Youngme/Nowme

Check out these childhood photo recreations at Ze Frank's Color Wars 2008. My favorite childhood photo is of me getting my first bath in the kitchen sink. I'm off to buy a tripod and a bigger sink.

[via kottke]

What Ever Became of Evelyn?

Joe Manning (see this post) is now looking for info on Evelyn Casey, a mill worker photographed by Lewis Wickes Hine on June 17, 1916. The Fall River (Mass.) Historical Society thinks it's found the right family.

There were nine people in the Casey household, including parents Michael, 39, and Johanna, 38. Michael Casey was a janitor at the Coughlin School.

Siblings included Francis, Margaret, Edward, Angela, Joseph and Mary.

Evelyn Casey continued to be listed in city directories as a weaver living with her parents until 1922, when she may have married and taken her husband’s last name.

Are the Evelyn Casey in the photo and the Evelyn Casey in the records the same woman?

It’s a good bet, but there’s probably someone out there who knows for sure. If Evelyn Casey was born in 1902 and died at 70, then some daughter or grandson remembers her dying in 1972. [Link]

He Was Clearly a Pampered Child

Maureen Taylor has taken up the challenge I posed here.

This kid's an optimist. His diaper is falling down and he's got to be uncomfortable, BUT he's happy. It's great to see a nineteenth century picture with someone with a full grin. Doesn't happen very often.

Maureen's figured out that the photo was taken "as early as the 1890s," but asks for help researching the photographer. Drop a comment on her blog if you can lend a hand.

Accidental Self-Portraits

Here's a Flickr pool for anyone whose dad (like mine) made his kids pose for snapshots squinting into the sun. Vintage Photographer's Shadow will accept "Any old photograph (25 years or more) where the photographer's shadow has accidentally fallen across the scene."

Found Photos

Get warmed up for Wednesday's premiere of African American Lives 2 by checking out this amazing collection of snapshots and home movies at Square America. Some of my favorites.

Grandpa Returns Home By Way of Illinois

Susan Ihne ("We pronounce it Eenie — like in Eenie, Meanie, Miney, Moe") has learned that genealogical evidence can sometimes be planted.

Through my local Ihne relatives, I received a photo of my grandfather via the Ihnes they know in Illinois.

I definitely recognized him and the photo. How come they have that photo and I don’t?

OK, so we must definitely be related. I was excited.

But then I talked to my sister, who thinks she sent the photo to the Illinois Ihnes.

So it’s a vicious circle. Are we related or aren’t we? [Link]

No Child Laborer Left Behind

I've written before about Lewis Hine's photographs of child laborers. Joe Manning has embarked upon a Lewis Hine Project.

Manning has made it his mission to find out what happened to the children in the photos, and to interview their descendants. He plans to eventually write a book and possibly make the photos and research into a traveling exhibit. [Link]

It all began with his collaboration with Elizabeth Winthrop to track down Addie Card, "the poster child of child labor"—a search that made the pages of Smithsonian last year.

Manning's website features some Mystery Photos of children still waiting to be identified. For instance, these children.

A family working in the Tifton (Ga.) Cotton Mill. Mrs. A.J. Young works in mill and at home. Nell (oldest girl) alternates in mill with mother. Mammy (next girl) runs 2 sides. Mary (next) runs 1 1/2 sides. Elic (oldest boy) works regularly. Eddie (next girl) helps in mill, sticks on bobbins. Four smallest children not working yet. The mother said she earns $4.50 a week and all the children earn $4.50 a week. Husband died and left her with 11 children. 2 of them went off and got married. The family left the farm 2 years ago to work in the mill. January 22, 1909. Location: Tifton, Georgia.

Mrs. A J. Young was probably the same living in Tifton in 1920, aged 53 years, with Ben L. and Tiffie Lanier (Tiffie, 33, presumably being one of the children who "went off and got married").

Anyone want to take a crack at finding the family in earlier censuses?

Update: Mr. Manning has contacted me, and tells me that it probably was Ben, not Tiffie, who was Mrs. Young's child (the census calls them just "Son" and "Daughter"). He has found that Tiffie's maiden name was "Oliver."

Happy to Be Half Naked

I would love to read the Photo Detective's analysis of this little guy's picture. My own analysis has concluded that he needs a haircut and a trip to the gym to work on his abs.

The Importance of Background Research

Michael Dick was looking for his daughter, Lisa, so he sought the help of a British newspaper. A story about his search appeared in the paper, along with a photograph of Dick.

Lisa, a mother of three, discovered her father, 58, was trying to find her when friends mentioned the story.

And when she looked at the photograph, she realised she and her mother were just a few metres behind them and got in touch.

Lisa said: 'I was completely shocked. Me and my mum had been standing in that exact place where the picture was taken about a minute earlier, and you can see us in the picture walking away. It is incredible.' [Link]

[Thanks to Rob Manderson for spotting this item and passing it on.]

Update: And thanks to John Van Essen for sending in a link to a Suffolk Free Press follow-up article with the annotated photograph.

Minor Infractions

A century ago, Lewis Hine documented with his camera violations of child labor laws at textile mills in Gastonia, North Carolina. Robert Allen is trying to find descendants of the kids depicted in Hine's photographs in hopes of organizing a reunion in November 2008.

J.M. Merrill of Goldsboro had never seen the photo of his father, Rush Merrill, before.

Merrill said his father talked about working in the mill when he was so young he stood on a box to reach the machine.

"It's unreal that picture is in the Library of Congress," he said. "An old cotton mill man who only went to the third grade." [Link]

Atlanta, Before and After

Greg Germani has been recreating old Atlanta-area photographs since 2003. He's even duplicated aerial photos! From a 2005 article:

He stands exactly where the original photographers once stood, and trains his 3.2 megapixel Nikon digital point-and-shoot in precisely the same direction. Today, he has taken more than 400 pictures that way. Pairing each photo with its antecedent, he posts them on his website, www.atlantatimemachine.com.

The pictures comprise a remarkable look at how much Atlanta has changed in the past half-century. The Atlanta Crackers' old outfield is now a Borders parking lot. An old gentleman's club is now a MARTA station. And downtown, which was once the entertainment and social center of the city, is now a ghost town on nights and weekends. [Link]

[Via Neatorama]

Woman Returns Husband to Wal-Mart

Julia Foster bought a photo album at a Texas Wal-Mart, and found inside a photograph of a young man. Three clues to his identity were written on the back: "Robert," "19" and "1945." An article about the discovery in The Brenham Banner-Press turned up 81-year-old Robert Wellmann.

Wellmann’s wife, Selma (Loesch), was the initial purchaser, but returned it “as not quite what she wanted,” according to an amazingly young-looking Wellmann, who retrieved his photo at The Banner early today.

At the time his wife returned the album, neither she or her husband realized a photograph of Robert — single and age 19 at the time of the 1945 black-and-white portrait — had been left inside one of its pages. [Link]

Genealogist Needs Answers

Fiona Wilson is conducting an Old Family Photos Survey as part of her dissertation research. If you own photos of the requisite age, why not take a few minutes and help her out?

I am interested in researching my own family history and particularly intrigued by the Victorian photo albums in our family. This has motivated me to find out more about the information needs and behaviours of family historians with special regard to old family photos (c.1840-c.1901).

This questionnaire explores various aspects of the importance of old family photos to your family history research, questions about identifying and labelling old photos, and about storing both original and digital versions of these photos. The questionnaire is likely to take about 30-40 minutes to complete (dependent on answers) with a mixture of multiple choice and open-ended questions.

I'm Not Ready to Go Steady

I'm in the middle of a year-long transcription project for my Maine Genealogy website that requires that I take hundreds of digital photos of typewritten records on microfilm. My method is as follows:

1. Hold camera against edge of microfilm reader while focusing on image.
2. Squeeze shutter release without moving camera.
3. Take second photo of same image because I probably moved camera.

Nine times out of ten, one of the two photos is usable. Unfortunately, I can only take about 100 photographs (of 50 pages of records) before my hands get shaky and the photos get fuzzy.

Too bad the GSC Associates Microfilm Camera Mount won't work on either model of microfilm reader I use. For just $30.95, it seems like an affordable alternative to per-page printer fees. As for me, I'll stick to my method, and maybe drink fewer cans of Red Bull before visiting the archives.

Our Grandpas Are All at the Mall

If you need a photograph of a male ancestor, be sure to visit the Time & Again Antique Mall in Chetek, Wisconsin. David P. Sorenson was strolling there with his wife when he overheard an employee discussing a previous customer's experience.

The woman, Barb Moore of Kenai, Alaska, had walked into the antique mall and found a photograph hanging in a shop of an individual she recognized as her grandfather. After doing some more research, she later confirmed that the man was indeed her grandfather.

Sorenson then looked at some photographs in the mall, and spotted a familiar face.

Crazy as it may seem, the man in the picture was Gustav Sorenson, Sorenson's great-grandfather, who had apparently posed for a photograph while he was in the Norwegian army in 1891. Gustav had later come to Rice Lake and homesteaded, and met his wife Dortea, who was from the Dallas area.

"I was dumbfounded," said Sorenson. "What are the chances of that happening? That picture was over 125 years old." [Link]

That Brochure Sure Looks Familiar

While in Europe, brothers Frank and Bill Randa stopped by the tiny Italian village where their grandparents had lived before immigrating in 1890. No one they spoke to the first day had heard of the Randas. The cheaper hotels had no rooms, so they ended up in the most expensive establishment in Tiriolo.

It turned out this was the only hotel in town that gave its guests a color brochure about the history of the village, featuring a photo of a woman and two girls dressed in a special costume made by the women of Tiriolo.

That sure looked like their grandmother Giovanna and two of their aunts in the picture, Frank and Bill thought. But how could that be?

The girls had been born in America and had never set foot in Tiriolo.

They found a cousin, Carmen DeAngelis, the next day, who confirmed that Giovanna and her daughters did appear on the brochure.

"But that picture had to be taken in America," Bill said. "How did it get here?"

Carmen smiled and invited the Randa brothers to sit down while she got something out of her bedroom closet. She walked back into the room carrying a handful of pictures, including one of a 2-year-old boy.

"Frank," Bill said. "Isn't that you?" [Link]

Crouching Mother, Hidden Face

Swapatorium has another example of a mother hiding behind her infant in an old photograph. My mother wishes she had thought of this when her kids were young. The fashions of the late '60s and early '70s were not flattering.

[Hat tip: The Practical Archivist]

A Brief History of Nose-Thumbing

Walking the Berkshires has a neat analysis of a WWI photograph that purportedly shows a Canadian soldier thumbing his nose as "a gesture expressing his contempt for the Germans."

I wonder if this is an accurate description of what the camera actually captured. Is that soldier thumbing his nose or grimacing at the point of impact? Is anyone holding that rifle, or did he just drop it? And was "cocking a snoot" a standard gesture of contempt utilized by Canadians in 1917 as the American Heritage editors suggest?

Standing in Another Photographer's Shoes

I love the paired images in Flickr's Then and Now Group Photo Pool, though some of the attempts to recreate historical photographs are more successful than others. Irish Hermit's shot of Perkins Square in South Boston is just about perfect.

Maternal Furniture

Swapatorium offers one selection from a collection I'd like to see more of: "photos of mothers disguised as chairs."

[via Boing Boing]