Sepia Saturday 77: The Great Train Wreck

First, I'd like to render my apologies to Alan, who I'm sure didn't intend that his photo prompt for this week's Sepia Saturday installment should precipitate the series of catastrophes that I'm about to present today. Secondly, I'd like to wish him well on his impending journeys, may they be as sedate and uneventful as he wishes, and I trust he won't see my article as a bad portent.

As Alan's image of a late 19th Century locomotive parked at a strangely empty station platform demonstrates, photographers have long found trains to be worthy subjects. It didn't take long after the invention and popularisation of photography for its potential as a medium to report current events to be appreciated. When there weren't any wars being fought, dignitaries visiting, or the local version of Blondin crossing the Niagara Falls on a tightrope, the next best thing was a good old disaster, whether natural or man-made.


Derailment at the Gare de Montparnasse, 22 October 1895
Photographer unknown
Image courtesy of neil on Scribas
One of the most enduring of these photographically captured catastrophes was a train emerging from an unanticipated direction on an upper level of Montparnasse station, Paris in 1895. I remember this image - or one very similar to it - from my teens, in the form of a poster with the succinct caption, "Merde!" and it even made the grade as the subject of one of Colleen Fitzpatrick's recent Forensic Genealogy quizzes.


Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 21 December 2004
Photograph © and courtesy of Alexandre Duarte
This particular mishap has so long captured people's interests that elaborate replicas have been fashioned, such as this one somewhere in Brazil, of all places.


Batavia, New York, 18 February 1885, Photograph by P.B. Hausenknecht, courtesy of The Crooked Lake Review
The photographs of such incidents often became an integral part of the legends surrounding such train wrecks. P. J. Erbley (Paul Worboys), in his article "Slaying the Dragon: Bringing an 'Urban Legend' to its Knees, describes how the result of Batavia photographer P.B. Hausenknecht's good fortune later took on a life of its own. The photo of the piggy-back wreck has been used in railway magazines, on calendars, more recently on T-shirts, featured in an episode of Ripley's Believe it Or Not, and was even employed in the embellishment of the legend of a second, much later, train wreck.


Jonestown, 1889, Stereoview by William H. Rau
Image courtesy of the footnoteMaven & Shades of the Departed
On 31 May 1889 the Johnstown Flood, known locally in Pennsylvania as "The Great Flood of 1889," and resulting from the collapse of a dam upstream, left scenes of such devastation that photographic opportunities abounded, including this bizarre photograph of a double-storey house, upended and dramatically impaled by a massive tree, is if it were some morsel on the end of a toothpick. Several photographers were soon on the ground, accompanying the deluge of reporters from over a hundred newspapers and magazines, quickly publishing dramatic three-dimensional stereoviews which were widely sold, possibly helping to garner sympathy, and therefore funds, for the massive relief effort organised by the then newly formed American Red Cross.

The stereoview shown above, depicting some of the railroad debris at Johnstown (click image for more detail, thanks fM), was taken by Philadelphia photographer and publisher William Herman Rau, who later documented the Boston Fire (1904) and was official photographer to the Lehigh Valley Railroad in Pennsylvania during the early 1890s. "Today, Rau is important for his position linking, through subject and style, key aspects of photography in the 19th and 20th centuries" (Legacy of Light, Cleveland Museum of Art).


Unidentified train wreck, undated, possibly early 1890s
Early Kodak roll film print, Kodak Museum [1]
Once cameras became available to the general public, particularly in the 1890s, it was often the case that witnesses to such disasters were able to document them immediately. No longer did the professional photographer have an exclusive opportunity, as in the case of George Barnard's fortuitous daguerreotype which captured the burning Oswego Mills in July 1853. The image above, from the Kodak Museum and reproduced in Gus Macdonald's History of Photography, is one such example, the distinctive circular format print betraying its origin as an early Kodak roll film camera (No. 1 or No. 2). A throng of men are shown around and on top of the spectacular results of a head-on collision between two trains.



Continuing the fine tradition demonstrated some three decades earlier by an opportunisitic amateur, my grandfather Leslie Payne used the last shot of the roll in his camera to capture some fellow soldiers inspecting the wreckage of a train with which they'd collided. They were on the ultimate leg of a long journey home from fighting with the CEF in the Great War, a journey which for my grandfather had started some five months earlier, with his stopping a machine gun bullet in his left shoulder, somewhere east of Arras (see previous installments Hospital Blues and Back to Canada on the 'Old Reliable').



The print batch number "5 9" stamped in purple ink on the back of the 63 x 42.5 mm paper print is identical to that on photos that he took on board the HMT Olympic a few days earlier, which is why I am fairly certain that they were taken on this journey. The inscription on the reverse, written in black ink, in my grandfather's handwriting, states:

Train wreck, showing rear coach of front troop train, which our train colid"

Presumably he didn't complete the last word.



He then appears to have reloaded the camera with another film, as a further three prints of the train wreck from various angles have the number "6 11" stamped in grey on the back.



The prints measure roughly 2½" x 1⅝". This appears to correlate rather nicely with the standard 127 film picture size quoted for the Vest Pocket Kodak (manufactured from 1912 and marketed widely as "the soldier's camera") in Todd Gustavson's Camera [2]. However, I suppose it could just as easily have been some other European-manufactured camera using similar film.



Although an extremely popular camera - it was cheap, handy and of solid construction - the shutter speed of the Vest Pocket Kodak and its variants was slow (1/25 or 1/50th sec, depending on aperture setting), requiring a steady hand in poor lighting conditions. Three of the four shots are rather blurred, although clear enough to show the locomotive of the rear train and the demolished coach of the front one, another coach apparently derailed, as well as numerous uniformed soldiers standing and walking around in the snow.



By the time these shots were taken, the camera appears to have suffered some damage, judging by the irregularly shaped dark area at lower left of all four prints. It may even have been knocked about in the train accident itself, and the damage not noticed until later. It is possible that he purchased the camera second-hand just prior to embarking on the voyage back to Canada. There don't appear to be any earlier prints of this size in the collection of his photographs held by my aunt.



I've been searching online newspapers for details of a train crash that might have happened during the troop train's journey westward from Halifax to Winnipeg, where my father was medically examined and discharged, thus far without much success. He, along with 6000 odd other returning soldiers, disembarked from the HMT Olympic on the 17 January 1919, some time after it docked at 11.30 am. A report in The Morning Leader (Regina, Saskatchewan) stated that one train for Calgary and two for Winnipeg (M.D. 10) left Halifax at 1.40 pm, 2.05 pm and 2.40 pm respectively, and The Calgary Daily Herald (Calgary, Alberta) gave the route home as "via Quebec." I know that Leslie had arrived in Winnipeg by 6 February, as his service records indicate that he was examined at Tompkins Hospital, Winnipeg on that date, so presumably the accident happened between those two dates.

Several members of the CEF Study Group Forum have been assisting, via a post on this thread, for which I'm very grateful. If you have any ideas, please feel free to either contribute on the forum (you'll have to register, I'm afraid) or here as a comment.

References

[1] Macdonald, Gus (1979) Victorian Eyewitness, A History of Photography: 1826-1913, New York: Viking Press, 192p.

[2] Gustavson, Todd (2009) Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital, New York: Sterling Publishing, 360p.

[3] Four photographs of train wreck, taken somewhere in Canada, January 1919, Loose paper prints, approx. 63 x 42.5 mm, Collection of Barbara Ellison.

[4] Canadian Expeditionary Force Service Records for Charles Leslie Lionel Payne, 1989, Library and Archives Canada, Ref. RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 7671 - 48.

Donkey Rides at Dovedale

Barnes family excursion at Dovedale, c. late 1870s [1]
This image was sent to me by fellow photo-sleuth Nigel Aspdin. It is a large format albumen print from his own family collection, mounted on roughly trimmed card (140 x 106.5 mm) and produced, according to the stamp on the reverse, by Bull and Hawkins, Portrait & Landscape Photographers of Ashbourne. The stamp also states helpfully, "Groups taken at Dovedale." Nigel is not sure who this group are, although from the provenance he feels sure that they must be members of his Barnes family.

The group consists of five women, six chidren - aged between one and about eight years - and a man wearing a high-crowned bowler hat, accompanied by two rather well behaved donkeys. Clearly the donkey on the left has an incentive, since it is being fed by one of the fashionably attired ladies. They are seated and standing on the grass at the foot of a scree slope, which I believe must be in close vicinity of the famous Stepping Stones near the foot of Thorpe Cloud [2].


Reverse of photograph by Bull & Hawkins [1]
Robert Bull operated a photographic studio in Ashbourne from the early to mid-1870s, initially from his general goods and stationery store in Sturston Road, and later from premises adjoining the railway station [3]. I was unaware, until fairly recently, that he worked with Mr. Hawkins, but apart from this example, I have subsequently come across two further examples. I suspect the partnership may have been of fairly brief duration. The latter was probably William John Hawkins (1850-1930), who worked in various towns in Cheshire: (Congleton - 1881-1883, Latchford - 1891, Partington - 1901) [4,5,6,7].


Engraving of Dovedale in the early 19th Century [8]
Dovedale was a popular tourist destination long before its acquisition by the National Trust in the 1930s and 1940s, and the opening of Britain's first National Park there in 1951. A long line of literary figures have waxed lyrical about the attractions of the valley hosting the River Dove, including Samuel Johnson in Rasselas, Isaac Walton and Charles Cotton in The Compleat Angler, Tennyson, Ruskin and Byron. As a result, by the start of the 19th Century Dovedale was already spoken of as "a spot known far and near for its romantic scenery." [9]

In 1830 Thomas Moule wrote:

Frequent excursions are made from Ashbourne, in the summer season, to this justly celebrated valley, where its wildness produces a striking effect ... [10]

The Isaac Walton Hotel, Dovedale, c. 1856-1859
Stereoview by Sedgefield [11]
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
By mid-Victorian times, the locals had come to appreciate some of the benefits of having a constant flow of visitors:

A couple of fields from the [Izaak Walton] hotel bring us to the stepping stones across the river ... near these, boys with donkeys anxiously entreat you to mount, but turn a deaf ear to their invitations, your own feet will carry you far better through the dale ... [12]

A couple "walking out" at Dovedale, c. 1856-1859
Tinted Stereoview by unidentified photographer [13]
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
By the late 1850s, photographic enthusiasts were visiting Dovedale too. The well known Derby practitioner Richard Keene made his first visit in 1860 [14], by which time commercial photographers had already taken full advantage of its popularity as a tourist destination. For example, John Latham of Matlock Bath, Helmut Petschler of Manchester, Sedgefield and Samuel Poulton & Co. of London, amongst others, were publishing a wide variety of stereoviews.


The Stepping Stones, Dovedale, c. 1856-1859
Stereoview by Poulton & Co. of London [15]
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
This view of the Stepping Stones, almost submerged by a partly flooded Dove, by Samuel Poulton shows a deposit of light-coloured scree at the foot of the slope in the middle ground (visible above the stone wall to the immediate left of the low weir). It may well be the same scree slope which featured in Bull & Hawkins' shot of the Barnes family.


Excursion at the Stepping Stones, Dovedale, c. 1860-1865
Detail from stereoview by unidentified photographer [16]
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
Another stereoview of the popular Stepping Stones area, probably taken in the early 1860s, shows a party having a picnic on the grass by the river, a few yards from where I believe Nigel's photo was taken. A couple of donkeys can be seen in the middle ground on the opposite side of the river, as well as evidence of how they transported all the picnic accoutrements from where the carriage had dropped them. Large picnic baskets are clearly visible next to the picnic party in the foreground, and what appears to be a box on a cart behind the donkeys. A man and his dog are posing on the stepping stones in mid-stream. The slopes of Thorpe Cloud form an impressive backdrop to the full image, most of which is not visible in this detail.


Group at Lion Head Rock, Dovedale, c. 1864-1869
Stereoview by unidentified photographer [17]
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
A day excursion by a large group from Nottingham was recounted in a newspaper of that town in June 1864, demonstrating how the amenities of the Peak District had been made so much more accessible through the expansion of the Victorian railway network:

The excursionists did not number more than 22 or 23 persons, of whom about one half were ladies ... On arrival at Derby [station] a well appointed break and four horses met us at the station ... Lonely it was not, for gay parties of pedestrians, with here and there a young lady of the number seated on a donkey, passed and re-passed from time to time; and at intervals in the glen we came upon romantic gipsy-looking groups of men and women, who, however, turned out to be very prosaic vendors of ginger-beer and lemonade ... The Narrator ... has an unconquerable aversion to chattering guides and irreverent money-hunters ... [18]

Group at Dove Holes, Dovedale, c. 1870-1875
Stereoview by John Latham of Matlock Bath [19]
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
Another stereoview, this time by local photographer John Latham, and probably taken in the early 1870s, shows a small group which has ventured further up the dale to Dove Holes. I see no evidence in these photographs of the troublesome natives hawking their wares, but no doubt the photographers were well practised in the art of excluding unwanted distractions from their carefully composed views.


Photographers at Dovedale, Albumen print by Richard Keene, 1879,
Derby Museum Ref. DBYMU.T269 [14]
Recommendations from the writer of a guide to the Peak District in 1875 included:

When [at Dovedale] you can obtain a good dinnner at any of the three hotels, and you can also obtain donkeys for the exploration of the dale, the loveliest in Derbyshire. [20]

By the early 1880s bicycles were becoming rather popular. Here an enthusiast describes a lengthy "Tour on Wheels" which included Dovedale, although they did temporarily exchange their metal steeds for equine ones:

Leaving our machines in safe custody, and trolling through several fields, we came to the end of the Dale. On the backs of trusty, high spirited animals we careered along to the Reynard's Cave, at the rate of about three miles an hour. Our donkeys were not good climbers ... [21]

Dovedale, 1947
One-inch Ordnance Survey Map
It is clear that they would have needed to start out early in the morning to avoid the throngs:

The Dale, you know, is a centre of attraction for all the country round, and Saturday always brings a number of visitors. They came in four-horse coaches, in "Derby dillies carrying six insides," in vans, and waggonettes, and traps, all soaked in rain ... You will remember that just above the point where the stepping-stones are, and opposite to where the old woman keeps her donkeys, the left side of the river is fenced off by a strong iron gate, with notice-board warning intruders to go away ... [22]

In August 1886 a large group of photographers met in Derby for the first time as the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom (PCUK). Included in the programme were visits to Haddon, Chatsworth, Dovedale, and Matlock [23].


The Stepping Stones, Dovedale, 1905-1910
Postcard by Valentine & Sons [24]
In 1904 the PCUK met again in Derby, and paid another visit to Derby, although it is clear that not all participants went on that trip:

SOME UNCONVENTIONAL OBSERVATIONS AT DERBY
By A bland observer.
Tuesday. — Dovedale — The writer didn't go. He knows it. Any one who expects to get there a pictorial picture out of a hundred photographic pictures is a — — knows not what he is let in for. [25]

Dovedale, c.1911, Multiview postcard by unknown publisher [26]
An AA Road Book published in the late 1930s gives the following somewhat aloof description: "For rock, wood, and running water in combination, Dovedale (part N.T.) is unmatched in England." [27] The Penguin Guide of 1939 is somewhat more forthcoming, making an unambiguously negative reference to hawkers depicted in the lower right panel of the multiview postcard shown above:

Upon reaching the Dove between Thorpe and Ilam, follow the footpath upstream to the Stepping Stones. The scenery is very entrancing, although the donkeys and refreshment stalls at this point detract a little from its beauty. [28]

Dovedale, c.1905-1915, Postcard by R. & R. Bull of Ashbourne [29]
A few years prior to the outbreak of the Great War Robert Bull's nephew returned, photographing the coterie of donkeys, ponies and refreshment stalls who guarded the entrance to Dovedale, marked by a gate in the stone wall just upstream from the Stepping Stones.

Everyone has heard of the beauties of Dovedale. Crowds gather on a Bank Holiday from near and far. ... There are cigarette kiosks and ice-cream hawkers; there are guides and postcards and wretched overladen donkeys, grunting up the hill ... [30]

Peak Season: Crowds on the banks of the River Dove [31]
Image © 2009 Copyright Colin Smith and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence, Courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
This recurring theme of throngs of visitors spoiling the experience continues to be mentioned by the authors of more modern guides:

Certainly [Dovedale is] renowned for [its] beauty and popularity, but often crowds of people can detract from the finest features. [32]

Fortunately the donkeys, their owners and the ginger beer and lemonade vendors are long gone.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Nigel Aspdin for once again delving into his family photo collection to provide another fascinating Photo-Sleuth topic. I am indebted to John Bradley who has, as always, most generously responded to my requests for images to illustrate this article. I'm very grateful for his kind permission to reproduce images of the very fine images of stereoviews and albumen prints from his collection.

References

[1] Photograph of family group on excursion with donkeys, Dovedale, by Bull & Hawkins of Ashbourne, undated, Collection of Nigel Aspdin.

[2] Dovedale, Wikipedia.

[3] Payne, Brett (2005) Robert Bull Senior & Robert Bull Junior, of Ashbourne, Derbyshire Photographers' Profiles.

[4] 1881 Census of Congleton, Cheshire, England, The National Archives Ref. RG11/3534/30/8/47, Courtesy of Ancestry.com.

[5] Jones, G.A. & G. (1995) Professional Photographers in Cheshire 1849-1940, Bath, England: Royal Photographic Society Historical Group, The PhotoHistorian Supplement, No. 108.

[6] 1891 Census of Thelwall Lane, Latchford, Cheshire, England, The National Archives Ref. RG12/3081/115/1/6, Courtesy of Ancestry.com.

[7] 1901 Census of Lock Lane, Partington, Cheshire, England, The National Archives Ref. RG13/3327/63/2/16, Courtesy of Ancestry.com.

[8] Storer, J.S. & Greig, J. (1807) Antiquarian and topographical cabinet, Vol. 1, London: Clarke, Carpenter & Symonds, Google Books.

[9] Evans, John (1805) The Juvenile Tourist, or excursions through various parts of the island of Great Britain, London: James Cundee, p.220, Google Books.

[10] Moule, Thomas (1830) Great Britain illustrated: a series of original views, London: Charles Tilt.

[11] The Isaac Walton Hotel, Dovedale, Stereoview, Undated, but probably taken c.1856-1859, Sedgefield's English Scenery No. 720, Collection of John Bradley.

[12] Anon (1864) Peaks and Dales in Derbyshire, Part I, in "Bentley's miscellany, Volume 55," p.323, London: Chapman & Hall, Google Books.

[13] A couple walking at Dovedale, Tinted stereoview, untitled and undated, but probably taken c.1856-1859, by unidentified photographer, Collection of John Bradley.

[14] Craven, Maxwell (ed.)(1993) Keene's Derby, Derby, England: Breedon Books, 215p.

[15] The Stepping Stones, Dovedale, Stereoview, Undated, but probably taken c.1856-1859, by Poulton & Co. of London, Collection of John Bradley.

[16] The Stepping Stones, Dovedale, Stereoview, Undated, but probably taken c.1860-1865, by unidentified photographer, Collection of John Bradley.

[17] Group at Lion Head Rock, Dovedale, Stereoview, Undated, but probably taken c.1864-1869, by unidentified photographer, Collection of John Bradley.

[18] Anon (1864) Pleasure Excursion to Dovedale, Nottinghamshire Guardian, Issue 962, 24 June 1864, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

[19] Group at Dove Holes, Dovedale, Stereoview, Undated, but probably taken c.1870-1875, by John Latham of Matlock Bath, Collection of John Bradley.

[20] Anon (1875) How to see the Derbyshire Peak, Gardener's Magazine, in "The Derby Mercury," Issue 8394, 18 August 1875, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

[21] Anon (1882) A Tour of Wheels (by Local Riders), The Newcastle Courant, Issue 10835, 1 September 1882, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

[22] Marston, Edward (1884) An amateur angler's days in Dove Dale, or How I spent my three weeks' holiday, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, Archive.org.

[23] Bedding, Thomas (1889) History of the Photographic Convention of the UK, British Journal of Photography, on Alfred Seaman and the PCUK, by John Bradley

[24] The Stepping Stones, Dovedale, Colourised Postcard No. 10464 by Valentine & Sons, Undated.

[25] Extract from British Journal of Photography, July 22nd 1904, courtesy of John Bradley

[26] Dovedale, c.1911, Multiview colourised postcard by unknown publisher, postmarked 1911.

[27] Anon (n.d.) The AA Road Book of England and Wales, London: The Automobile Association, p.333, Courtesy of Nigel Aspdin.

[28] Mutton, F.C. (1939) The Penguin Guides: Derbyshire, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, p.116.

[29] Dovedale, c.1905-1915, Sepia postcard by R. & R. Bull of Ashbourne.

[30] Drabble, Phil (1948) Staffordshire, London: R. Hale, Google Books.

[31] Peak Season, Digital photograph by Colin Smith, 2009, Courtesy of Geograph.co.uk

[32] Spencer, Brian & Porter, Lindsey (1972) The Dove and Manifold Valleys, including Dovedale, Moorland, 52p.

Whistling Bird, the Arizona Cowboy and the Disappearing Lady

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

References

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have space suit - Will travel

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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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

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

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


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


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


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


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

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


References

St Malo Rolling Bridge from Tramway Information

Pont roulant de Saint-Malo from Wikipedia

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

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

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

Stereoview by John Alfred Warwick (1821-1896) of Derby

One of the best known Derby photographers was Richard Keene (1825-1894), about whom I have previously written the following:

"Although primarily a printer, bookseller, stationer and, by 1855, publisher of the Derbyshire Telegraph, he developed an interest in photography, and travelled throughout Derbyshire with friends, taking pictures of architecture, topography and landscapes. He started by selling prints of the high quality photos for which he became reknowned, but also set up and operated a successful portrait studio from at least 1859, produced private commissions for firms, estates and families, and took photos in many other counties. He was an associate of Fox Talbot, and his work reportedly included commissions by the Royal Family. In 1884 he was a founder member of the Derby Photographic Society, he was the recipient of 34 major awards, and he also became President Elect of the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom."

John Alfred Warwick (1821-1896) & Elizabeth Hole Warwick (1832-1904)
taken c.1860 by his close friend Richard Keene at Derby
from Keene's Derby by Maxwell Craven, publ. 1993, Breedon Books
One of those close friends, who accompanied Keene on a number of photographic "rambles" around Derbyshire and other places further afield, was J.A. Warwick (1821-1896). John Alfred Warwick was born in Manchester, son of a Unitarian minister and scientist Thomas Oliver Warwick (1771-1852) and Mary Aldred. After his marriage to Elizabeth Hole Hudson (1832-1904) at Ilkeston in 1854, they settled in Derby, where they had seven daughters and a son over the next two decades. Warwick was soon after appointed telegraph superintendent for the Midland Railway Company, a position he held until his retirement in the 1880s. In the 1891 Census, when he was living at Brook Cottage, Ockbrook, he is described as a pyrotechnist, i.e. he was a producer of fireworks, and his Guy Fawkes displays were reportedly very popular.


Amongst many other interests he was also a keen amateur photographer from as early as 1852, and appears to have taken quite a few of the landscapes later published as stereoviews by Keene. The image shown above is one such stereoview, although this particular example is attributed to Warwick on the reverse (see below), with Keene noted as the publisher. John Bradley, who has several views by Keene and Warwick in his collection, informs me that it was from an earlier series probably taken in the late 1850s.


The number 42 in the top left hand corner of the box presumably identifies the stereograph as number 42 in a series of views published by Keene. The title and description are as follows:

Ruins of Ashby-de-la-Zouche Castle, from the Manor-House garden. This is one of the many fine views obtained from the north or garden side of the Castle. On the left is the fine gable and window of Mary Queen of Scots' Room; and in the centre are the windows of the Great Hall, behind which rises the majestic Ivanhoe Tower. Scott has made these ruins doubly interesting, and has given them a fame that will survive when their massive relics shall have crumbled into the dust.

As with other photographs published by Keene but actually taken by Warwick, what appears to be the familiar figure of Richard Keene is evident. He is lying prostrate on the grass, apparently writing in a notebook.


Richard Keene & the Eyam Cross, 27 July 1858, by J.A. Warwick
Image © Derby Museum Ref. DBYMU.A41 & courtesy of Maxwell Craven in Keene's Derby
Maxwell Craven, in his absorbing book Keene's Derby (published in 1993 by Breedon Books, ISBN 1 873626 60 6), describes in some detail the earliest of Keene and Warwick's rambles, through the Peak District in July 1858, and includes a photograph showing Keene with a leather shoulder bag and his notebook seated on the base of the Eyam Cross, taken by Warwick on 27 July 1858 in Eyam churchyard.


Richard Keene & the Wheston Cross, c.1858-1859, by J.A. Warwick
Image © and courtesy of Picture the Past Ref. DCCC001840
Picture the Past has another image, possibly from the same ramble. Although attributed to Keene, it was clearly taken by Warwick as Keene is seated in a very similar pose to the earlier photo, on the plinth of the cross at Wheston, near Tideswell.

If any other readers have prints of photographs or stereoviews by Warwick or Keene, please get in touch by email. I'd be very keen to see further images, and even feature them here if possible.