A family tintype portrait from the 1890s

A few months ago Patti Browning sent me a detailed scan of a full plate tin/ferrotype in her possession which she was trying to date. This outdoors family portrait, probably by an itinerant photographer, was a very interesting photograph to investigate. It also taught me quite a bit about the need to look very carefully at the physical aspects of a photograph, not merely the subject matter. Rather than repeating myself, I thought I'd send readers over to Patti's blog Consanguinity to see a detailed image and an analysis. Patti and I both would be very keen to hear from anyone who can spot any further interesting features, or who might have further comments to make.

Portrait of a portraitist and local celebrity: Edward Foster (1762-1865) - Part 1

A couple of years ago Virginia Silvester sent me these intriguing scans of the front and reverse of a carte de visite portrait (1) by John Burton & Sons (2) in her collection of old family photographs, an almost identical view to one that I had scanned at the Derby Local Studies Library (3) a few months earlier.


By the time John Burton and his sons opened their third branch studio on the top floor above the bookshop of Messrs. Clulow & Sons in Victoria Street, Derby on 2 February 1863 (4, 5), they had half a decade of experience in the photographic business. They demonstrated not merely a proficiency in portraiture, but also some considerable astuteness in the marketing of their services. Faced with stiff competition from well established practitioners such as Thomas Roberts, James Brennen, George Bristow, E.N. Charles, William Pearson and Richard Keene, a pliable reporter from The Derby Mercury was inivited to the gallery. He duly supplemented the first of a regular series of Burton & Sons advertisements in that newspaper with a most favourable report (6):

"... we have since had an opportunity of inspecting a very large number of Mr. Burton's specimens. In one very large and handsome group of Volunteer officers these qualities are as palpable as in the exquisitely beautiful cartes-de-visite; and in the portraits of Lord and Lady Stamford delicate colouring is also apparent. Mr. Burton has succeeded in producing an admirably correct group of portraits of Ensign Turner, Colour-Sergeant Pratt, and Corporal Clulow, of the Derby Volunteers, in uniform. A visit to Mr. Burton' s Gallery, at Messrs. Clulow's, will afford very agreeable entertainment to every man of taste.

This type of advertorial, hand in hand with the celebrity endorsement, was evidently an accepted practice even a century and a half ago. Hand coloured photographs of volunteer soldiers in magnificent uniforms - such as that shown above, from the Derby studio of John Roberts (7) - as well as genteel portraits of members of the higher echelons of Derby society, provided valuable draw cards for clients from among the "ordinary" folk of Derby.


The reporter in question may even have been the Henry Latimer Kemp (1832-1869), newspaper writer at The Derby Mercury, whose vignetted Burton studio portrait - shown above - has survived in the Derby Local Studies Library collection (8). The Burtons continued to entice a wide range of clientele into the studio, and were even prepared to venture further afield to capture the more important clients (9):

The pictures obtained by this firm ... are remarkable for their sharpness of detail and brilliancy of light and shade. In the cartes de visite of several county families, these excellences are strikingly prominent, particularly in those of the Earl of Harrington, and of other members of the family recently taken by the Messrs. Burton, at Elvaston Castle. The admiration of the lover of art will be excited by an inspection of some of their fine studies of dramatic characters now in the course of completion. Mr. John Coleman as Hamlet, and Miss Caroline Carson as the Queen, considered as examples of pure photography, may fairly claim to be numbered among the gems of this fascinating art.

An advertisement in early May boldly proclaimed the ultimate conquests, asserting Her Majesty the Queen, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and H.R.H. the Princess of Wales as recent studio patrons on successive days (10), although newspaper accounts of royal movements during this period (29 April to 1 May) by this author render such claims highly unlikely (11). Following a practice common to many practitioners around the country, however, they soon took the liberty of embellishing the reverse of their card mounts with the royal coat of arms and the names of their noble clients (as shown above). By December that year their newspaper advertisements included "the nobility and gentry of the Midland counties" among their valued customers, in additon to "extraordinary advantages for photographing children." (12)


In the 1864 edition of Wright's Midland Directory, probably compiled in late 1863, and by which time a fourth Burton branch had been opened in Burton-upon-Trent, the firm took out a whole page advertisement offering a wide range of services, including "animals with the instantaneous process," and with a substantial list of prestigious patrons (13).


On 5 April 1864 they announced their appointment as sole photographers to the Shakspere [sic] Tercentary Festival (14), and that they would be working from "a commodious gallery adjoining the pavilion" in Stratford-upon-Avon from Monday 18 April. This occasion presented further business opportunities to the burgeoning Burton & Sons portfolio: in addition to the usual "carte de visite and other portrait" services, they offered "a series of Shakespearean views, comprising all objects of interest in Stratford and the neighbourhood," each photograph bearing "a facsimile of the Committee's seal." (15) During the event, they made the most of the presence of a number of "musical celebrities who created and sustained the interest of the last great Triennial Festival at Birmingham," inducing them into his makeshift studio for individual sittings. The separate negatives were then innovatively combined in a single commemmorative print, inferring ""that these talented personages met by concerted arrangement in a spacious drawing room, and that while engaged in social converse, the photographer successfully plied his vocation," and subsequently "exhibit[ed] in the artist's window, at Messrs. Clulow's, Victoria street." (16)

Such an environment was eminently suitable for an invitation to a portrait sitting to be sent to Derby's man of the moment. A contemporary inscription handwritten in ink on the reverse of the card mount not only identifies the subject of Virginia's portrait, but also helpfully provides some clues to the circumstances surrounding the sitting:

Presented to E Hayman
by the original.
Ed. Foster Esq
Decr. 5 1864. Taken on his 102 Birth-
day Nov 8th 1864 -

Indeed the copy held by the Derby Local Studies Library is similarly, but somewhat less informatively, inscribed, "Mr Foster Centenarian." Virginia explains:

"E Hayman was almost certainly my great-grandfather Edward Hayman, originally from Devon and en route to London via Liverpool and Lichfield. As far as I know, Ed Foster was not related, and was probably only a casual acquaintance."

From an account of an 1861 portrait of Foster and his daughter by fellow Derbeian John Haslem (17), we know that Foster was no stranger to photographic studios, and may well have used such portraits to enhance his celebrity status, as a means of publicising his commercial activities.

Edward Foster was an extraordinarily energetic man, in spite of his advanced years, who had been active in a wide variety of fields throughout his long life. After turning a hundred and attending a public dinner held at Derby in his honour, he set off on several lengthy tours to towns as far afield as Birmingham (18), Gloucester (19) and Huddersfield (20). From the tone of the newspaper reports, these towns had previously played significant roles in his younger years, although he was originally a Derby man and it was to Derby that he returned in late 1863. He was reported to be:

In full possession of all his faculties, with eyesight that does not yet need the aid of spectacles, intelligent and communicative, Mr. Foster is a marvel for his age. The charts of which he is the author ... have been under the public eye for many years, and have been adopted by most of the principal colleges and schools in the country ... the chart of the histories of Rome, France, and Britain has reached its 42nd edition, while altogether upwards of 120,000 copies of the charts have been circulated ... The charts are admirably adapted to be given at schools, &c., as prizes, and have been extensively used for that purpose.

While apparently healthy, Edward Foster, his much younger wife and their teenage daughter were in a poor financial state, and an application was made by the Mayor of Derby Thomas Roe for him to receive some sort of pension, in light of his straitened circumstances. The Derby Mercury of 2 December 1863 reported that a letter had been received from the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston instructing payment of a donation of 60 pounds to Foster (21). A further article on 1 Feb 1865 (22) reported that:

For some time past Mr. Foster has been, from illness and consequent debility, unable to travel about the country in search of purchasers of his valuable charts, from the products of which the existence of himself, his wife, and daughter depend ... in order to minister to his temporary necessities, subscriptions should be obtained from all those who are benevolently inclined.

He died a few weeks later, at his home in Parker Street, Derby, on Sunday 12 March leaving "a widow and daughter in straitened circumstances." (23) He was buried in the New Cemetery on Nottingham Road on Thursday 16 March 1865 (24).


While there is plenty of verifiable information detailing Edward Foster's latter years, the material concerning his first half century appears to be mostly hearsay. At least I should perhaps clarify that by stating that I have been unable to substantiate many of the claims that have been made. Peter Seddon's recent article in Derbyshire Life entitled, "Edward Foster: A Master in Profile" provides an excellent overview of the remarkable life of "The Derby Centenarian." (25) However, much of the material has apparently been sourced from a book about Derby personalities that was published in 1866, shortly after the death of Edward Foster (26). Sadly, no sources are provided in either article. The engraving shown above (27) also illustrates this book, and appears to have been taken from the 1863 Burton portrait.

The important aspect, at least from the point of view of this article, and one about which there is little doubt, is that, after 25 years of service with the 20th Regiment of Foot, he discovered an artistic propensity and became a painter of miniature portraits and silhouettes. He subsequently forged this into a career which was to serve him well for several decades, at least until he was well into his seventies.

I have written previously about silhouette portraiture, and its relationship with early portrait photography, in an article about William Seville (28). In Part 2 of this series I will discuss Foster's early life in the miltary and as a silhouettist in further detail, and explore how he dealt with the rapid incursion of photographic portraiture into the silhouette business in a very different manner to the way that Seville did.

References

(1) Carte de visite portrait of Edward Foster, dated 8 November 1864, by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Birmingham, Nottingham & Burton-upon-Trent, Collection of Virginia Silvester, Reproduced by permission.

(2) Profile & Portfolio of John Burton & Sons, Derbyshire Photographers & Photographic Studios, web page by Brett Payne

(3) Carte de visite portrait of Edward Foster, undated, by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Birmingham & Burton-upon-Trent, Collection of Derby Local Studies Library, Reproduced by permission.

(4) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 28 January 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning


(5) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 18 February 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning


(6) The Photographic Art, The Derby Mercury, 18 February 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(7) Carte de visite portrait of unidentified militia soldier, undated but possibly taken c.1865-1868, by John Roberts of 26 Osmaston Street, Derby, Collection of Michael Jones, Reproduced by permission.

(8) Carte de visite portrait of H.L. Kemp, undated but probably taken c.1863-1864, by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Birmingham & Burton-upon-Trent, Collection of Derby Local Studies Library, Reproduced by permission.

(9) Photography, The Derby Mercury, 11 March 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(10) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 6 May 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(11) The Court, Daily News, 30 April, 1 May & 4 May 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(12) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 30 Dec 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(13) Anon (1864) Wright's Midland Directory, Leicester & Loughborough, with Burton-on-Trent, C.N. Wright, Victoria Street, from Historical Directories by the University of Leicester

(14) Carte de visite portrait, undated but probably taken c.1866-1868, by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Melton Mowbray & Burton-upon-Trent, Collection of Brett Payne

(15) Advertisment, The Birmingham Daily Post, 5 April 1864, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(16) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 22 Jun 1864, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(17) Haslem, John (1882) Silhouettes, or Black Profile Portraits, Notes and Queries, Oxford Journals, Volume s6-VI, Number 133, p. 57-58. Available at Google Books [Accessed 6 Apr 2010]

(18) A Veteran, The Derby Mercury, 7 May 1862, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(19) The Derby Centenarian, The Derby Mercury, 28 Oct 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(20) Untitled, The Derby Mercury, 9 Dec 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(21) Mr Edward Foster, the Centenarian, The Derby Mercury, 2 Dec 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(22) Mr Foster, the Centenarian, The Derby Mercury, 1 Feb 1865, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(23) Deaths, The Derby Mercury, 15 Mar 1865, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(24) Untitled, The Derby Mercury, 22 Mar 1865, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(25) Seddon, Peter (2009) Edward Foster: A Master in Profile, (Derbyshire's Artistic Heritage), Derbyshire Life, July 2009, p.170-173.

(26) Robinson, Joseph Barlow (1866) Derbyshire Gatherings: A fund of delight for the antiquary, the historian, the topographer, the biographer, and the general reader ..., London: J.R. Smith, 106p, (Mr. Edward Foster, The Derby Centenarian, p. 81-84), Available online at the Internet Archive [Accessed 5 April 2010].

(27) Engraving of Mr. Edward Foster, Centenarian by uknown artist, in Robinson (1866).

(28) Payne, Brett (2009) William Seville (1797-1866), silhouette and photographic artist, Photo-Sleuth, 17 Sep 2009.

Sidney's first appearance at Church, 16 June 1861

I often think of the rise of popular portrait photography as having really taken off with the introduction of the carte de visite by Disderi, a craze for which is commonly reputed to have been precipitated around 1860 by the enthusiastic British Royal couple. However, the collodion positive process, which had been introduced by Scott Archer in 1852, and resulted in the format known in the United States as the ambrotype, was responsible for the birth of another portrait type which Coe (1976) describes as also having become well known on that side of the Atlantic, the ferrotype or tintype. Writing about a recent visit to the Who Do You Think You Are? Live! family history show in London, Maureen Taylor remarked on her Family Tree Magazine photodetective blog that she noticed how tintypes are far less commonly seen in the United Kingdom. Perhaps this is the reason I understimate it's importance in those early years. After having been first described in France in 1853, and then introduced into the US in the late 1850s by Smith and Griswold (Leggatt, 1999) the tintype became enormously popular from around 1860 onwards. There were significant advantages in this process, particularly to the itinerant photographer, in that the outlay expenditure for setting up in business was low, and it was quick and cheap to produce, and versatile. The lack of a negative meant that it was a one off portrait, which was the most significant disadvantage - for duplicates one had to rather go the carte de visite route. Their cheapness and versatility meant that tintypes were produced in huge quantities across the North America continent throughout the 1860s and 1870s, and remained enormously popular for the remainder of the Victorian era and even well into the 1900s (Hannavy, 1997). Leggatt (1999) states that, in his opinion,

"Compared with other processes the tintype tones seem uninteresting. They were often made by unskilled photographers, and their quality was very variable. They do have some significance, however, in that they made photography available to working classes, not just to the more well-to-do."

While I have to disagree about the mid-range tones of the tintypes rendering them uninteresting - to me they impart a feeling of warmth and immediacy generally not seen in the more common albumen prints of the carte de visite - the availability of these portraits to almost every facet of society often provides a glimpse into a side of life rarely encountered elsewhere. The roughly trimmed early tintype portrait shown here epitomises everything I like about the collodion positive format. The tonal range in this particular, unenhanced image is more than adequate, and has been embellished with some skillful hand colouring of the subject's pink cheeks and the light blue cravat tied around his neck. In fact, the tones of the tintype impart such depth to the photograph that I had to check carefully for further retouching. The stylised oak leaf-patterned edging to his jacket, the tartan check and folds of his skirt, the gold (I think!) patterned head band and dashing feathers on his dark velvet cap, the slightly hesitant expression on his face, even his neatly laced up boots, all point to it being a special day for the young subject of this portrait. A lthough we might be able to make an educated guess at the occasion, a paper label affixed to the reverse of the tintype, and inscribed in black ink with what appears to be a contemporary hand, handily reveals the purpose of the sitting:

Sidneys first appearance at Church. 16. June 1861

The lack of an apostrophe notwithstanding, I'm very thankful to his mother for recording the event for posterity. Surely it was his mother who dressed him so carefully for the important event, led him to church, and then into the studio, calmed his fears about about the head clamp being fixed into place and the strange man under the dark cloth fiddling for what seemed like ages, and likewise carefully wrote out the label when they got home later that day? American poet William Cullen Bryant's mother recorded that he made his first appearance at church in the middle of his third year (Muller, 2008). This young lad appears a little older - perhaps about four years old - but it is likely that this was but the first of several visits that he made to a photographic studio during his lifetime. Audrey Linkman writes that most photographic portraits in the 1800s were taken to celebrate or record events that she refers to as rites of passage, such as christenings, birthdays, weddings and anniversaries. Although few of the photographs in our family history collections have generally been lucky enough to survive with such helpful annotations, it is often a useful exercise to examine portraits with a view to which significant event in the subject's, or subjects', life it might portray. The carte de visite portrait shown above, which I used in a previous article on Photo-Sleuth, was probably taken in the late 1860s, and from the dress worn by the child clearly celebrated it's christening. Other events, such as the breeching of boys and the confirmation of both sexes may be more difficult to pick out, since the accompanying clothing changes may not be so obvious to us a century and more later. I'll be keeping a sharp eye out for such possibilties, both in my own old family photos as well as my collection of purchased photographs, and will hopefully feature some more in the coming months, as I return to a more regular posting of articles and images here on Photo-Sleuth.

These photographs have an even greater poignancy for me at the moment because, just as happened in the household of sometime reader of this blog intelliwench last year, my eldest daughter has just started at university a month ago. Of course this has occasioned some wistful perusing of old photographs, including the record of her first day at "big school" some dozen odd years ago, shown above. This shot captures her in the ubiquitous "two sizes too big/she'll grow into it" school uniform on her way to the car as we head off at the beginning of that first day, with her two younger, over-excited and very jealous sisters desperately wishing they were going too. Some things change, some just stay the same.

References 

Coe, Brian (1976) The Birth of Photography: The story of the formative years 1800-1900, (1989 Edition) London: Spring Books, ISBN 0-600-56296-4, 144p.
Hannavy, John (1997) Victorian Photographer at Work, Series: A History in Camera, Risborough: Shire Publications Ltd., ISBN 0-7478-0358-7, 136p.
Leggatt, Robert (1999) A History of Photography: The Tintype Process. Last updated 24 Sep 2008.
Linkman, Audrey (n.d.) Picturing the Family, Ch. 5.4 Rites of Passage, Unit A173_1, The Open University.
Muller, Gilbert H. (2008) William Cullen Bryant: Author of America, Ch 1. America's First Poet, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-7467-9, 400p.
Sixth-plate tintype of "Sidneys first appearance at Church, 16 June 1861," by unknown photographer, Collection of Brett Payne
Carte de visite portrait of Unidentified woman and child, by Job Bramley, the Family Fry Pan Portrait Gallery, Leicester, Collection of Brett Payne
35mm colour print of LFP's first day at school, by Brett Payne, 13 January 1998, Collection of Brett Payne

Whistling Bird, the Arizona Cowboy and the Disappearing Lady

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

References

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Digging for gold on the wild West Coast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So ... we can make several tentative conclusions:

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

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

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

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

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

Acknowledgements

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

References

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

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

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

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

[5] Charleston, New Zealand. Wikipedia article.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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