#189--Easy--A Festival of Pictures

This week’s theme is easy.  For me an easy thing to do is to assemble some pictures around a theme.  So I decided to use some pictures that I have from my collections and from my cousin, Anna.  They are pictures of the children of John Wesley Hannah from the late 1800’s.  Anna discovered a scrapbook when cleaning out her grandfather’s house and it was filled with wonderful pictures.  Not all the pictures were labelled, but we sent the pictures back and forth until we were pretty sure who the people were. 

The first picture is a picture is a formal posed picture of John Wesley and Jennie (Willey) Hannah and their children.  Capt. John Wesley Hannah is on the far left, next to him is his only son, William Hannah, then Marinda Hannah (DeArmond) , Gertrude Hannah (Turner), Cora Hannah (Parke),  Anne Charlotte Hannah (Ross), lastly, Jennie Sophia Hannah.

The second picture is of William Hannah in his military uniform from Wentworth Acaademy.  I believe it was a school picture for the yearbook. 

This is one of my favorites.  Someone evidently got a pair of scissors and gave some hair cuts.  From left to right they are Gertrude, Tim and Toots.  Marinda and Cora, I believe did not like their names so they changed them to Tim (Cora) and Toots (Marinda) and they were known by those names until the day they died.

Growing up a little, here is one of William with his two sisters, Gertrude and Anne.

Lastly, I have one of Tim and Toots as teenagers.  I love their blouses and their ties. 

I would to talk to all of these relatives to find out what they remember about the pictures.  

#139 William Fisher Richards--Oldest Picture

Tintype Camera

Oldest?  Oldest ancestor?  Oldest document?  Oldest brick wall?  Oldest picture?  All were possibilities for this week’s theme, but the one I liked the most was my oldest picture.  I inherited some very old tintypes of my ancestors.

If you have seen tintypes, you may know that the people look very stiff and formal and no one ever smiles.  That is because it took about a minute to get the image onto the iron plate (Yes, they are called tin types, but they are actually on sheets of iron.) and no one can smile for that length of time and not move their mouth.  Any movement will lead to a blurry image.  That is why they are stiff and unsmiling.

This is  William Fisher Richards, my great great uncle. He was born in 1879 so I am guessing he is about 6 or 7 in this picture.  There are many things I like about his picture.  The way his hair is parted, his big eyes, the hat that he is holding in this hands, and the fact that only one of his feet is on the floor.  The chair he is sitting in is pretty impressive, too.  That is a whole lot of fringe on the bottom!

I would love to know where it was taken, what if anything, he remembers about going to the "tintypists," how hard it was not to move, and if he ever wore that hat.

#111--Louis Eitelbach--I Think I Will Have a Beer

The 52 Ancestors challenge for this week is a favorite picture.  Now those of you who know me know that I love old pictures and that I have a lot of them.   In fact, I have blogged about several of them before and this is one of my favorites.  So my problem for this challenge was to pick just one picture. 

I went through a box of pictures that I inherited from my grandfather.  This picture of my great grandfather, Louis Eitelbach, was the one that I finally selected.  What a fun picture.  There he is, all dressed up and sitting on a keg of beer! I love that he wearing a bow tie, pocket watch with chain, and what looks like a flower in his label.

I have no idea where or why the picture was taken.  I do know, however, that there was a large number of Germans living in Brooklyn, where Louis and his family lived and that they had a variety of clubs and activities.  I assume that this picture was taken at one of them. For more information about Louis, see my previous blog post:    The Picture on My Wall.

If I could talk to Louis, I would want to know where the picture was taken and what was happening.  

#19 Gertrude Richards--Who Are These People?

I love to look at old pictures, which is a good thing because over the years I have acquired a lot of them.  One group of pictures that I like is of my grandmother, Gertrude Richards.  I remember her as an adult and I have pictures of her then, but my favorites are of those when she was much younger.  So I thought this week I would use some of them for my blog.

 I do not know when or where this picture was taken.  I am not even really sure which one is my grandmother or who the other girls are The picture is posed and they seemed to be dressed up.  I love their hats and coats.  Some are wearing long skirts, but the little girl in the first row on the far right has a shorter skirt paired with stockings.  Given how the styles have changed it is hard to imagine, wearing all that clothing.

Here is another group photograph. It is posed in front of a painted backdrop.  I am not sure how many of these young woman were in the first picture, but this group looks more like teenagers.  This time they have two adult women with them.  That makes me wonder if the girls were off on some kind of excursion.  Again they all have hats.  This time I can identify my grandmother, she is the first one of the left in the first row.  She seems to be the youngest one there.

This picture was taken much later and again is another posed group picture. In this one my grandmother is the second one from the right. Again I do not know where it was taken—they are grouped on the steps of a porch.  Since my grandmother lived in the city, I suspect this may have been taken on a trip.  What I like best are their hats—kind of like flying saucers decorated with flowers.

If I could talk to my grandmother, I would ask for each picture where and when it was taken and who the people were in the pictures.  One thing I have learned and try to do with the pictures I take of people is to label them.