Three Girls, Circa 1920s

Old photo, white border, circa 1920s.

Price:  $3.00          Size:  2 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/2″

We’re still in Detroit, presumably…..Or, at least that’s where this photo of the three beautiful girls was found (Dearborn to be precise) posing so perfectly, each in a drop-waist style dress that denotes the 1920s era. They might be sisters, cousins or just friends. There is no identifying writing on the back, and not that this narrows down a date at all, but we see that Velox was the printing paper used. The Velox name, at this point, had already been around awhile:  George Eastman (of Eastman Kodak) had purchased the patent for Velox from Leo Baekeland in 1898. If the name Baekeland sounds vaguely familiar, he was the chemist that invented Bakelite. (Careful, careful when buying the much-sought-after Bakelite items! There’s the real thing out there, and then there’s the what’s called genuine, but is really not!)

Sources:  Kodak. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak (accessed July 11, 2017).

Leo Baekeland. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Baekeland (accessed July 11, 2017).

Yours Truly, Bernice or Dagmar

Vintage photo, white border, deckled edge. Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan. Circa 1950s.

Price:  $6.00            Size:  About 2 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/2″

Another found on the recent Detroit trip. Beautiful Bernice, posing at the Scott Fountain on Belle Isle. The cat-eye sunglasses trend was popular in the 1950’s. Her shoes now, hmmmm, two-tone, but not really a saddle shoe – this exact style wasn’t found online. As to the inscription on the back,   ‘Your truly’ Bernice or Dagmar”  that’s one of the most interesting aspects of this photo.

A character name from a play?

And at first, I thought it was “Dogmar” and was searching for Dogmar as a possible surname or given name, and not coming up with much…..Then, and this happens to me quite a bit, for which I am truly grateful:  A day or two later I came across the movie I Remember Mama (1948) playing on the classic movie channel, with Irene Dunn as the Norwegian-born mother of four, set in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century, with the youngest daughter named Dagmar (wait, what?). If you’ve never seen the movie, check it out (so beautiful!) The film is based on the story, Mama’s Bank Account (1943) by Kathryn Forbes, which inspired a play (1944) then the movie, then t.v. series Mama (1949 – 1957) and later two musical versions in the ’70s. The movie’s story is told from the standpoint of the oldest daughter, Katrin, an aspiring writer, played by Barbara Bel Geddes (Dallas fans, you will remember her as Jock’s wife, Miss Ellie.) So, did Bernice in our photo above play Dagmar in a school play production? It’s our best guess, other than the fact that Dagmar could be a middle name for her or vice versa (Dagmar Bernice).

Source:  Kathryn Forbes. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Forbes (accessed July 9, 2017).

The Little Indian

Vintage photo, circa 1940s – early 1950s

Price:  $3.00       Size:  About 3 x 4 and 1/2″

Another found in Dearborn, Michigan on my recent trip, from a box of loose photos. I’ll look for anything related to this one when I go back next year. The reverse appears to be written in Czech, and probably by the grandmother of the beaming little boy “playing Indian” on the front lawn. Ewaline would be the name of the boy’s mom. And maybe someone will recognize this particular toy set of Indian headdress and drum. (Those look like hawk feathers and it says “Indian Chief” across the headband.)

“Ten mály Indian jest moj ‘sweetheart’ Ewalinies synek.” 

“The little Indian is my sweetheart, Ewalinie’s son.”

Up On The Roof

Vintage photo, white border, deckled edge. Circa 1940s – 1950s.

Price:  $3.00        Size:  About 4 and 1/4 x 3 and 1/8″

A beautiful vintage snapshot, albeit in rough shape, of an African-American family posing together on a rooftop. It was found on my recent Detroit excursion in an antique shop in Dearborn. No writing on the back, and Detroit could be the location, but just on the off-chance that the photo had not strayed too far. The time-frame is 1940s and ’50s, a little hard to pinpoint without more detailed research. For one, we see girls’ and womens’ hemlines at the knee in both decades.

French Waterman, Goulais Lake, Algoma Co., Ontario

Vintage photos, circa 1940s – 1952, deckled edge border.

Price for the set of two:  $15.00

“French and guide at launch place”  or possibly “at lunch place.” That is probably French Waterman on our left and either his unidentified fishing guide, center (or, if some humor was employed in the description, French’s dad, Warren…just a possibility, no assumptions.) On the canoe bow, we see what may be the manufacturer logo of a circle and one wing. Maybe someone familiar with vintage canoes will recognize it. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

 

French is John French Waterman, born about 1904 in Tennessee, younger son of Warren Gookin Waterman, Sr., born in Southport, Connecticut 1872 and died in Frankfort, Michigan 1952 and Anna (Hannah Meuller) Waterman. Warren, Sr. may have taken the shots (we hope, or was in the top one, even better, but either way, these photos seem to be a remembrance from a nice father-son trip!) and written on the back, along with stamping his address at that time:

“W. G. Waterman, Riverbend Farm, Frankfort, Michigan”

French Waterman at Goulais Lake Camps, Algoma County, Ontario. There’s French, we believe, on our far right, blending in a little with the background. In the center, nestled in the pines, one of the sixteen guest cabins. Here is Goulais Lake from a Google map search.

Sources:  Year: 1920; Census Place: Evanston Ward 7, Cook, Illinois; Roll: T625_358; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 87; Image: 533. (Ancestry.com)

Original data: Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867–1952. Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics. (Ancestry.com)

Year: 1940; Census Place: Crystal Lake, Benzie, Michigan; Roll: T627_1730; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 10-9. (Ancestry.com)

Goulais Lake, Algoma, Unorganized, North Part, ON, Canada. Google.com map search. Accessed July 2, 2017.

Find A Grave memorial# 36874914. Findagrave.com. Accessed July 2, 2017.

Houseboat Heaven

Vintage photo, circa 1920s – 1930s.

Price:  $6.00         Size:  4 and 1/4 x 2 and 5/8″

Three ladies

I love houseboats:  There is something so romantic about them (riverboats, too.) So “houseboat heaven” came to mind immediately upon finding the photo, and the term stuck (and never got unstuck, lol. That’s redundant but, no matter.) But I realize, as I’m posting this, that the watercraft in question could be something other than the type involved in my (just now identified) longing to set up house on the water or meander down a river in rustic comfort. Rather than houseboat, the vessel could be a small ferry….In any case, the image shows a woman posed, relaxing on an inside railing, smiling for the camera. On our left we see a partial view of the woman’s friend, in flounced dress, her hand on one of the thin uprights. You get the feeling she’s chatting with someone outside of the picture. Both ladies are elegantly dressed. And the vessel….is charming:  nothing too fancy, wooden, with her “house” portion curving around, and a shallow, covered deck off of the house, as part of the bigger deck surface as a whole. Note the nice scroll work above the door and the scalloped roof edging….All-in-all, a beautifully captured moment, from a casually elegant or elegantly casual 😉 evening spent on the water, with good friends. (That includes the boat!)

Handsome Guy And Baby At House Number 14

Old photo, circa late 1920s – early 1930s.

Price:  $10.00       Size:  2 and 1/2 x 4 and 1/8″

Happy Father’s Day!

Found at an antique store in Monterey, California, in a huge amount of loose photos from various unrelated families:  It’s possible there are more to go along with this one, but none jumped out as related, and this photo was just too beautiful to pass up. A great one for Father’s Day. There is no i.d. on the back, only “Velox” (in an oval) for the printing paper of the photo. It may be from the U.S. or could very likely be from “across the pond,” as they say. Per the UK site Early Photography, the Velox in oval is circa 1929. And, in peering into the photo for clues, one almost expects to read a label on whatever that is in the left corner of the window (as if it might show some brand name particular to England, for instance.) On second look it’s maybe just a crockery dish placed in a sunny window for starting a seedling. And that’s a sleeve garter that the dad is wearing, by the way.

Source:  “Early Photography:  Velox.” http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/entry_F53.html  (accessed June 23, 2017).

Mom And Baby, Auntie And Baby

Two photos, circa early 1900s.

Price for pair:  $3.00         Size:  About 5 x 5″ including mat frames.

Another couple of photos for Mother’s Day….

Mom and Baby….

Auntie (we think) and Baby….

Alas, there is no writing on the back of either of these photos, which were found in the Central Coast area of California, so we don’t know who the three people are, nor their location. But this could be CA with those rolling hills, and wait, are those grapevine trellises on the left? Maybe this is wine country.

In Our Front Yard

Old photo, circa early 1900s.

Price:  $3.00       Size:  About 4 and 1/8 x 2 and 1/2″

Gibson Girl hairstyles, sailor dresses, little brother and dog. Front yard posing in wintertime. There are no notes or i.d. written on the back, but imagine remembering the good time had by all. (Mabel, you were falling….That was your fault Eth, you were pulling me down!….) We can only see the back half of the dog, the boy is smiling looking straight into the camera, and what is he holding – could that be a folding pocket camera? The girls are clowning, and have tucked their long dresses into their boots, hanging on to each other in their best attempt to turn themselves into a 3-legged being. Behind them, their home, we presume. And in looking at the prior post (the two photos were found in the same pile) we wondered at first, if they could be some of the same girls, but likely not, this snapshot was probably taken earlier than the other….And what a heavenly front porch this must have been in summertime! Why was the wooden bench on the right turned over on it’s side? That’s another story!

Snow Maidens

Old photo, circa 1910s – 1920s.

Price:  $1.00       Size:  About 3 and 1/4 x 2 and 1/4″

Snow and laughter… here’s a great old photo for wintertime, no names (darn!) but wonderful just the same, of four young ladies, sisters or friends or a combination of both. They’re posed leaning on a snowbank with a house directly behind them. Note the nice porch supports. And are any of these girls the same as in the next upcoming snapshot? You be the judge!