the life of the itinerant photographer. The story of the family caught housecleaning quickly making themselves presentable probably could apply to many families.

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  3. What a very nice collection of pictures. I was surprised to see that it is possible to compose a collection of pictures all with people in front of their house. Maybe those photographers went around in winter because it was off season for them?
    In case you have similar pictures/CDV's from Holland, we have a publication here summing up all the photographers who were in business around the turn of the 19/20th century. So if you need info...

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  4. Brett I am in awe of your blogging prowess. This particular post is so rich that I have had to come back to it several times to digest all that is on offer. I really really liked the links you put in the post and your observations. I have so much to learn. Thanks for sharing. Alex

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  5. Thanks John. I have corrected it :-)

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  6. Wendy - Even formal studio portraits were not particularly expensive. I'll write about affordability of photographs in the Victorian and Edwardian periods some time - thanks for the idea.

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  7. Peter - Yes, I think it may well have been the case that some photographers moved location according to the season. Thanks for the offer, and I will take you up on it some time.

    Alex - Thank you for your kind words. I think we all learn through this process, both writing and reading.

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  8. Great take on the theme and some lovely old photos. Thank you for sharing.

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  9. Great take with some interesting images. I'm amazed how you can take us on a journey each post. I especially liked the images of people outside their houses.

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  10. You are quite right to highlight the popular image of people outside their houses. Was it simply the need to move into natural light or the pride of possession which inspired most of them I wonder?

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  11. I am amazed (and very jealous) that you have these photos of your ancestors

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  12. Thank you Karen, Lovely and Mike B.

    Alan - I think it must have been a combination of both. It would have been very tricky for a travelling photographer in the 1900s to 1920s, with the technology then available, to produce reliable results indoors. Studio premises usually had large plate glass windows and/or skylights with blinds so that the ambient lighting could be carefully controlled. Bright sunlight outdoors had its problems too, as you well know, but was easier to manage. So, the photographer, being a good salesman, would perhaps have offered a portrait with a difference.

    Mike - Yes, I'm lucky to have had a chain of forebears with the foresight to make sure that the photographs were preserved through the generations. Judging by the number of family photographs that end up on eBay, not all feel the same way. It's a salutary lesson to us all to make sure there is a good chain of custody set up for those family heirlooms that we (and future generations) might think important.

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  13. Several years ago, a distant cousin of some degree or other, foisted off a large box of old photos to me. I have identified most of the photos and sent them onto to their rightful families. However, one of the things that surprised me was that itinerant photographers were even plying the sagebrush lands of eastern Oregon in the 1870s & 80s.

    Also, it seemed as tho the very poor dinna have photographs, only the middle class and wealthy. I liken it to having a tv in the 1950s or fancy cell phones today. --or perhaps it's just a phenomenon of my family.

    I look forward to your posts each week. Thanks.

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  14. It must be wonderful having roses readily available for a photo op. What interesting stories of photographers and their trade. I love your volunteer work. I'd do it if given the chance.

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  15. I've never been to Belper but that has is very like one there used to be in the village where I was born. I jumped when I saw the shot of Tauranga as a friend of mine has recently moved there. A travelling photographer would be out of pocket today.

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  16. The topic of people outside their houses is interesting. I don't know if the are common here, but I am now going to keep my eyes open for similar views on postcards.

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  17. Another interesting post Brett. I tried to click on the unidentified children to enlarge but couldn't, sadly.

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  18. So interesting to learn about the photography business in the early 20th century. For all the photography we do now I wonder how many images will endure like these to be studied in the future.

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  19. Wow! I love the theme idea and all of the photos that you came up with in this post. Each one is a story starter, as we imagine who they were and what went on behind the front door.

    Great post, thank you.

    Kathy M.

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  20. I'm already thinking of some of my photographs in a new light. Perhaps gggrandfather standing with his granddaughter in front of his house was taken by an itinerant photographer in Durham. I have only a scanned image from a cousin. An email may be in order. Thanks for your interesting post and pictures!

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  21. Great photos. They reminded me of a friend of mine that used to go around trying to sell photos of your house from an airplane. I think he made quite a good living doing that but now google earth does it for free.

    I especially liked the photo of the child in the conservatory. Beautiful.
    Nancy

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  22. What a wonderful collection of photos. I had to watch them over and over again. Thank you for sharing!

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  23. Its an interesting point re the house photo without any children outside.It's often what isn't in the picture that can tell the story.
    Fascinating photos (especially,for me,the ones of East London & of Burnley....both of which I have connections with)
    Thanks.Great Post.

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  24. I just love this post! The idea of an itinerant photographer never crossed my mind; it makes sense, though, for there were itinerant portrait painters, too, who had to make way for the changing technology. Interesting stuff.

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  25. What a thoughtful and interesting post. There was a group of brothers in Ashfield MA USA who were itinerant photographers who had a studio for a few years - very similar to what you describe.
    http://www.ashfieldhistorical.org/collections.html#Howes I know of this because my mother's family grew up near there. I have used one of their photos for Sepia Saturday.

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  26. How amazing- you answered many of my questions I've had through the years. I do remember hearing from the elders too, how a photographer would happen by and often food or other such exchanges besides money would do just fine. Your first photo is excellent and for a moment I thought it was the same house in Alan's photo! This is a very informative and nicely written post, bravo!

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  27. Great post, and good spin! especially like unidentified family group and house, c. mid- to late 1860s
    Carte de visite " wow, want the house!

    Jan

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  28. Reading your post was like reading a book chapter by an expert author. I'm looking forward to the following chapters. Thanks for sharing!

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  29. The mystery of the man (or woman even) behind the camera always makes a great story on your blog, Brett. I've had similar questions about these house photos, especially the many shop postcards over at Howard's blog PostcardsThenandNow. The history of itinerant photographers seems a neglected trade worthy of more of your research.

    I've just started a eBook on my Kindle, The Lost Cyclist by David Herlihy, which is about three early bicycle adventurers who cycle around the world in the 1890s! What is interesting is that they carry cameras on their travels. If they managed it, I can easily see a local entrepreneur getting a camera outfit and riding a bicycle around to snap "house portraits".

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  30. Joan - I believe itinerant photographers started plying the English (and presumably American) countryside with mobile darkrooms on carts in the 1850s once the collodion positive process had been developed, producing ambrotypes and tintypes. The tintypes in particular were relatively inexpensive, as were carte de visites, which most could afford.

    Hazel - The volunteer work is interesting, and very satisfying, much more my cup of tea than community fund-raising.

    Bob - Tauranga's a lovely place to live, but don't tell everyone. Yes, I think the opportunities for an itinerant anything these days are rapidly disappearing.

    Boobook & Kathy M. - Thank you.

    Postcardy - They may not be so common in North America, although I have one example of a cabinet card of an 1880s settler family outside their farmhouse, sent back to relatives in England.

    Little Nell - Thank you. I'm not sure why you can't enlarge them, because I'm not having any difficulty. Perhaps it's a browser incompatibility - what browser do you use?

    Helen - I think you are right to have some doubts about the permanence of digital images in our archives. I never like to delete anything, but I fear what will happen to my archives once I'm no longer around to preserve them.

    Kathy Morales - It's always helpful to include the mounts (and backs) of photographs on the scans, so remember to mention this when you ask relatives for copies of their family photos. You wouldn't want to miss the clues.

    Nancy - I have seen series of postcards of towns and villages in Derbyshire taken from the air, but not of individual homes. Yes, I agree about the child with a bird cage in the conservatory (shades of Cluedo?) - it is charming.

    Caijsa - I'm glad you found them so enjoyable.

    Tony - That's a lesson I learnt long ago when trying to build up a timeline and history of individuals in my family from photographs.

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  31. Deb - Judging by the number of existing cartes de visite and cabinet cards with no photographer's mark on them at all, I belive there must have been far more than is suggested by the census records, but I have yet to see any estimates of numbers in the literature. The difficulty is that, by their very nature, the itinerants were hard to pin down on census night.

    Viridian - Thanks for the link to the Howes Brothers photographers. I was particularly intrigued by the story of a letter requesting a duplicate 86 years after the original was taken, and the Ashfield Historical Society being able to oblige. There are very few such collections of glass plate negatives which survive in their entirety.

    Karen - It's good to have confirmation of the itinerant photographers touring suburbs, and I'm pleased you found the article of some use.

    Jan - I'll discuss the identification of this location in a future Photo-Sleuth article. This house almost certainly still stands!

    Prenter & Optimistic - That's very kind of you.

    Mike Brubaker - It's a topic which returns to me frequently, in particular the relationship between photographer and subject. I suppose you could say it's what this blog is all about. I think in a studio portrait the relationship was far more formalised, and to a formula, so that it was less obvious. The photographer did his best to hide the relationship. With itinerant photographer that boundary was often visible in the photo.
    Frank Scarratt, the Derbyshire postcard photographer and publisher who I have featured several times on this blog, used a bicycle, and later a motorcycle, to get around when photographing his scenes. He often left his bike leaning against a kerb, fence or wall in the scene, so that it's become known as his signature. It would have been quite a job carrying around the glass plates and the large wooden camera needed.

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  32. The itinerant photographers put me in mind of the aerial photographers we used to have knocking on our door from time to time. The difference there was that they took the photo first and asked afterwards. I suspect they have had their business severely curtailed by Google maps satellite view even though it's really not the same at all.

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  33. Sheila - Nancy mentioned the same thing. I've never had one of these chaps knocking on my door, although I've often wished I had such a shot of my house.

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  34. A fine selection here, and the one one that drew me the most is that old thatched cottage. Something about it is simply endearing.

    Thanks for sharing all of this and putting in all of the hard work.
    :)~
    HUGZ

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  35. THis is a wonderful category I hadn't thought of. I do have a few , my favorite of two little girls standing on the front porch of a very tall brick building, also taken in the winter. You've wetted my appetite for this category!

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