Sepia Saturday 164 : Wedding group protocols

Once again I'm straying somewhat from the theme of this week's Sepia Saturday image, in that only my first image has anything in common, a military uniform with moustache accessory dating from the Second World War. It gives me an excuse, if I ever needed one, to use scans of a couple of recent purchases by Derbyshire photographers, as well as to dip once again into the archives of Gail Durbin's Flickr photostream (aka lovedaylemon).


Unidentified newly married couple and flower girl, c. early 1940s
Postcard portrait by H.I. Hawkes of 19, Chestnut Ave., Derby
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The happy couple in this postcard portrait are unidentified, but they also appear in a group wedding portrait, below, that was part of the same eBay purchase, taken by Derby photographer H.I. Hawkes.


Unidentified wedding group, Derbyshire, c. early 1940s
Postcard portrait by H.I. Hawkes of 19, Chestnut Ave., Derby
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Judging by the groom's uniform and the clothing styles of the other attendees, this was probably taken during the Second World War. From a brief researching of his cap badge and collar dogs, I think he must have been serving with the Royal Engineers.


Postcard portrait from H.I. Hawkes of 19, Chestnut Ave., Derby
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The back of the postcard is of an unusual, but generic, "K" Kodak design dating from the late 1930s (Playle's list has a similar example from 1936) with Hawke's stamp at upper left indicating that he was operating from 19 Chestnut Avenue, Derby. Since this is, and was then, a residential address of terraced houses, it is likely that he did not have a studio on the premises, perhaps only a processing dark room.


Double wedding of Dorothy Hirst and her brother George, Derbyshire
Postcard portrait by H.I. Hawkes of 19, Chestnut Ave., Derby, early 1944
Image © and courtesy of Marilyn McMillan
Another example of this photographer's work sent to me by Marilyn McMillan also depicts a wedding party, that of the double marriage of sister and brother Dorothy and George Hirst in early 1944. A third Hawke wedding portrait taken at St James' Church, Dairyhouse Road, Derby in early 1951 is shown in a 2008 Derbyshire Telegraph article (This is Derbyshire).

But is not the photographer as much as the subjects of these wedding group portraits that interest me this week. I have spent some time looking at the members of the Royal Engineer's Derby wedding party, trying to decide who was related to whom, and that led to further thoughts on what protocols are prevalent around the positioning of family members in formal wedding group portraits. I suspect that fellow Sepians will have a far better idea of such conventions in their own necks of the woods than I do, so I would welcome any contributions, either by email or as comments at the end of this article.


Unidentified possible wedding group, c. 1864-1866
Carte de visite by John Burton & Sons of Derby
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Photography was used as a technique to capture wedding parties from as early as the 1850s, in the form of daguerreotypes. This format, however, was expensive, and the much cheaper cartes de visite introduced in the 1860s were not really large enough to display large wedding groups effectively. One such portrait by John Burton & Sons shows a large group at Derby in the mid-1860s, but the faces are hardly identifiable, and it's even difficult to pick out the bridal couple with any certainty.


Wedding group at Upper Blakenhall Farm, c.1868-1870
Carte de visite by William Farmer of Barton-under-Needwood
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Long time devotees of Photo-Sleuth will recognise this portrait of an wedding group as a carte de visite which I discussed almost four years ago in the "Mystery marriage" series. My identification of the couple being married is now under some doubt, the marriage of a younger sister of the suggested bride having been offered as an alternative possibility by a reader and potential family member. However, the location of the portrait - as co-sleuth Nigel Aspdin will be pleased to hear - is probably not, and it is an nice early example of the white bridal gowns popularised by the Queen Victoria and her daughters from the 1840s onwards.


Wedding of William Hodgkiss & Charlotte Stirland, 16 August 1904
Large format mounted print by J.N. Perks of Swadlincote
Image © and courtesy of Ben Hodgkiss
The introduction of the larger cabinet card in the late 1860s helped, but it wasn't until the popularisation of larger format mounted prints in the 1890s and early 1900s that studios commonly produced decent sized prints of large groups, such as this 1904 example by Joseph Perks of Swadlincote, in which people could easily recognise themselves.


Wedding of Louisa Rice and George Storr, 1 July 1914
Postcard portrait by Harold Burkinshaw of New Road, Belper
Image © and courtesy of Robert Silverwood
The postcard format was first used for photographic portraits around the turn of the century, after which it rapidly superseded the carte de visite as the cheapest option available. The increase in size meant that large groups could be accommodated quite comfortably, although the difficulties in coping with lighting conditions indoors meant that formal portraits were taken usually on the steps of the church, or in the garden of the ensuing reception.


Unidentified wedding group, 1925
Postcard portrait by F. Clark of Belper
Image © and courtesy of Adrian Farmer
Even in the slightly less formal garden portraits, there appear to be very definite conventions on the arrangement of people within the group. I conducted a survey of one hundred group portraits from Gail Durbin's huge Vintage weddings Flickr set in which the bride and groom are clearly identifiable, in a wide variety of settings. The groom is placed to the right of the bride (facing the photographer) in 87% of them - in other words, only 1 or 2 out of every 10 arrangements has the groom standing or seated to the bride's left. A similar ratio emerges from an analysis of fifty portraits showing only the wedding couple: 81% have the groom standing to the right of the bride.

An 1893 description of wedding etiquette includes the following:

When the ceremony is performed in church, the bride enters at the left, with her father, mother, and bridesmaids; or, at all events, with a bridesmaid. The groom enters at the right, followed by his attendants. The parents stand behind, the attendants at either side.

My guess is that photographs taken after the ceremony tended to follow the same conventions as those observed inside the church.


Wedding of Charles Leslie Lionel Payne and Ethel Brown, Derby, 1926
Loose amateur 116 (2½" x 4¼") film print
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This amateur portrait of my grandparents' wedding party, taken in the bride's parents' garden (probably with something like the No 1A Folding Pocket Kodak camera), shows the typical standard convention for small family group wedding shots: the groom's parents are immediately to his right, while the bride's parents are to her left. As is often the case, both mothers are seated.


Wedding of Leslie Falconer and Edith Smith, 1934
Postcard portrait by W.W. Winter of Derby
Image © and courtesy of Kevin Rhodes
This wedding photo and that displayed below, both from the Derby studio of W.W. Winter, were taken indoors. By the mid-20th Century lighting technology was sufficiently advanced such that being indoors no longer presented much difficulty to photographers. Winters in particular had a large, well appointed studio in Midland Road, Derby with modern lighting apparatus and all of their studio portraits were of excellent quality.


Wedding of Fred Garner and Gertrude Trueman, Chaddesden, 1944
Postcard portrait by W.W. Winter of Derby
Image © and courtesy of Kathleen Garner
It may be, however, that the Garner-Trueman portrait was taken in Chaddesden. Winter's photographer Hubert King describes taking wedding portraits "on location" using a hand-held 5" x 4" glass plate Press camera in the 1940s and 1950s (Winter, 1996).


Arrangement of guests in Garner-Trueman wedding group portrait
This photograph is particularly useful as the contributer supplied me with IDs of the entire group, including their relationships to the bride and groom. The recently married couple, with the groom (bright blue) conventionally standing to the right of the bride (bright red), are immediately flanked by a couple who were friends of the bride (pale pink), and presumably acted as best man and maid of honour during the ceremony. Surrounding them are the immediate members of the groom's family, comprising his father and four sisters (light blue), while the bride's parents (pink) have been relegated to the far right of the photograph. More distant members of the grooms family (pale blue) then complete the picture.


Wedding of Arthur Durbin to Hilda Scott, 10 July 1937, Stoke Newington
Unknown format and photographer
Image © and courtesy of Gail Durbin
Gail Durbin has kindly identified several family members in this 1937 photograph of her parents' wedding party.


Arrangement of guests in Durbin-Scott wedding group portrait
The happy couple (bright blue/red) are seated in front of this large group, with the best man and maid of honour (light purple), both friends of the couple, standing immediately behind them. The front row is dominated by the immediate family of the bride (pink), perhaps because both parents of the groom were deceased by this time, although his sister-in-law (light blue) and her children (pale blue) were present.

I should note that it is not unusual to see one spouse's family over-represented in a wedding group. This might have several reasons:

• a subsequent portrait in the series may have included more members of the other spouse's family,
• the under-represented spouse may have come from further afield, making it difficult for family members to attend the wedding, or
• an under-represented family may have been smaller to begin with, or some could have died.

Absence of a particular family member from any group portrait should not, however, be taken to mean that person is deceased. In the double Hirst wedding group by Hawkes above, it would be easy to assume from the absence of the siblings' mother that she was deceased, but this would be incorrect, as Thirza only died in 1951, seven years after the wedding.


Horace Watts Woolley and Phyllis M. Woolley née Hirst, 21 Sep 1942
Postcard portrait by Jerome studio, 26 Victoria Street, Derby
Image © and collection of Marilyn McMillan
After a week of perusing several hundred wedding photos, and dredging up memories of the weddings I've attended in the past, I've come up with some broad guidelines on the conventions around wedding group arrangements. I hope these may assist some researchers in the identification of family members in old wedding photos in their collections. I should note that these conclusions are largely taken from shots of English ceremonies, and may not hold elsewhere. I'd be keen to hear feedback from readers concerning similarities or differences in other parts of the world.

• The first thing to emphasize is that there are no hard and fast rules. As quick as I list a guideline, I find several examples showing something quite different. Quite a few less formal group portraits can be found, in which many or all of the guidelines are ignored.
• The bridge and groom are usually together and central to the group, but may be slightly displaced or even, in some groups, at one side of the group. In 8-9 out of 10 cases, the groom is seated or standing on the bride's right, but a significant number of cases show the reverse. It may be that the latter are mostly among less formal group photos.
• The best man and maid of honour, often friends of either or both the bride and groom, if present in the photo, are usually standing immediately adjacent to or behind them.
• Bridesmaids and flower girls are often standing or seated in the front row, particularly if they are carrying flower bouquets, presumably so that the arrangements are in full view.
• The next closest to the bride and groom, usually in the front row, are their immediate family, including siblings and their spouses, parents and nephews/nieces. Each branch of the family are not necessarily restricted to a single side of the group.
• Children generally stand in front of the adults or are seated on the ground.
• One person's hands on the shoulders of another usually indicates a close relationship.

WOOLLEY-HIRST. - On September 15, 1942, at Alvaston Parish Church, Derby. L/Bdr. Horace Watts Woolley, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. Woolley, of 138, Raynesway, Alvaston, to Phyllis M. Hirst, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Hirst, of 176, Brighton-road, Crewton, Derby.

A final cautionary note concerning dates on portraits which appear to be celebrating weddings: as demonstrated by the example above, the photograph may not have been taken on the day of the wedding. The portrait of Horace and Phyllis Woolley by Jerome studios of Derby is marked on the back with Jerome's usual purple date stamp, in this case Monday 21st September 1942. However, a newspaper cutting also affixed to the back of the portrait shown in the image sent to me by Marilyn McMillan demonstrates that the wedding actually took place at the parish church, Alvaston, near Derby, on Tuesday 15th September, six days earlier. Presumably they didn't have an opportunity for photographs on the day, and paid a visit to the studio a few days later to record their nuptials.

While clothing fashions changed continually, the conventions surrounding seating arrangements appear to have remained much the same over time and, from my own limited experience of weddings, survive largely intact to the present day. I'd be interested in hearing what your impressions are.

References

A Bride and Her Bridesmaids, 1851, by Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes, Whole plate daguerreotype, Smithsonian American Art Museum, in The Wedding Story, by Merry Foresta, 2009, The Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife on their wedding day, 30 December 1852, b&w film copy neg. of daguerreotype by unidentified photographer, Ref. LC-USZ61-900, Library of Congress.

Wells, Richard A. (1893) Manners, Culture and Dress of the Best American Society in Chapter: Courtship and Marriage, Springfield, Mass.: King, Richardson & Co.

Winter, W.W. Ltd. (1996) The Winter's Collection of Derby, Volume Two, Derby: Breedon Books.

Sepia Saturday 163: A photographer at the front door

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.

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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.

Sepia Saturday 162: Decorating Bicycles

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs ... the launch pad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images

I use the weekly image prompts provided by Alan Bennett and his occasional helpers as an inspiration for writing about photohistory, mostly centred around images from my own collection, but also in response to correspondence with like-minded folk from around the world who've been in touch via this blog or my Derbyshire Photographers web site. The regular deadline suits me as I have to focus on a specific image or topic and get down to it, rather than researching until the cows come home and never actually writing anything.

Another important aspect is the regular feedback received from fellow Sepians, for which I'm very grateful. As I stated in my first ever posting on Photo-Sleuth almost six years ago:

"... the best way to stimulate me into posting more photos is to provide some feedback. It's always nice to hear from like-minded folk."

Over the last year - during which time my blogging as been, shall we say, sporadic - almost half of the articles that I've posted on Photo-Sleuth have been contributions to Sepia Saturday, but they have generated over 80% of the comments received during that time. Using my Google Analytics tool I'm also able to determine that more than half of all Sepia Saturday visitors leave feedback. I take that as a measure of readers' appreciation. Thank you.


Unidentified boy with flag on bicycle, undated
Cabinet card by Norman McAuslan, of New Road, Belper, Derbyshire
Image © & courtesy of Diane Alton-Kaighin
This week's image reminded me of a couple of curious photographs by Derbyshire studios of decorated bicycles. The first is a cabinet card by the Belper photographer Norman McAuslan, in which a boy on a bicycle brandishes a large flag or banner, the pole of which carries a pointed finial. After some research, I believe I've identified the banner as an early version of the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom in use prior to 1907.


N.J. McAuslan's studio in Belper, undated
Paper print by unidentified photographer
Image © & courtesy of Robert Silverwood
According to his great-grandson Robert Silverwood, McAuslan worked as a photographer from the mid-1880s until ill health forced him to quit in April 1902. This unusual studio portrait was probably taken towards the end of this period, and I believe it may have been taken to mark the death of Queen Victoria and accession of King Edward VII in January 1901.


Man dressed as a clown with decorated bicycle, undated
Glass plate negative by W.W. Winter of Midland Road, Derby
Image © and courtesy of WW Winter Ltd
This image produced from one of W.W. Winter's glass plate negatives is presumed - from the caption in Angela Leeson's "The Winter's Collection of Derby" - to depict a participant in a Hospital Day parade, and it is my guess from the photographic style that it was taken in the 1910s. This time the decoration is far more elaborate, including masses of flowers, paper Chinese lanterns and an umbrella. The man standing next to the bicycle is dressed as a clown, complete with battered topper and bulbous nose.


Group with decorated bicycles, Alcester, c.1890s
Image © and courtesy of Windows on Warwickshire
From what I can tell, the tradition of decorating bicycles first developed during the 1890s' Golden Age of Bicycles, resulting from the introduction of the first practical pneumatic tyres which undoubtedly made cycling a far more pleasant and comfortable pastime. Like cycling, it quickly became a craze which spread rapidly around the world, so that by the late 1890s they were even indulging in the Antipodes.


Decorated bicycles, probably c.1918
Postcard by unidentified photographer
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr
The following account of a spring carnival which took place in Dunedin, New Zealand in September 1897 describes a variety of decorated people and contraptions:

FLORAL FETE AND BICYCLE GYMKHANA.
At the conclusion of the mayor's remarks a dozen ladies mounted on bicycles went through a number of evolutions to the strains of music supplied by a band of four musicians ... The ladies were all dressed in white, and wore straw hats trimmed with yellow flowers. Their bicycles were also nicely decorated with flowers, daffodils being largely brought into requisition for decorative purposes ...

Decorated bicycles, tricycles, scooters, wheelbrarrows & prams
Postcard by unidentified photographer, May Day 1921
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr

At the conclusion of the bicycle ride there was a procession of children with exhibits, consisting of bicycles, tricycles, go-carts, perambulators, &c, all of which were decorated with spring flowers and evergreens. The procession was headed by four children dressed in white, drawing a go-cart nicely decorated with flowers. Then came various kinds of vehicles, some of which looked very pretty with their floral decorations ...

Decorated bicycles in Lions Club Parade, Whitby, Ontario, 1937
Black and white negative by Marjorie Ruddy
Image courtesy of Whitby Online Historic Photographs Collection, Whitby Archives & Whitby Public Library, Ref. 30-023-032.

Conspicuous in the procession was a pug poodle drawing a small cart ... Several children, dressed so as to represent different kinds of flowers, and carrying parasols florally decorated, brought up the rear of the procession ...

Commercial High School Fiesta Floral Parade with maypole/bicycle float
Photograph by unidentified photographer, Los Angeles, 1902
Image © and courtesy of Copenhagenize.com

The whole display was very effective, and greatly enjoyed by the spectators, who showed their appreciation of it by loud applause. After the procession about 20 little girls, dressed in white and decked with flowers, danced a maypole dance very gracefully.

Decorated bicycle, Battle of the Flowers, Ramsgate, undated
Postcard by unidentified photographer
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr
The cycle carnival became a popular fundraiser, always guaranteed to produce a wide variety of interpretations on the theme as well as draw a good crowd.

In 1907 the Molesey Wheelers Cycle Club introduced a cycle carnival to boost the hospital funds. The spectacle of a cavalcade of gaily decorated bicycles and tricycles parading through the streets was something Molesey villagers had never before beheld. The ingenuity displayed by the riders in embellishing their machines was said to have been "much admired by the spectators", and demands were made to repeat the exhibition the following year. Which indeed it was, and for several following years. (Baker, 1981)

Floral decorated bicycle with dog platform, undated
Hand-coloured postcard by unidentified photographer
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr
The Northamptonshire Film Archive Trust has film archive footage of the Wellingborough Hospital Day "carnival (in 1925 which) shows a lady pushing her highly decorated bicycle which also carried her little dog," possibly much as shown in the postcard above.


Decorated bicycles in Shrewsbury Carnival, 1938
Still image from silent film compilation
Image © and courtesy of MACE Media Archive for Central England
The final image in this series is a still taken from a silent film of floats in the Shrewsbury Carnival of 1938, illustrating the continuing popularity of decorated bicycles, some embellished with the same old Japanese lanterns.

I'm very grateful to Gail Durbin, whose Flickr photostream (lovedaylemon) includes a superlative collection of old photographs on various topics, providing several images for this week's topic. If you fancy being entertained in good "sepian" fashion for a couple of hours, I'd thoroughly recommend a wander over there - you won't be disappointed.

References

Bicycle, from Wikipedia.

History of Carnival, The Official Wellingborough Carnival web site.

Anon (1897) Floral Fete and Bicycle Gymkhana, Otago Witness, Issue 2274, 30 September 1897, p30, Courtesy of Papers Past.

Baker, Rowland G.M. (1981) The Story of Molesey Hospital.

Leeson, Angela (1992) The Winter's Collection of Derby, Breeedon Books, p123.

Military uniforms in Victorian and Edwardian Derbyshire

Over the years, in the course of accumulating images for my study of Derbyshire photographers, I've come across a number of portraits of men wearing military uniforms. Such uniforms present a valuable aid in the dating of photographs, itself an important tool in the identification of the subject of a portrait, but my lack of knowledge of this topic resulted in my leaving many of the pre-Great War era images in the "too hard" basket.

My early efforts at identifying uniforms of regular Derbyshire regiments and militia units made it obvious that I first needed a better understanding of how they were made up, and therefore of their history. I was given a great deal of help in my efforts by several kind members of the Victorian Wars Forum, a group devoted the study of British Military Campaigns from 1837 to 1902.

I must point out that I don't claim to be any kind of expert, and this article should in no way be regarded as authoritative. I've merely compiled the information from a number of different sources and, while I hope I've not made too many errors, I'm happy to receive suggestions for improvement, amendment, corrections, etc.


Derbyshire's Infantry Regiments, Rifle Volunteers, Militia & Territorial Forces, 1741-1909
The chart above (GIF/PDF) is a provisional and simplified view that I've compiled to show the evolution of the various infantry regiments, rifle volunteers, militia and territorial units in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire through Victorian and Edward eras, till just before the Great War. I should perhaps also explain that I've included Nottinghamshire as the military history of two counties has been, and still is, inextricably linked, as will become clear.


Officer, 45th Regiment of Foot, 1811
The first regular infantry regiments associated with the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in the early 19th century were the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment and the 45th (1st Nottinghamshire) Regiment, formed in 1823 and 1741 respectively. Although they are hardly likely to be found in photographic portraits, by way of an introduction I've included an artistic representation of the typical uniform from the Napoleonic era above.

By the early to mid-1850s, when photographic portraiture became available to the general public, as opposed to to the wealthier classes, through the introduction of the collodion positive, there were two regular regiments of foot and three militia regiments in existence, as follows:
- 45th (1st Nottinghamshire) Regiment
- 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment
- 1st Derby Militia
- 2nd Derby Militia (Chatsworth Rifles)
- 59th Nottinghamshire Regt of Militia (Royal Sherwood Foresters)

Unfortunately I don't have any photographs of uniformed soldiers from these units, but some may be seen in the collection of the Sherwood Foresters Museum.


Unidentified Senior NCO or Instructor
6th (High Peak/Buxton) Corps, Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers
Carte de visite by William Housley of Bakewell, c.1869-1870
Starting in 1859 a series of Rifle Volunteers Corps were formed throughout the two counties, as part of a much wider Volunteer Force, "a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement." The senior non-commissioned officer in the above portrait is wearing the full dress uniform of the Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers, including 1868 pattern scarlet tunics with white facings which identified them as volunteers. The Bakewell man (above) also wears a cap more correctly described as a shako, with a regimental pattern white worsted ball (pom pom) and badge consisting of a French buglehorn surrounding the number 6.


Unidentified Rifleman
5th (Derby Artisan) Corps, Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers
Carte de visite by John Roberts of Derby, c.1869-1870
Image © & courtesy of Michael Jones
The Derby rifleman has a similar tunic, accompanied by a black patent leather cross belt with a pouch at the back and silver fittings comprising regimental badge on the front, whistle and chain and a bugle horn on the pouch, typically worn by Rifle Volunteers. The silver fittings have, however, been erroneously hand coloured gold. The cuff loop is of Trefoil type and indicates an 'other rank', as the cuff adornment of officers was always more elaborate to make the superior rank abundantly clear. His trousers are a very dark grey (virtually black) 'oxford mixture' with a 1/4-inch red seam down the outside of the leg. Instead of a shako, he is wearing his 'undress' pillbox cap - the Rifle Corps were the generally the only infantry unit to wear the pillbox cap - with a simple number badge (no horn). His rifle is either the 3-band 1853 Enfield or possibly the Snider Enfield 'conversion' which was phased in from 1866.


Lt. William Bemrose (1831-1908), Capt. John F. Thirlby (1839-1928) & Lt. Henry Monkhouse (1837-1905)
5th (Derby Artisan) Corps, Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers
Cabinet card by Richard Keene of Derby, August 1874
Image © & courtesy of Derby Local Studies Library
The next two portraits, a cabinet card and a carte de visite taken in the mid-1870s, show officers in full dress uniform. They are from the 1st Administrative Battalion of the Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers, which in 1880 became the 1st Derbyshire Rifle Volunteer Corps. Bemrose, Thirlby and Monkhouse are officers of Field Rank, as marked by the elaborate cuff lacing.


Lt. Edwin Pratt (1836-1913)
19th (Elvaston) Corps, Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers
Carte de visite by Clement Rogers of Derby, c.1874-1875
Image © & courtesy of Derby Local Studies Library
Edwin Pratt served with the 19th (Elvaston) Corps.


Major George H. Gascoyne (1842-1916)
5th (Derby Artisan) Corps, 1st Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers
Carte de visite by J.W. Price of Derby, November 1880
Image © & courtesy of Derby Local Studies Library
George Gascoyne was a major in, and later colonel and commanding officer of, the 1st Derbyshire Rifles. This portrait shows him as Commanding Officer of the 5th (Derby Artisan) Corps, shortly before its amalgamation into the 12 Companies of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment)
. The 1855 (modified in 1860) forage cap which he wears was replaced from the mid 1870s on, but continued to be used in parallel until as late as 1880. It has a horizontal leather peak and the "5 inside French buglehorn" badge.


Unidentified Major
1st Derbyshire Rifle Volunteer Corps
Carte de visite by J.W. Price of Derby, c. late 1870s
Image © & collection of Brett Payne
Both Gascoyne and the unidentified major in the portrait above are wearing a dark blue "frogged" Military Patrol Jacket (not worn by other ranks) of 1868, a garment that was required by an officer in addition to his full dress tunic and often worn both in the field and in barracks.


Soldier identified only as "Bonzo," probably G Company (Belper)
1st Vol. Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters (Derbys. Regt.)
Carte de visite by Jacob Schmidt of Belper, c.1884-1888
Image © & courtesy of Cynthia Maddock
This soldier is wearing the tunic of a man in a volunteer battalion of an infantry regiment, as evidenced by the Austrian knots on his sleeves, a snake buckle belt and a glengarry cap.


Unidentified soldier, probably A Company (Chesterfield)
2nd Vol. Battalion
 The Sherwood Foresters (Derbys. Regt.)
Cabinet card by H. Brawn of Chesterfield, c. 1899-1901
This soldier's white collar and cuffs (together known as "facings") indicate that he is from an English/Welsh county regiment, while the Austrian knots on his sleeves tell us that he is a "volunteer". He is wearing a 5-button frock rather than a 7-button full dress tunic, the former being of inferior material, cut more loosely and unlined. It was intended to be used in barracks as a working uniform, and due to cost-cutting measures it was eventually the only uniform issued to volunteers. He is dressed in Review Order (helmet and bayonet) and carrying the swagger cane or stick used when out of barracks in "walking out dress". The swagger cane or stick was carried by all other ranks at that time and was part of attempts to improve the soldiers view of himself and perception of him by wider society.

The blue cloth "Home Service Helmet" was introduced as a replacement for the shako in 1878 by most British line infantry, artillery and engineers, and worn until 1902, when it was replaced as part of the khaki service dress.


L/Cpl Thomas Charles Ison (1884-1938)
5th (Territorial Force) Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters
Real photo postcard by H.P. Hansen of Ashbourne, c. 1911-1913
Image © & collection of Brett Payne
Lance Corporal Ison is clutching a forage cap with peak, first issued in 1906, and has white facings and scarlet piped white shoulder straps on his 7-button full dress tunic, which with only minor alteration was worn until 1914 by the 5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters.

Both the organisational chart and the series of images are incomplete, but they will serve as an introduction to military uniforms used by Derbyshire units, and will hopefully prompt further contributions of images to fill in the gaps. I am most grateful to Victorian Wars Forum members Frogsmile, grumpy, Old Stubborn, Patrick, Isandlwana, Peter and crimea1854, who all contributed to an informative and in-depth discussion of the above images. If you are interested in further details of clothing and insignia, I suggest you browse that discussion and the many others on the forum.

For other military-themed images this week visit Sepia Saturday, where I believe the regular contributers will do their best to oblige.

References

The Victorian Wars Forum

Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own), Wikipedia & Wikimedia Commons

Beckett, I.F.W. (1982) Riflemen form: a study of the Rifle Volunteer Movement, 1859-1908, Ogilby Trusts, 368p.

Hay, G.J. (1987) The Constitutional Force, reprint of 1908 original by Ray Westlake Military Books.

Kelly (1881) Directory of Derbyshire.

Schick, I.T. (1978) Battledress: The Uniforms of the World's Great Armies 1700 to the present, illustrated by Wilhelm von Halen, London: Artus Books, 256p.

Wright, C.N. (1874) Directory of South Derbyshire, Derby: Bemrose & Sons.