I find it fascinating how much the formality of getting married has changed, these are two wedding photos from my collection, both from 1903. The wedding dress is much simpler then one would find at a typical modern american wedding. I will need to look into this more!

Mattie Golding and Henry Bishop, 22 Mar 1903

Loren Powers and Rosa Bishop, 21 Oct 1903

And then there is this picture, I find this bride to be breathtaking, hopefully someone in my family will say oh that aunt so-and-so or hey that me; I have been identifying a lot of people lately the photo album was a godsend.

Unknown bride

Treasure of unspeakable value!

My parents had commented to me with one of the fist pictures I scanned, Oh we have that album.

Unidentified girl circa 1860-1870

I was doubtful that it was that same album but curious none the less. It turns out in the back of my grandparents closet burred under various random things was a think very old photo album. So I drove over to my parents house to give it a look, and was not surprised that it is not the same album (Square holes as opposed to round), but was shocked at what it contained. 

Judge this book by the condition of its cover and you will be wrong.

Sitting on my parents table is a old cloth bound book, about 6" thick, the rear cover is torn off and has been sitting on an October 4th 1987 news paper for so long It is now the rear cover. The condition of the book is bad, the bindings are torn, the pages coming loose, there are splotches on the cover and the latch that once held it closed is long gone. However the pictures themselves look almost new. 

I put on my cotton gloves and slowly and carefully opened the cover. 

Not only was it amazingly well preserved (Acid free paper at the beginning of the 20th century?) Every single picture is labeled with a name, and many with a relationship or event title (Cousin or Wedding). This book is the find of all finds for the work we are doing. Thirty Seven pictures, all but one with names! 

My Great Great Great Grandmother, born in 1836

I took possession of the book yesterday, and spent 3+ hours carefully removing each picture, cautiously dusting it off, scanning and then returning it to the book. Most of the pictures are Cabinet Cards and Carte De Visite, with a few Tin Types and other Albumen prints. About 1/2 of the cards are stamped with a photographers information which will help with dating. 

Carte De Visite and Cabinet Cards have been in this book for 100 years or so.

While I was doing this my wife was busily trying to find the people on Ancestry.com, and find out who the relationships are to.

The back page: To Bill & Florence Wilson, Presented by Mother Bishop

So the basic work is done, next will be tagging all the pictures and using the data to identify some of the unknown pictures we are still going through. Hopefully this will help as family and friends slowly piece together  the story these 100+ years of photographs tell. 

Here are just a few of the pictures.

 Florence May Bishop (Thin Albumem print) 

Miss Emma Compton

 Roy Kinser (Aunt Emma's Boy)

Henry and Arthur Bishop <Tin Type>

buchtel and stole photographers

Joseph Buchtel (1830-1916) became one of northwestern Oregon's most influential and renowned early day photographers. He started hi artistic carrier in 1851 when  he purchased a "daguerreotype outfit" in Urbana Illinois, leaving in 1852 with a forty wagon party bound for Oregon Territory.

Unknown photo from my family collection dated 1873-1879

Butchtel began to produce the new cabinet cards in January of 1867 in rented rooms at 89 first street in Portland Oregon. In April 1873 Buchtel and his new partner E.H. Stolte opened "First Premium Gallery" and put their new "Viewing Wagon" into the field, this mobile studio was for "the taking pictures of buildings etc." the firm issued a number of sterographics titled Oregon & W.T. Scenery  and advertised for sale the likenesses of Captain Jack and other Modoc warriors.

Unknown photo from my family collection dated 1873-1879

In late 1878 or early 1879 the partnership broke up, Butchtel continued to produce award winning photographs until his retirement from the art in 1880 with his election as County Sheriff. Buchtel served two four year terms as Sheriff as well as a two year term as the fourth fire chief for the city of Portland's professional fire department. He died at home on August 10th 1916.

  

Handwriting and other challenges.

One problem that we keep running into is reading the very old calligraphy on some of the pictures and deciphering who the picture is supposed to be. That can be troubling but it is not as trying to read the black/gray pencil markings on a piece of black/gray paper that is well over a hundred years old and very worn off.

I appreciate my ancestors not pushing the pencil too hard on the back of the photo, however that has made it very hard to read what is written on some of these cards. When we have a very clear picture as this one below:

It would be nice too know who is on the picture, reverse the card and you get this. I have tried everything I can think of, changing the image contrast, changing light - applying filters. There must be some sort of trick to reading this, hopefully its not something that requires a lab!

It would be greatly appreciated if you can give me some ideas on how to read this. If you are aware of a way (hopefully using PSE 9) to bring the writing to the foreground it would be greatly appreciated. I might take a few of these pictures down to my local historical society to see if they have any tips on what to do.

Nothing to go on...

This appears to be one of the oldest photos in the collection and has nothing to clue me into a name, date or location. 

This photo is called a Carte De Visite and was common from 1859 - 1870 They were commonly given as calling cards and left during a visit, the Carte De Visite was supplanted by the Cabinet card in about 1870. 

We have a few clues to help us at least roughly date this picture. We have the card itself, and we have the little girl. Cards prior to 1870 would not have the photographers name printed or watermarked onto the card itself, but would sometimes have a stamp or hand written signature on the back. 

So we have black card stock that appears to have rounded edges, but if you look closer the edges were square and have been trimmed, smashed and shaped purposely or with time. This alone should date the card to late early stage of its life 1860 - 1870. Then we look at the photographers mark or in this case lack of. 

I can not find any photographers mark, no stamp, imprint etc. However looking closely at the back of the card is some trace of lead or charcoal pencil marks, hopefully I will learn a way o reveal these. This again seems to confirm the age of this card. The newer the card the more ornate the photographers stock should be.   

Lastly lets look at the girl and the props she is posed with. She is standing and the picture shows her from foot to head, she is wearing a fair amount of decorative lace at sleeves and collar, there are no petticoats nor a true bustle. This again seems to hint at the time period between 1860-1870  

Please note that I dont have any formal training on how to do this properly, all I can do is read from various sources (Yes counting Wikipedia) and compare this picture to others that have been positively identified, In other words I might be completely wrong. As my understanding of the people and the periods these pictures contain I should get better at identifying and understanding them.  

Here is a minimally restored version

Finding History

With the passing of my Grandfather I volunteered myself to catalog and archive all of the family photos. Little did I know of old and interested some of them would be. I have become fascinated with uncovering the stories that are depicted in these pictures.

Little did I know how vast the collection would be, I have only scratched the surface of the boxes, and so far have spent more time looking at the pictures then editing and restoring them. The collection is not only my Grandparents pictures, but also consists of my Great Grandparents and Great Great Grandparents collections!

Unfortunately for me there is no organisation of how the photos were stored, most were just dumped into boxes and forgotten, and most have no names, dates or notes to go with them.

The photos are from the families of:

Crouse: Susanville CA and Pennsylvania
Squibb: Susanville CA and Keeport PA
Wilson: Susanville CA
Bishop: Tehama county CA, Wallowa OR  

And have dates from the 1880's to Up

Wish me luck!