Sepia Saturday 286: The Importance of Deciphering a Hasty Scrawl

I spend lot of time trying to decipher almost illegible scrawls inscribed on the back of old photographs, often the only clue to the subject matter of the image on the front. Quite frequently, it comes down to whether a flick of the pen was the start of a new letter or part of the previous one. There's not much point in dwelling on the matter of whether a little more care could have been taken at the time. You just get on with it and work with what you have.


Six years ago a tattered and threadbare velvet-covered album of family photographs came into my possession, having originally been purchased at a yard sale in eastern Pennsylvania. Jack Armstrong had intended to research it himself, but after several years the almost total lack of any clues left its origins as mysterious as when he bought it.

A number of the portraits in the album had been taken by studios in Derbyshire (England) - hence my interest - but all provenance had been lost, and clues to the identity of the subjects were almost completely non-existent. I subsequently used the album as a photo-archival exercise, with several articles published here on the standard photographing, scanning and documentation procedures that I use for such projects (here, here and here). I also used a photograph from the album as the introductory image for a Sepia Saturday article (SS 170) that I wrote about gamekeepers.


Geographical distribution of photographs (click image to enlarge)
In addition to scanning and documenting the collection, I also did some geographical analysis of the studios at which the portraits were taken. As shown in the pie chart above most of the 55 portraits were taken in the United Kingdom, and of those the majority came from Derbyshire (10) and Staffordshire (9). In the United States the bulk of the portraits were taken in Cleveland, Ohio (8).

My initial analysis suggested, therefore, that the family which owned the album may have emigrated from one of several locations in Staffordshire or Derbyshire to Cleveland, Ohio at some time within the date range of the portraits in the album.


Dates of portrait sittings (click image to enlarge)
N.B. 5-yr moving average of mid-points of date estimates
I then constructed a graph showing the frequency of portrait sittings over time, using five year moving averages of the mid-points of the estimated date ranges. I realise that the logic and methodology of using five-year moving averages to represent date range estimates is a bit dodgy, to say the least, and I have since revised my date estimates for several photos, but I hoped that this would smooth out the graphs and at least give an an overall visual impression of the main periods that the images were taken, which it does fairly well.

The graph (or chart, if you prefer) demonstrates that the US photos start to appear in the early 1880s, while from the early 1890s onwards, the preponderance of UK photos diminishes markedly. To me this suggests an immigration date range from the early 1880s to the early 1890s. It is conceivable that one part of the family immigrated to the US in the early 1880s, while a second part arrived in the early 1890s. This could have been a husband and wife's family arriving at different times, or indeed something far more complicated.


Cabinet portrait of unidentified group of women, c.1889-1893
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
There are very few inscriptions on the photographs, and none at all on the album pages. The only one that appears to offer any immediate clues to the identity of the subjects is on the back of a cabinet portrait of a large group of ten women taken in the very late 1880s or early 1890s by a professional, if somewhat hastily put together, studio. It has been mounted onto a standard cabinet card mount with no photographer's name, although the presence of a royal seal in the scroll work design strongly implies a United Kingdom origin.


Inscription on reverse of cabinet card mount
The text, handwritten in pencil, appears to read as follows:

H.H. Henschel
1223 E 111th St
10 x 12 Sep vig

The first line is almost certainly a name, H.H. Henschel or conceivably "Herschel," and is probably the client's name, not necessarily that of the subject. The second line, I think, comprises an address, (number) 1223 East 111th Street, while the third I have deciphered as instructions for a copy enlargement of the portrait to be made, 10" x 12" Sepia vignette. At the edge of the front of the card mount is a small arrow marked in pen or pencil indicating that the central figure is the one which is to be enlarged.

The surname appears to be of Germanic origin, and the address is in a style more likely to have originated in the United States than in the United Kingdom. I came to the conclusion, therefore, that although the original portrait had been taken somewhere in the UK, the vignetted portrait enlargement was requested by someone who no longer had access to the original studio negatives. In other words, it may have been written, and therefore the enlargement made, some years after the original portrait had been taken. It could have been a simple framed vignette or a much more elaborate glazed and framed, colourised portrait, examples of which I have posted here and, with my Tauranga Historical Society hat on, here.


Census enumeration for 1221 E 111th St, Cleveland City, 23 Apr 1910
Image © The National Archives & courtesy of Ancestry.com
Given that Cleveland, Ohio features so prominently in the US portraits, I searched for the surname "Henschel" in census records for that city. Almost immediately I came up with the following spectacular discovery at 1221 East 111th Street, Cleveland in 1910:

Gifford Frederick / Head / 48 / Widr / b Eng / Imm 1892 / China Artist
Gifford Frederick J / Son / 10 / S / b OH
Henschel Herbert / SoninLaw / 23 / M 2y / b OH / Auto Co. Electrician
Henschel Agnes H / Dau / 22 / M 2y / b Eng
Henschel Herbert G / GdSon / 11m / S / b OH

Here was a family that fitted the bill, having arrived in the United States in 1892, settled in Cleveland, with a daughter who married Herbert Henschel in about 1908, and were living at in East 111th Street in 1910 - although at number 1221 instead of 1223. It seemed almost too good to be true but, as I investigated the family further through census records and the discovery of online family trees, pieces continued to fall into place.


The Henschel family arrived on S.S. Cimbria in 1881
Image courtesy of Ancestry.com
Wilhelm (William) Henschel and his family emigrated from Berlin, Prussia in 1881. After a fifteen day voyage across the North Atlantic on board the Hamburg America Line steamship Cimbria, his wife Wilhelmina (Minnie) and three children arrived in New York on 6 October and joined William in Cleveland, Ohio.


Garfield Monument, Cleveland, Ohio, taken c. May 1890
Cabinet card by unknown photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Having arrived in the United States only a few weeks after the assassination of President Garfield, whose home town was Cleveland, it was natural that when a monument to him was unveiled at the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland and dedicated in May 1890, the Henschel family should preserve a keepsake of such an historic occasion in their family album.


Unidentified child in christening gown, c.1889-1892
Cabinet card by J.M. Tuttle, 1672 St Clair St, Cleveland, Ohio
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
In the mean time, the Henschel family had grown. A fourth son William was born in September 1884 and a fifth Herbert Henry Henschel on 24 June 1888, nearly seven years after settling in Cleveland. Their only daughter Mamie arrived in July 1891. This baby in a christening gown could be either Herbert Henry or Mamie.


Unidentified woman, taken c.1891-1892 (click images to enlarge)
Cabinet cards by Rynald H. Krumhar, 225 Superior St, Cleveland, Ohio
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The two portraits of a middle-aged woman with a very close-fitting hair style and almost as severe an expression were taken by Rynald H. Krumhar who, according to Artists in Ohio, 1787-1900: A Biographical Dictionary, operated a studio in Cleveland on his own in 1891 and 1892 before teaming up with his brother Robert F. Krumhar between 1892 and 1895. Minnie Henschel (1848-) was in her early forties at the time these two portaits were taken, and I believe must be the prime candidate.


Unidentified man, taken c. 1887-1892
Cabinet card by Copeland, 588 Pearl Street, Cleveland, Ohio
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
A head and shoulders vignetted portrait of a similarly aged gentleman with a luxuriant moustache and goatee may have been taken slightly earlier. I don't have dates of operation of the Cleveland photographer Copeland, but from the style of mount, portrait and clothing I suspect it dates to the late 1880s or early 1890s. William Henschel Sr. (1850-) is the obvious choice here, as he too would have been about 40 years old.


Unidentified young man, taken c. 1894-1897
Cabinet card by Pifer & Becker Photo-Palace, Wilshire Building, 94-100 Superior St, Cleveland, Ohio
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This young man appears to be aged in his late teens, and probably visited Pifer & Becker's Photo-Palace studio in the mid-1890s. I suspect that it is one of Herbert's older brothers, Max, Hugo or Fred, all of whom were born in Germany.



Passenger manifest for S.S. Etruria, arr. New York 27 Feb 1893
On 27 February 1893 Frederick Thomas Gifford (1862-1932) and his wife Ellen arrived at Ellis Island, New York on board the SS Etruria from Liverpool, England with their four year old daughter Agnes Hammersley Gifford (1888-1967), giving Cleveland, Ohio as their destination on the ship's manifest.


Vignette of unidentified woman marked on cabinet card
Frederick Thomas and Ellen Gifford had a son, also named Frederick, born in Cleveland in July 1899. Their daughter Agnes married Herbert Henschel in Hutchinson, Kansas in February 1907. Ellen Gifford died in April 1908 at 1221 East 111st Street, Cleveland, and was buried at Lakeview Cemetery. It was to this same address that the vignetted portrait enlargement - perhaps looking something like the image I created in Photoshop, above - was sent.

We also know that the widowed Fred Gifford, his son and the Henschel family were living there in 1910. By February 1913, when Herbert and Agnes' second child was born, the Henschels had moved to Indiana. It seems a distinct possibility, therefore, that the enlargement is of Agnes's mother Ellen Gifford (1866-1908), and that it was commissioned some time in the five years between her death in April 1908 and their arrival in Indiana in February 1913.


Unidentified child, taken c. 1892-1895
Carte de visite by Krumhar Bros., 225 Superior St, Cleveland, Ohio
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
When this warmly dressed child visited the Krumhar studio on Cleveland's Superior Street both of the Krumhar brothers were in attendance, dating it to between 1892 and 1895. Probably aged between 7 and 9 years old, and I'm guessing a girl because a boy is unlikely to be in a dress at that age, my estimate is that she would have been born circa 1883-1888. I believe this could be be Agnes H. Gifford.


Unidentified group of 2 women & 2 children, taken c. 1892-1895
Sixth-plate tintype (63 x 84mm) by unidentified photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Inserted within the album are three loose, roughly trimmed sixth-plate tintypes, all taken in studio settings but without any indication of location. The clothing worn by the two women in this group portrait suggests they were taken in the early to mid-1890s, a time when the tintype was far more popular in North America than in England. The woman from the vignette appears seated on the right, wearing a broad-brimmed light-coloured hat, while the child from the Krumhar Bros. portrait is seated at left, also with a very flat hat. Are these two Ellen Gifford and her daughter Agnes? I think so, but then who might the other woman and younger child be?


The Gifford family at 125 Becker Av, Cleveland City, 13 June 1900
The answer to the identity of the other child may lie in the 1900 Census record, which shows the Gifford family living at 125 Becker Avenue, Cleveland. In addition to (Frederick) Thomas, Ellen and Agnes, their ten month-old son Frederick J. is shown as having born in July 1899, probably too late to be the younger child in the tintype portrait. However, from the figures in the columns to the right of her age (Married for 13 years, Mother of 4 children, of which 2 living), we can infer that Ellen had two further children who died young. The younger child could be one of those who died, or alternatively belongs to the other woman who is standing at the back.


Unidentified young man, taken c. 1915-1925
Cabinet card (Carbonette) by Wendel Studio, 13 Avenue A, New York
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This very smartly dressed young man with a bowtie, fedora and a rose in his buttonhole probably visited the Wendel Studio in New York for a portrait in the late 1920s or early 1920s. He looks to me to be in his late teens, perhaps between 17 and 20 years old, so I estimate that he was born c.1895-1908. The birth date of Frederick J. Gifford (1899-1959) lies well within this range; he married in 1930 and died at Jamestown, New York in November 1959. His father had also died at Jamestown in 1932.


Card mount (114 x 182mm) with no photograph, c.1910-1925
By the Globe Photo Co., 309 Main St., Jamestown, N.Y.
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
My last image for the moment is, in fact, not a photograph at all. This card mount from the Globe Photo Co. studio in Jamestown, New York has lost its contents, so we may never know whose face was framed within it. However I believe that it probably originally contained a postcard format portrait, and the style of mount suggests to me a date of perhaps the 1910s or early 1920s. I found several postcard format portraits from this studio on the web, and they come from a similar era.


I have no doubt that at this point several readers will be thinking that I have amassed a good deal of circumstantial evidence, and may even have indulged in a fair amount of speculation, but have presented little in the way of proof except for the single inscription. To my mind that inscription, and more specifically the juxtaposition of name and address, establishes the connection between that particular portrait and the Henschel-Gifford family without a doubt.

From that point, I agree that I'm on much more shaky ground, but I hope you'll bear with me as I continue to build up a family tree, and attempt to link portraits to individuals within that tree. Part of the difficulty is that one has to not only populate the family tree, but also show that individuals were in the right place at the right time to have their portraits taken. It's a lengthy and time consuming exercise to unravel the complex family relationships, which I'll have to spread over several articles in due course. Next week I'll turn to the English side of the family and look at portraits from Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

Sepia Saturday 285: One Button Does It

The Kodak, introduced by Eastman Kodak in June 1888
Image © and courtesy of LiveAuctioneers
The firm of Eastman Kodak of Rochester, New York is popularly associated with early amateur photography, bringing to most peoples' minds the Brownie from February 1900 (pictured below), or perhaps even their "original" Kodak box camera introduced in June 1888 (above). The Kodak and its immediate successor the No 1 Kodak used factory-loaded and processed rollfilm and over 15,000 cameras were manufactured before the line was discontinued in 1895.


The Brownie, introduced by Eastman Kodak in February 1900
Image © and courtesy of David Purcell
The first Brownie was in production for less than two years from February 1900 until October 1901, during which time almost a quarter of a million were sold. Renamed the No 1 Brownie, but almost identical, it went on to sell over half a million more between then and 1916. The superficial similarity between the two rectangular black boxes, however, belies the technological advances that were made and the ideas that were brought together in Eastman Kodak's range of cameras during the last decade of the nineteenth century.


Eastman Kodak Camera Prices and Production Volumes, 1888-1901
Data extracted from Coe (1988)
In his book The Story of Kodak, Douglas Collins details many of these developments, including paper-backed, daylight-loading rollfilm, improvements in viewfinders, lenses and shutters, lightweight construction, mass production techniques, judicious acquisition of patents, recruitment of people with appropriate technical skills and fresh marketing ideas. In 1888, 5,200 units of the flagship Kodak sold at $25.00 apiece. In the space of just over a decade, the cameras were simplified and production costs reduced to such an extent that the No. 1 Brownie could be sold for $1.00, and it went on to sell more than half a million units. The No 2 Brownie was even more successful.


Pocket Kodak, introduced by Eastman Kodak in July 1895
Dimensions 3" x 4" x 2¼" (74 x 99 x 57mm)
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
In July 1895 Eastman Kodak placed on the market a diminutive new camera whose sales would outstrip all of their earlier models. The Pocket Kodak was tiny, easily fitting in the palm of one's hand, and very lightweight, the early models being constructed of aluminium in a leather-covered wooden case. It used a 12-exposure specially designed roll film (102-format) which produced a photograph measuring 1½" x 2" (38 x 51 mm), and at only $5.00, it was their cheapest camera, a fifth of the price of the No 1 Kodak which was finally phased out that same year. Sales increased spectacularly, and an initial daily production run of 200 units was quickly increased. By the end of the year the Pocket Kodak sold 100,000 units, more than five times the total 19,000 units which their previous most popular model, the No 2 Kodak, sold between 1889 and 1897.


'96 Model Pocket Kodak, Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester NY
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Even though the camera was a runaway success, its designer Frank Brownell continued to tweak and make minor modifications to the design while it was in production. At least four models have been identified from the first year alone, followed by '96, '98, '99 and D model designations. My own example of this camera is a '96 Model and, judging by the latest patent date listed on the inside of the case, must have been manufactured after 12 January 1897. This example includes several modifications not seen on previous versions, including a wooden (as opposed to aluminium) film carrier, coarse-grained black leather covering, a rotary shutter (which replaced the Tisdell sector shutter) and a rectangular (rather than circular) viewfinder.


Patent US575,208, F.A. Brownell, Photographic Camera, 12 Jan 1897
Image courtesy of Google Patents
Although the camera depicted in the 1897 patent drawing appears to be the Kodak No 2 Bullet, with a larger square 3½" x 3½" format compared to the Pocket Kodak's smaller rectangular 1½" x 2", the design is almost identical.



'95 Model Pocket Kodak with Plateholder inserted
Image © and courtesy of Jos Erdkamp
The Pocket Kodak does not, however, have a side door on the case, a provision to allow the use of a double plate holder instead of Kodak's new cartridge rollfilm. Instead, a thin wooden panel in the back of the case housing the red celluloid window could be removed and a small, specially designed plate holder be slid into the slot in its place.


Wooden Case (left) and Film Carrier (Right), '96 Model Pocket Kodak
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Two strips mounted on the lens-shutter board, accesible by pull-up tabs on the top front edge of the camera, enabled shutter speed (Time and Instantaneous) and aperture (3 settings) to be set by the user. A red celluloid window at the back displayed the exposure printed on the film's paper backing and, with a fixed-focus meniscus-type lens (focal length of 2½"), it was a very simple camera to operate.


Eastman Kodak Co. Advert, Pocket Kodak, from Cosmopolitan, Oct 1895
Image © & courtesy Duke University Libraries Digital Collections, K0549
In the words of an advertisement placed in Cosmopolitan magazine of October 1895, "One Button Does It." Despite the small size of the negative, the quality enabled either contact prints or enlargements "of any size" to be made.


Film Carrier with take-up spool, '96 Model Pocket Kodak
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The most convenient aspect of Kodak's three new cameras released 1895, the No 2 Bullet (March), Pocket Kodak (July) and No 2 Bulls-Eye (August), was that they all used the daylight-loading film patented by Samuel N. Turner, which Eastman purchased in August that year. The celluloid film sensitized with emulsion was backed with light-excluding paper, and then rolled on a flanged spool which fitted into a slot in the camera. The film was then led across rollers at the back and then wound onto a take-up spool on the opposite side of the carrier.


'95 Model (First version) Pocket Kodak with 102-format film & "Primer"
Image © and courtesy of Geoff Harrisson
The 101- and 102-format films, each containing 12 exposures, were enthusiastically received by amateur photographers, who could now send the exposed film, rather than the whole camera, back to the Kodak factory for processing. Nor did they need to take a hundred snapshots before seeing the results. Eastman Kodak catalogues offered "developing and printing outfits" at very reasonable prices, and a few independent firms even began opening shops to process amateur films.



'95 Model Pocket Kodak in leather case
Image © and courtesy of Jos Erdkamp
The Pocket Kodak ($5.00) came with two instruction manuals, a "Field Primer" and a "Dark Room Primer," and the owner could also purchase a leather hand-carrying case (75c) large enough to carry the camera and three extra spools of film (25c each). Home developing enthusiasts might order from the 1896 Kodak catalogue enamelled (glossy finish) or platino bromide (matte finish) paper in packets of a dozen 6½" x 8½" sheets ($1.10), enough for a couple of hundred contact prints, and white embossed card mounts at 10 cents for a dozen. Pocket albums to hold 50 or 100 prints were offered, as were "wire easels" for displaying mounted prints to full advantage. Eastman knew that, with burgeoning sales of his cameras, the real money was to going to be made in consumables.


Negative envelopes for Pocket Kodak with mounted print
Image © and courtesy of Geoff Harrisson
Once processed the film negatives were returned to the customer in specially printed brown envelopes, together with any prints which had been ordered. Spaces on the front of the envelope were filled in by the processor - in this case Eastman Photographic Material Co., Ltd. and its successor Kodak Limited - with order number and how many good frames and failures there were. Sadly no dates were recorded. If prints had been ordered, and paid for, Kodak undertook to replace any failures with duplicates from the successful shots.


Nellie Ashley seated on front porch, undated, taken c. 1895-1897
Silver bromide print (50 x 37mm, 2" x 1½")
White embossed "Pocket Kodak" mount (86 x 73mm), Design A
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This example of a 2" x 1½" print pasted on the standard embossed white card mount sold for Pocket Kodak sized prints is from my own collection. Although undated, from the size and shape of the woman's sleeves I believe it to have been taken c. 1895-1897, which roughly equates to the period before a wider variety of mounts became available.


Unidentified children, Cole's Photo Studio, undated, taken c. 1900-1905
Silver bromide print (approx. 50 x 37mm, 2" x 1½")
White embossed "Pocket Kodak" mount (approx 86 x 73mm), Design B
Image © and courtesy of Rodger Kingston Collection
Kodak's 1898 catalogue shows three different styles of mount sold for the Pocket Kodak, with variations of white and grey, embossed or enamelled faces, but by 1900 the range had increased enormously to a range of 11 styles in white, grey, green, black and brown, with beveled or square edges. The 1901 catalogue, reflecting the replacement of the Pocket Kodak by the Brownie in the company's small box camera range, lists no mounts at all for the Pocket Kodak.


Cover of Pocket Kodak Album, used c.1896
"Full padded red Morocco cover, to hold 96 Pocket Kodak prints"
Image © and courtesy of John Toohey, One Man's Treasure
Of course not all photographs produced with a Pocket Kodak were mounted on card. Many went into albums such as the one shown above from John Toohey's collection which was advertised in the 1897 Kodak Great britain Price List as having a "full padded red Morocco cover, plate mark, india tint round openings, to hold 96 Pocket Kodak prints," and sold for 5 shillings (then equivalent to roughly $2.00).


Page from Pocket Kodak Album, Paris, 1896
incl. views of the "Opéra," "Arc de Triomphe" and "Trinité"
Image © and courtesy of John Toohey, One Man's Treasure
The album has 12 pages, each containing 8 openings, totalling 96 prints of photographs illustrating a visit to Paris in 1896. John believes that they were probably taken in one day while the photographer was wandering around Paris, possibly trying out the new camera.


Page from Pocket Kodak Album, Paris, 1896
incl. views of cycling, "Bois de Boulognee" and "Carrefour de Longchamp"
Image © and courtesy of John Toohey, One Man's Treasure
He has noticed that that same woman appears in several images, suggesting she was travelling with the photographer. They are framed, as described, with a grey india tint around the openings.


Unidentified location & date, probably taken c. late 1890s
Mounted Pocket Kodak prints pasted on album page, Designs A (top left) and Design C (others)
Image © and courtesy of Jos Erdkamp
Jos Erdkamp has kindly shared from his collection an album page with eight mounted Pocket Kodak prints, four pasted on the front and four on the back. These too appear to have been taken in a city somewhere in Europe, although the location is not identified. Three of the mounts (shown in the image above) are of a third design, different from the two displayed previously.


Page from Pocket Kodak Album, Paris, 1896
incl. views of the "Eiffel Tower" and "Champ de Mars"
Image © and courtesy of John Toohey, One Man's Treasure
It was the 1890s when amateur photographs first started to appear in any substantial number featuring everyday subjects instead of the usual scenic shots recording places visited, and it is interesting to note that the subject matter of extant Pocket Kodak prints appears to follow that trend. George Eastman recognised that keen amateur photographers who had the time, expertise and interest to learn the skills required to process negatives and photographs would be far outnumbered by those who wished merely to capture a snapshot of their daily life, with no interest whatsoever in getting involved with making the prints. With his famous marketing mantra, "You press the button, we do the rest," he separated the two photographic functions and developed an infrastructure that would take care of all the processing, as well as provide materials to the enthusiasts who still wished to develop and print their own.



'95 Model Pocket Kodak (black) and leather case
Image © and courtesy of Jos Erdkamp
Although the Pocket Kodak itself contained no ground breaking new technology, it was the combination of several recent inventions, often made by Eastman's predecessors or competitors, into one fundamentally simple device, cheap to produce and easy to operate, together with a supporting network of processing facilities, that turned turned it and the No 2 Bulls-Eye into runaway success stories. They also paved the way for the introduction of an even cheaper and simpler camera, the Brownie, which in 1900 would eclipse all in the quest for unpretentious sentimental photographic mementos of everyday life.

I'm very grateful to David Purcell, Jos Erdkamp, Geoff Harrisson, Rodger Kingston and John Toohey who have all kindly supplied me with images of items in their respective collections for my research, and permitted me to use them here.

A connection with this week's Sepia Saturday theme image, a postcard of the Chittenden Hotel in Columbus, Ohio, is somewhat tenuous, but you'll find several images of multi-storied buildings in my contribution, and no doubt you'll see plenty more if you pay the rest of those happy themers a visit.

References & Further Reading

Brayer, Elizabeth (2006) George Eastman: A Biography, Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press, 637p.

Coe, Brian (1976) The Birth of Photography: The story of the formative years, 1800-1900, London: Spring Books, 144p.

Coe, Brian (1978) Cameras: From Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures, United States: Crown Publishers, 240p.

Coe, Brian (1988) Kodak Cameras: the First Hundred Years, East Sussex, United Kingdom: Hove Foto Books, 298p.

Collins, Douglas (1990) The Story of Kodak, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 392p.

Gustavson, Todd (2009) Camera, A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital, New York: Sterling, 360pp.

Niederman, Rob & Zahorcak, Milan (nd) Digitized Kodak Catalog Project, DVD

Rosenblum, Naomi (2008) A World History of Photography, 4th Edition, New York: Abbeville Press, 671p.

Sepia Saturday 275: Summer holidays in Derbyshire, an early Kodak album

My contribution for Sepia Saturday this week has nothing whatsoever to do with the image prompt, I'm afraid. It does, however, follow on from my article last week, which featured an album of nitrocellulose negatives taken during a grand tour of Europe in 1904. Regular readers will recall that series of images as having been taken by an experienced and skilled photographer using a fairly sophisticated modern folding camera, possibly with a view to eventual commercial exploitation.


Cloth-covered Kodak photograph album, dated August 1903
Collection of Brett Payne
Today I'm featuring an album from my own collection which, although superficially similar in that it contains a series of 3¼" x 4¼" 118- or 119-format prints taken during a summer holiday in Derbyshire, England, is actually quite a different set in many ways. The album has 12 white card leaves bound in a light brown cloth-covered stiff card cover, now slightly grubby and showing slight wear on the edges, with "Kodak" printed in large black decorative writing on the front. Each of the leaves has paper sleeves on each side, designed to hold 3¼" x 4¼" paper prints.


Cloth-covered Kodak photograph album, dated August 1903
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
The inside front cover has "Kodak, Ltd. London" printed on the lower right, as well as the following inscription handwritten in black ink:

Summer holidays -
August 1903
Derbyshire (Matlock & Buxton)

I've been unable to find this specific album design advertised in Eastman Kodak Co.'s (U.S.) catalogues for the late 1890s and early 1900s. During this period they appear to have changed from albums with thick card leaves and standard-sized paper slots for different print formats, to loose-leaved albums with a higher number of pages constructed of thinner grey or black card, onto which the prints were intended to be glued with Eastman's Photo Paste ($0.25 per 5 ounce tube). Presumably this was in response to the rapidly increasing variety of print formats being introduced, and the large proportion of amateur prints perhaps not being mounted on card.

However, this particular paper slot-style album with 12 pages, designed to hold two 12-exposure films' worth of prints, was sold (and perhaps manufactured) by Kodak Ltd. at one of their six branch outlets in London, and may have been of a design not offered in the United States.



Each of the 24 sleeves in the album contains a print, some of which are trimmed rather roughly. Although the average size is around 3¼" x 4¼" (82 x 108mm) they range in size from 67 x 98mm to 97 x 113mm. The prints can be separated into three groups, based on size, printing characteristics and subject matter.


Locations photographed in Derbyshire, August 1903
The first ten prints (pages 1-10) have been roughly trimmed and are slightly smaller (78 x 102mm) but more varied in size. The black and white prints were taken at Buxton, Tideswell, Monsal Dale, Dovedale and Haddon Hall.


"The Crescent, Buxton," August 1903
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 98 x 67mm
(Page 6, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
This image shows a group boarding a horse-drawn carriage at The Crescent in Buxton, perhaps for a day excursion to Tideswell and Monsal Dale. Baedeker's 1901 guide to Great Britain describes it thus:

The Crescent, the most prominent building in the town, has the Tepid Baths (1s.-2s. 6d.) and the Chalybeate Wells at the W. end and the Hot Baths (1s. 6d.-3s. 6d.) at the E. end. In front is the Pump Room.

"The Cathedral of the Peak, Tideswell Church," August 1903
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 77 x 103mm
(Page 4, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
Kelly's 1899 Directory of Derbyshire gives the following:

The church of St John the Baptist is a cruciform building of stone, belong almost exclusively to the Decorated style of the latter half of the 14th century, consisting of an unusually large chancel, clerestoried nave ... a lofty embattled tower at the west end, with battlemented turret-like pinnacles at the angles, terminating in crocketed spirelets ... the old chancel screen ... has been successfully restored.

"Nab's Dale," Dovedale, August 1903
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 80 x 95mm
(Page 7, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
Baedeker's guide gives details of the new railway from Buxton to Ashbourne, opened in 1899, which allowed the holidaymaker to travel the 23 miles in under an hour:

... afford[ing] the most convenient approach to the beauties of Dovedale. Passengers should alight at Alsop-en-le-Dale, walk down the valley, and rejoin the railway at Thorpe Cloud ... Alsop-en-le-Dale is the station for the head of Dovedale, a picturesque and narrow limestone valley, hemmed in by fantastic rocks, freely interspersed with woods ... The prettiest part of the valley begins at the Dove Holes ...

Nab's Dale, shown in the photo above, is close to Hanson Grange and Alsop-en-le-Dale and appears to be the point at which our photographer and party alighted from the train and entered Dovedale.


"Below Reynard's Cave," Dovedale, August 1903
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 79 x 104mm
(Page 2, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
This very much overexposed shot is taken from Reynard's Cave, further down the valley and overlooking the path next to the River Dove, along which several members of the party can just be seen, and down which I myself enjoyed a fine walk with friend and fellow Sepian Nigel Aspdin about 18 months ago.


"Peveril of the Peak Hotel & Thorpe Cloud," Thorpe, August 1903
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 105 x 80mm
(Page 5, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
Upon reaching the southern end of Dovedale, marked by the characteristic peak of Thorpe Cloud, they arrived at "... the stepping-stones ... where donkeys and refreshments are in waiting ... and, a little farther on, a foot bridge leading to the Izaak Walton Hotel, a favourite angling resort," frequented by my great-grandfather and which I wrote about in The Compleat Angler. Rather than crossing the footbridge, however, our party appear to have chosen the course which Nigel and I took "... a path to the left ascend[ing] from the stepping stones to the (½ M.) Peveril Hotel, not far from the village of Thorpe and railway station Thorpe Cloud." Embarking at the station, they either returned to Buxton or proceeded to Matlock.


"Haddon Hall," August 1903 (digitally enhanced)
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 108 x 82mm
(Page 11, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
The next nine prints in the album (pages 11-19) have been trimmed somewhat more accurately, and all are within a couple of millimetres of the standard 82.5 x 108mm. They were also processed slightly differently from the first batch, and are all slightly to moderately overexposed, also show a distinct sepia tone. The borders of the negative are partly visible in 7 of the prints; none were in the first set.

They were taken at Haddon Hall (above), Chatsworth House and at several locations in the vicinity of Matlock and Matlock Bath, all of which were popular destinations for Edwardian tourists.

Haddon Hall, picturesquely situated on a slope rising from the Wye, is an almost ideal specimen of an old English baronial mansion, and, though unoccupied, is still in fair preservation (adm. 4d.)

"Haddon Hall Terrace," August 1903
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 75 x 101mm
(Page 3, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne

... the S[outh] facade and the terraced gardens [date] from the end of the 16th century.

"In the Model Village - Chatsworth," Edensor, August 1903 (digitally enhanced)
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 83 x 83mm
(Page 13, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
Baedeker again gives a detailed description of the route and the sights to look out for:

... To reach Chatsworth from Haddon by carriage ... we follow the road from the bridge [over the River Wye] to Bakewell [where] we turn to the right and proceed by a circuitous route to Edensor, a model village, on the outskirts of Chatsworth Park. The church contains a memorial window to Lord Frederick Cavendish (assassinated in 1882), who is buried in the churchyard.

"Chatsworth House," August 1903 (digitally enhanced)
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 108 x 82mm
(Page 12, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
This is one of the better known views of Chatsworth House, captured by local photographer William Potter for his commercial carte de visite landscapes as early as the 1870s. In this shot, an open horse-drawn brougham carrying four passengers is driven down the road, presumably on their way to visit the grand house in the middle distance. I wondered at first if they were waiting for the photographer, but since the carriage is slightly blurred, and the nearby tree sharp, I think they were moving at the time of the exposure.

Chatsworth, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Devonshire, is a striking contrast to Haddon, the one being as redolent of modern, as the other of medieval state ... the Gardens (small fee, to the gardener), which are fine but formal, with artificial cascades, fountains, surprise waterworks, etc. The Emperor Fountain throws a jet 265 ft. high.

"High Tor, Matlock," August 1903 (digitally enhanced)
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 83 x 107mm
(Page 19, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
Six of the remaining photographs were taken in and around the towns of Matlock and Matlock Bath, including this well known view of High Tor, Matlock Dale and the River Derwent. The postcard publishers James Valentine & Sons registered a very similar photograph in 1892, which I featured in an article on Photo-Sleuth two years ago (Before the humble postcard).

Kelly's 1899 Directory informs us:

Matlock Bath ... is a modern inland and fashionable watering place, with a station on the Midland railway, and is situated in a deep and lovely valley ... The place is celebrated for the romantic character of its scenery and the purity of its medicinal springs, and in the summer season this beautiful locality is frequented by visitors from all parts of the kingdom.

"High Tor from Lovers' Walk," Matlock, August 1903 (digitally enhanced)
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 108 x 83mm
(Page 17, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne

Among the attractions of Matlock ... Immediately opposite the High Tor is Masson Hill, nearly 800 feet high, from which and from the Heights of Abraham, about 650 feet high (to which a winding ascent has been made), an extensive view is afforded of the scenery of the surrounding country ... The Lovers' Walk, on the opposite side of the river, is another favourite place of resort; paths leading to different points from which the dale may be advantageously seen have also been cut through the wood in various directions.

"Mother & a piece of Monica!" August 1903 (digitally enhanced)
Unmounted silver gelatin print, 108 x 82mm
(Page 16, Kodak album, Summer Holidays)
Image © Copyright & collection of Brett Payne
A single photograph in this album is directed specifically at members of the holidaying party. Two female figures (Mother and Monica) are seated outdoors on a bench reading newspapers, umbrellas at the ready should the sun prove too hot or a shower present itself. Sadly, it is overexposed - the image above has been digitally enhanced, but even this is not sufficent to reveal Monica's features, obliterated by a careless flash of sunlight or perhaps by some light leakage into the body of the camera. The bench is situated in front of a tree, and what I think is the River Derwent through a gap in the branches immediately to the left of Mother.

In 1887 an iron bridge of 85 feet span was constructed ... connecting the Promenade with Lovers' Walk, and at the same time the Promenade was laid out ...

Detail of "Mother & a piece of Monica!"
There is, however, enough in the image to show three umbrellas leaning against the bench, and a valise or case which may be for the camera. The three umbrellas imply that there were only three in the party on this particular day: "Mother," Monica and the photographer, who could be the husband of either "Mother" or Monica, a son of "Mother" and brother of Monica, or indeed Monica's sister.


Composite of Derbyshire holidaymakers
Click image to enlarge
Fortunately we have a better image of Monica, taken on the Terrace at Haddon Hall (see lower left, above). The enlarged detail from several photos show several other people, and there may or may not have been more in the party at other stages of the holiday. It is even possible that one of the elderly men with luxurious white beards (at right) may have been "Father." Unfortunately, none of them appears carrying a leather case which would have held the camera, and I suspect that the photographer never appears in the photographs.

The last five prints (pages 20-24) were taken in Wiltshire the following year. While I have included them in the slideshow at the beginning of this article, they appear to have been inserted later to fill up empty slots in the album, and I'll leave discussion of them for another time.


Kodak Developing and Printing Outfits, from 1903 Kodak Catalogue
Image courtesy of the Digitized Kodak Catalog Project
The Derbyshire snapshots appear to have been taken in two sequences, the first of ten images, the second of nine. It is my belief that they were probably prints from two consecutive rolls of film, each containing 12 exposures, five of which were discarded as being of too poor quality to print or preserve in the album. The uneven trimming of the prints suggests to me that they were developed and printed by an amateur at home using one of Kodak's readily available kits, rather than taken into a chemist or other processing facility.


"Take a Kodak with you"
Eastman Kodak Co. advertisement featuring "The Kodak Girl"
From the Ladies' Home Journal, 1901
Courtesy Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection, Item K0034
The Kodak folding cameras of the late 1890s and early 1900s were specifically marketed towards women, the design intended to mimic a purse or pocketbook, although one would be hard pressed to fit a No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak in any standard pocket.


No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak, from 1903 Kodak Catalogue
Image courtesy of the Digitized Kodak Catalog Project
Constructed of aluminium covered with black morocco leather, the No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak (like its smaller cousin, the No 1) was designed to be compact and simple to use. Costing only $17.50 (and an extra $1.25 for a black sole leather carrying case, with strap), it was the cheaper version of the No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak DeLuxe camera featured in last week's 1904 Grand Tour article, but it used the same 118-format film, and therefore produced a print of the same size, 3¼" x 4¼".


"All Out-Doors Invites Your Kodak"
Eastman Kodak Co. advertisement from Life magazine, 1911
Courtesy Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection, Item K0443
With the standard Rapid Rectilinear lens and Eastman Automatic shutter, and in the unsteady hands of an amateur new to framing a photograph, assessing lighting conditions, etc., the quality of of the resulting pictures is likely to have been variable at best. Judging from these prints, I feel it most likely that the camera was hand-held, in stark contrast to the 1904 Grand Tour series, the majority of which are likely to have been taken using a tripod. An unfamiliarity with the equipment may also have meant that the film was loaded with enough care, perhaps even with some exposure to bright sunlight, resulting in what appear to be "light leaks" on many of the prints.


Nigel at the start of the walk down Dovedale, 13 September 2013
Image © 2013 Brett Payne
As amateurish as the photographs in this album are, I was delighted with the purchase since, as suggested earlier, the route taken by the party was very similar to the very enjoyable 15 kilometre walk that Nigel and I took from Hartington down Dovedale to Thorpe Cloud, and then to Tissington in September 2013. It's also an area which my great-grandfather Charles Vincent Payne, as a keen trout angler, must have known well. I hope you've enjoyed the journey of discovery too.