A Thrilling Drive

 A Thrilling Drive

by 

Karen Jennings 

 

"It's such a nice evening for a drive," Eleanor told Will as they drove the stretch of gravel road west of Lakefield, Kansas. It was a bit cool for April, and the 1914 Oakland's open-air build didn't protect her from the elements. Her pea coat and gloves kept her snug, and her favorite black wool wide-brimmed hat protected her hair from tangling and her face from too much wind. 

"You're not too cold?" With admiration filling his eyes, Will glanced at his best girl at her classy look. His gloved hands never left the steering wheel of his Oakland Six motorcar. "And I hope you enjoy the surprise I have for you." 

"I'm warm as a bug in a rug. And please tell me what you're up to." 

Will slowed the car as he pulled it to the side of the road. "Alright. We're here." He climbed from the vehicle, went around, and opened the door. He swept his arm wide, waiting for her to get out. 

Eleanor's sweet smile faded. "We're in the middle of nowhere." 

He took her hand in his gloved one and helped her stand. Guiding her to the driver's side of the car, he opened the door. "Hop in, Sweetheart." 

He chuckled at the surprise covering her face. "I, I…no!" She shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes. "I can't drive your car!" 

Laughter filled the cool evening air. "That's why I'm teaching you!" Trust framed his blue eyes as he looked at her. 

Excuses tumbled from her lips, but he shushed her. "Do you need help getting in?" 

Confidence replaced the unshed tears. She gave him a glare. "Of course not!" She stepped on the running board, sat in the seat, and placed her hands on the steering wheel. 

Will stayed at her side. "I don't have to adjust the seat for you; it's just right!" 

"That's a plus, isn't it?" A little smile played around her mouth, and her cheeks warmed. Will must trust her because he loved his car and cared about keeping it clean, oiled, and up to par. He would never allow anyone to drive it. 

While he instructed her with the essential driving information, he assured her, "I'll be right beside you, so relax and let's have fun." He climbed into the Oakland. 

With each command, Eleanor responded, and she drove the Oakland down the road, little puffs of dust kicking up behind the wheels. Will's small talk comforted her as anxiety melted away. What a great feeling of freedom to drive a machine instead of a horse and buggy or a bumpy old farm wagon. 

"There's a curve up ahead, remember? When you get there, please slow down and maneuver around it. We'll stop, and I'll take over." 

Eleanor glanced at him and smiled. Will was calm. His arm rested on the top of the seat, his fingers near her shoulder. What a great surprise this was! Her body relaxed even more, confidence building with each roll of the tires. "Why don't I stop before we get to the curve…just in case?" 

Will shook his head, "Nah, you're doing great, kid!" His smile was infectious. "You can go a little faster to get the feel of speed." 

Eleanor put pressure on the pedal, and the car moved faster. The butterflies that swarmed her belly earlier seemed to fly away with the vehicle as it traveled smoothly toward the setting sun. Cool wind ruffled her hair beneath her hat. But the black felt hat flew away when a gust roared through the car. 

"Oh!" Caught off guard, she watched the hat tumble and land on the dusty roadway. It would be ruined.

 Eleanor caught sight of a car rounding the curve, heading toward them. Panic punched her belly as she pushed the brake pedal, jerking the steering wheel to the right. The Oakland screeched and whined as the back tires caught the loose gravel. Sliding into the ditch, it roared to a stop.

 Dust billowed, covering them with fine grit. The other car pulled to the side of the roadway, and the driver rushed to help. "Are you okay? What happened?"

 Tears slid down Eleanor’s face as she sat rigid and still. She couldn't get a word to leave her mouth. What had she done? What if the car was broken? She'd have to pay for it! And Will would never let her drive again! Worst of all, she would never want to drive again, ever. Dread seized her heart. What if they broke up over this wreck? She would be a wreck if that happened!

 Fortunately, Will remained calm. "My lady lost her hat, and I do believe she reacted by hitting the brake a bit hard."

 "I'll wait and make sure it starts up again before I skedaddle into town," the older man told them.

 Sure enough, Will brought the Oakland to life again, and they waved to the man as he left. Turning onto the roadway, he braked. Taking Eleanor's hand, he squeezed. "Are you okay? No bumps or scratches?"

  "No, I'm fine." Her heart said otherwise. A tear betrayed her. "I'm sorry, Will!"

 He shook his head. "Silly, we are safe, the Oakland isn't hurt, so cheer up. We've had a grand adventure! At least I know what the old girl will do on a dusty, gravelly road!" His chuckle was harmony to her ears. “But…” he looked at her. “We may have to buy you a new hat.”

 "Why do you surprise me all the time?" She cocked her head and stared at him.

 His look did the talking. "Because I intend to marry you one day!" 

The End

I hope you enjoyed reading this partial scene from my historical womens fiction novel, A Path To a Promise. If you did, please leave me a comment below. Writers love hearing from readers, it’s important to connect and encourage one another. Have a blessed day ~ Karen  

 

OCTOBER: Falling Leaves, Pumpkins & Apples, Hunter's Moon, Nat'l Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Family History Month, OH MY!

 October's glorious days are my favorite month of the year. Like all the months of the year, it is filled with days to celebrate many things, from Celebrate Pasta to World Singing Day! It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month and ADHD Month to recognize our need to be aware of our health. 

October is Family History Month, a time to celebrate our heritage and document the people who came before us. Family history is my jam, and I get a thrill at the discoveries I make and those to come. 

Today, you no longer have to drive across the country scouring courthouses and other institutions to dig through musty old records. The internet is alive with genealogy websites to help you find your family roots. I'm not getting compensated for this, but I highly recommend Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com for those interested in starting your family history search. Once you build a family tree on Ancesty.com, you will begin a journey like no other. 

The brick-and-mortar historical and genealogy societies, museums, and libraries in your area offer structured help for genealogists searching for their family stories. Visit your local society, which usually sells county history books that may help you discover where your people lived. Libraries and bookstores offer great genealogy books and magazines to help you.  

I have visited all the area institutions and gleaned what I could from their resources. Now, it's easiest to get online and look at what documents are offered there.  

There are lots of ways to keep your family history. From paper versions written in 30-ring binders to online family trees, you might want to record your loved ones talking about their life experiences! To keep the recordings with their voices is a treasure for you and your children to hear Grandma's and Grandpa's voices. 

It’s easy to set up your family tree with genealogy software or popular websites dedicated to the subject. As mentioned above, I recommend using Ancestry.com to start your family tree. It has optional subscriptions with a small price tag, but when you get started, Ancestry will lead you to find many records, documents, and family for your family tree. Ancestry has professional researchers who can do some of the more complex research, or if you have met a brick wall in your research, they can guide you to helpful information. 

Newspapers.com is my other go-to resource for finding not only family information but general historical information as well. I love spending time in their incredible online archives. The bits and pieces of my family's lives are sprinkled throughout time and detailed by the local newspapers. 

October is a fun-filled month, and the days are usually warm, so you can get outdoors and hurry inside when the crispy fall night creeps in. So much is going on with school back in session with fall sports, autumn activities and festivals, and the ushering-in of the holidays. Fall is the perfect time to grab your camera and get those pictures of your family living life. Take advantage of walking, go to fall festivals, and snap beautiful photos of autumn fruits, veggies, and decorations. Many festivals offer historical programs that provide scenarios for pioneer days and Civil War era reenactments. Enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, and people dressed in period costumes in a beautiful fall setting.

Get outdoors, view the Full Hunter's Moon, and listen to the crickets singing the last songs of the year. And snap colorful photos of your family that will be treasured for years. Remember to label your snapshots with complete information identifying who, what, when, where, and sometimes how and why.

With the blazing colors of autumn right around the corner, remember those harvest gatherings, elementary school parties, hayrides, the cute scarecrows, fall garden splendor, and pumpkin patch outings. October is an excellent month to start researching your family history or continue with what you’ve already accomplished. What a fun time to be indoors and outdoors. Capture your family history this fall. Happy October! 

 

 

The Inspiration Behind The Path to a Promise ~

My novel, The Path to a Promise, is finished and in the hands of beta readers and my editor. It will be published when the time is just right. Esther 4:14 talks about "for such a time as this." Here is the story behind my story.

President Harry Truman said, “The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.”

 The Path to a Promise began with the cherished memories of my paternal great-grandmother, Ollie, a woman whose quiet strength shaped my childhood. Ollie was more than a caregiver to my brothers and me; she was a source of comfort, love, and wisdom. Her stories, full of colorful life experiences—like meeting Pretty Boy Floyd and working as a Soda Jerk—captured my imagination. She gave us a world where we felt safe, loved, and free to be children. When Ollie passed away in 1975, she took a piece of my heart with her.

This is a photo of my great-grandmother, Ollie. 

Years later, as my passion for writing grew, I felt called to tell her story. In 2011, I began piecing together a timeline of her life, using her old photograph album, genealogical records, and family documents. I started writing a manuscript that used real names and places from her life, and I titled it The Logger’s Daughter. Working as a preschool teacher by day, I dedicated my nights to research and writing. Although some details were missing, I let my imagination fill the gaps and invented parts of the story to complete the narrative.

In 2013, I finished the first draft—a 250-page manuscript I printed and tucked away in a binder. Later, a popular author and friend, Angela, offered to beta-read the manuscript. Her generous feedback encouraged me to polish the story, convinced it could one day be published. I continued researching, filling in the missing dates and details from Ollie’s life.

After I retired, I returned to the manuscript with fresh eyes and renewed purpose. I revised it, changing the characters' names and settings, except for Joplin, Missouri, which remained a key location. My imagination ran wild this time, weaving in national and local historical events. The early history of Joplin, with its bootleggers and zinc miners, fired my creativity, and I poured my passion into every scene. I prayed over the story, and God blessed me with new ideas that shaped Eleanor Johnson's life path.

The Path to a Promise is based on Ollie’s life, but it’s now the fictional tale of Eleanor Johnson, a young woman who finds strength and purpose in a world dominated by men. Raised in the Ozarks, Eleanor carves out a path that takes her to the bustling city of Joplin and, eventually, to the windswept plains of Kansas, where the golden fields of wheat and sunflowers stretch as far as the eye can see.

As I wrote Eleanor’s story, I laughed, cried, and even exhausted myself with the intensity of certain scenes. The writing process was both an emotional and spiritual journey for me. Though Eleanor’s story concludes at the end of World War I, her life—and the promise of more—will continue in Book Two, A Promise Worth Keeping, which I have yet to write.

This novel is my tribute to Ollie, the woman who gave me the best gift anyone could—a lifetime of love and memories. Though she’s been gone for many years, her presence is still with me every day.

Another photo from Ollie's vintage photograph album: 

Writing about women is important to me because their stories often go untold. They are more than daughters, wives, or mothers—they are the shapers of families and communities, leading fascinating lives. In history, too many women have been reduced to just a name on a genealogy chart. I believe their stories deserve to be told, honoring their strength, resilience, and contributions to the world. Their lengthy list of duties tells us how valuable they were, and still are, to their family.

 I write about the women in my family lines on my blog.  

 

 

Typos, Grammar, and Errors, Oh My!

Readers of books, magazine articles, short stories, emails, flyers, blog posts, social media posts, newsletters, online articles, college papers, cell phone messages, letters, and notes expect to find no typos, misspellings, grammar troubles, or punctuation mistakes. 

Sorry...that will never happen. The fact is you will find mistakes in published material.

I've been reading a lot this year. I read for pleasure and am a beta reader for a few well-known authors. I'm on a favorite author's street team and help proofread for three authors. When I read for pleasure, about 80% of what I read has mistakes—emails, blog posts, published books (traditionally published to self-published), and newsletters. Yep, they have at least one typo or glaring mistake.

Some people hate finding mistakes in their reading because they say it "jerks them out of the story," and they can't or refuse to finish the book. They throw the book at the wall and never read that author again.

I say, "Rubbish!" Nothing is perfect.

All writers and authors strive to produce perfectly clean, error-free writing. Yes, that is part of the writing process. What may end up happening, however, is those sneaky automatic corrections cause trouble. The grammar checker tools used to check their work could be better. Computers and formatting programs may have glitches, causing all kinds of problems. Writers, beta readers, reviewers, editors, and agents do miss mistakes while proofing manuscripts. And smart devices are only sometimes smart.  It happens all the time.

When I encounter a mistake while reading, I pause, absorb it, and continue reading. I'm not letting a mere typo cause me to stop reading authors’ books and supporting their efforts. If I did, there would be very few authors I would read. Even the well-known writers whose names are golden on star-studded publishers’ lists have mistakes in their writing. It's shocking, but it's true.

Can't readers forgive those little mistakes? If they don't, they will miss some really great stories. There's a lot to the writing and publishing world. But it's a long way from submitting work to traditional publishers and holding that book in your hands (even with self-publishing), and mistakes happen along the way. 

This is my opinion. Yours may be the opposite; you might throw the book away or never buy a book by that author again. We are all different yet alike. We should all forgive and find acceptance in our hearts. Chill out, dive into the story, and let those typos go!  We strive for perfection and hope it will happen but won't hold our breath. And, authors, keep on doing what you love to do...

Here are writing articles: 

What's Up With That: Why It's So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos | WIRED

https://www.crosswalk.com/slideshows/things-i-wish-id-known-christian-writing.html

---

 THE RISE OF BLACK AND WHITE AND COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY

After the turn of the twentieth century, photography became a popular pastime and grew steadily. George Eastman founded the new age of photography with black-and-white snapshots. Brownie box cameras were easy to use and cheap to buy, and they were the beginning of a new way for people to try their hand at taking photographs. In 1900, a quarter of a million Kodak Brownie cameras sold for one dollar each. 

With simple cameras in the hands of more people, photography studios and traveling photographers faced stiff competition. Eventually, traveling photographers fell out of favor. However, photography studios gained popularity; today, they are big business. 

Autochrome photographs were taken from 1904 to the late 1930s. They are identified by their shades of gray and sepia tones. They may appear faded and have hard-to-identify backgrounds and details. Use care when handling these old photos, as they are incredibly fragile. 

During the early years, color photography remained a commercial undertaking for trained photographers only. Color paper prints were produced from 1941 to the present. The Kodak Company introduced Kodachrome 16mm movie film in 1935, and negative film became available from Kodak in 1941. Eventually, Polaroids became popular due to the ability to snap a photo and wait while it developed inside the camera. 

From 1948 to about 1965, many early cameras used roll film. Different types of film produce photos of various sizes. Many of those types of films were discontinued in the last few years. 

As the years passed and we entered the twenty-first century, photography became a popular and unique hobby and a profitable business. Digital photography is one of the most-loved ways to take family photographs. 

Today’s cameras are high-tech devices offering multiple advanced features that guarantee amateurs a perfect photograph. Photographers can do it all: preview the shots as they go and discard the bad ones, shoot an endless number of pictures, save and store them on small SD cards, upload them to computers, and print their prized possessions.  

The old black-and-white and color photographs are usually the basis of family photograph collections. They certainly are in my collections. Since these prints often fade in time, the best way to preserve them before they disappear is to scan all your photographs to media storage and keep the originals in a dark, low-humidity environment. 

  Photo storage includes websites where you can upload all your photographs and retrieve copies of them whenever you need to do so. The Cloud is a popular online storage system today. There are also multiple websites to help you create photo books. You upload your photos to the website, and they create beautiful photo albums for you that are mailed to your home. 

Family researchers often digitize their photographs and share them with family members on media such as CDs, flash drives, and camera cards. This is the new era of photography, and it will only get better as time goes by. 

All family photograph collections have torn, faded, cracked, and worn pictures. Besides taking your photos to a specialist who can restore them to their original likeness, you can purchase computer software to help you do it yourself. Adobe Photoshop Elements is one of them. Other programs are available as downloads, which you can install yourself. Do your research and talk with people who own such software before you make your decision. They can be pricey.

The old black-and-white and color photographs are the bulk of my family photograph collection. They are dear to my heart. In most of them, I can identify everyone in the picture, and due to the date given on the picture, I have a possibility of when it was taken. However, beware of using the date stamped at the bottom or side of the photograph to date the time the picture was taken because people waited, sometimes for years, before they took their film rolls in to be developed! 

This is the end of the photography blog series. There is much information about photography on the Internet, and remember to check out the books dedicated to learning photography! 

             

Picture Postcards Are Family Treasures

 Postcards have been around since 1861, and there are several different types. Vintage postcards are highly collected by fans. Deltiologists who study and collect postcards are serious about their collections. Libraries, historical and genealogical societies, other organizations, and private individuals collect them. Antique and vintage postcards can be purchased from online dealers, flea markets, antique stores, and private collections. 

For our purposes, we will talk about real photograph postcards or RPs. Around 1900, photography had grown into a popular hobby for many people, and the latest craze was sending a postcard with a photograph printed on the back. These are called real photograph postcards; the word “real” was used to explain that the postcard started as a photographic negative. They were reproduced by developing them onto photographic paper, using the size and weight of postcards with a postcard backing.  

In the beginning, postal service regulations required no writing on the address side of postcards. In 1907, the regulations changed so that the postcards had a dividing line where the address could be written on the right side and a message on the left side. This is called the divided-back era.

This is a photo of the back of my picture postcard from my great-grandmother in 1912. The stamp is almost worn off. Author photograph collection. 

From about 1915 to 1930, to save ink, most postcards were printed with a white border, also called “White Border Postcards.” After 1930, the new printing processes used colored ink and a high rag substance that gave a linen-like finish to the photographs. This process, called the Linen Era, lasted until about 1944. 

 After 1944, known as the Photochrome Era, real photographic postcards declined and gave way to the postcards we know today as the tourist-type cards we send while on vacation. 

Here is a brief guide if you own real photo postcards and need help to date them. This information only includes some things you need to know about identifying and dating them. There is a lot of information on the Internet on how to identify and date them. 

First, check the stamp price in the stamp box on the card. Postal rates steadily rose over the years. The stamp price for mailing cards between 1898 and 1917 was one cent. It rose to two cents from 1917 to 1958. From 1958 to 1962, it cost three cents; from 1963 to 1967, postage rose to four cents. From 1968 to May 1971, the cost rose to a nickel. 

Very little of the one-cent stamp is left on this picture postcard, dated 1912. Author photograph collection.

If your photo postcard has no stamp attached, check the border around the stamp box on the postcard. If the postcards were produced on Kodak paper, known as “AZO,” they had unique borders during special years. From 1904 to 1918, some borders had four triangles pointing up. From 1907 to 1909, the stamp box border had diamonds in the corners. From 1918 to 1930, some borders had two triangles pointing up and two pointing down. From 1922 through 1926, borders might have empty corners. Finally, from 1926 through the 1940s, the stamp box borders had squares in the corners. 

 Please note that other papers can be used to produce real photo postcards, and I am using the most popular, AZO. 

This is my cherished picture postcard with my beloved great-grandmother holding her son. Author photograph collection. 

Ancestry.com has an extensive photograph collection on its website. It offers real photograph postcards of people, hometowns, cities, homes, historic places, and businesses. As of this writing, there are over 200,000 in the collection. 

Suppose you are interested in learning more about real photograph postcards. The Internet has tons of information about societies and associations dealing with postcards of all subjects. Dealers are constantly on the hunt for collectibles.

Sources: “Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs,” by Maureen A. Taylor. (Cincinnati, OH: F&W Publications, 2005).

            

            

Carte de Viste and Cabinet Card Photographs

 Carte de Viste and Cabinet Cards are two types of easily recognizable photographs dating from the Victorian era or about the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. 

            The carte de visite (CdV) photographs are the size of calling cards, measuring 2 1/2 x 4 inches. Because of their size, a series of photographs could be produced on paper and cut into eight cards. The size may vary, however, because commercial suppliers began mass-producing cards, and the images had to be trimmed to fit the card size. Many were careless in their trimming, so you may run across some CdVs that are angled or otherwise varied. 

       

           Many people who went calling on their relatives or neighbors would leave their carte de vistes upon leaving. The pictures became popular in the 1860s, and royalty, politicians, actors, and other famous individuals had their images made into these photographs and signed them. The Victorians prized carte de visite photographs and collected them. 

            These photographs were famous during the Civil War. President Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant had their photos taken this way. Albums were made to accommodate people’s collections and hold the prized cards. It would be fortunate for someone to have an album full of these beautiful Victorian treasures among their family photograph collection!  

            To identify a carte de viste, first measure the size of the photograph. The paper print will be mounted on a commercially produced card. Look closely at the subject in the picture and notice the hairstyles and clothing. Carte de vistes were produced into the very early 1900s. These small prints may appear very faded and grainy.  

            Cabinet cards replaced the carte de vistes. They can measure from small, 5 inches x 7 inches, to larger ones, 5 inches x 10 inches. A customary cabinet card is a photo mounted onto thicker card stock. There is extra space around the photo; you will find the photographer’s studio imprint (if there is one), usually at the bottom. These are albumen images and will have a yellow-brown or purple-blue tone. But sometimes, they may appear black and white. That is due to the process in which they were developed. The last cabinet cards were produced around 1925.

            These photographs were named because Victorians displayed them in their parlors, especially in cabinets. The cabinet card was an admired type of photograph that displayed family groups. By this time, photographers began to use props or complex scenes in studios, using ironwork chairs, gates and fences, fake trees and grass, or ornately constructed window and doorway sets. 

            To identify cabinet cards, note their measurements and observe the color of the paper image. Note if they have gilt and embossed decorative borders and an imprint giving the photographer’s name & the location of the studio. If the card stock separates layers on the edges, they were probably made after 1870. 

            The Victorians treasured all things, especially their clothing and jewelry. Cabinet cards document their love of the elaborate. Children’s pictures may show them poised with their dolls, toys, bicycles, and wagons. Look for women in fanciful hats and gorgeous gowns and men with pocket watches, mustaches, and dapper clothing. 

            When Kodak introduced the Brownie Box Camera around 1900, cabinet card photographs declined in popularity.

            While researching these two types of photographs, I found a lot of conflicting information. Writers, photographers, and collectors disagree on the dates the carte de visite and cabinet card photographs were introduced and how they were produced. 

            I love these types of photographs, and in my collection, there are cabinet card photos of babies, children posed with their pets, men sitting beside their faithful dog, women in giant hats, and family groups in various settings. Not all of them have the photography studio imprint. 

            If you visit flea markets and antique stores and run around to community garage sales, you will probably find old photographs displayed in baskets and trays on shelves of other collectible treasures.

Types of Photographs ~

When you look at a family photograph collection, you may see all types of pictures: tintypes, paper prints, case images, Polaroids, black-and-white, color, and digitalized. Over the years, types of photographs have come and gone quickly, which is why there is a good market for buying, selling, and collecting photographs today. Here is an overview of the types of photographs. 

NOTE: all photographs are from the author's collection. They are not in any order, I randomly placed them within this blog post.

Daguerreotypes were made from about 1839 to 1870. The sitting time for these photographs could be five to 30 minutes. Photographers sometimes used clamps to help their subjects sit still. 

 Calotypes were the first paper images from about 1841 to the late 1850s. These photos were not very popular, and the ones that survive today are usually found in museums. 

 Ambrotypes were negative images made on glass plates with a dark coating on the backs. They lasted from about 1852 to the early 1870s. 

 Tintypes, also called ferrotypes or melainotypes, were created on a thin, blackened iron sheet, then coated with chemicals and varnished to protect the image. In a future column, I will cover much more information about the popular tintype photographs.  

This is a tintype of my great, great-grandfather.

From 1850 to the early 1900s, Albumen prints, which were also printed on paper, helped make photography profitable. 

Stereographs were prints of nearly identical images mounted beside each other and viewed through a viewer called a stereograph. They were popular from about 1854 to 1938.         

Cabinet card photographs were made from about 1866 to 1906. The photographic images were put on large, oversized card stock. I have quite a few of these cabinet cards in my collection.

A cabinet card; the photographer was a traveling photographer; his imprint is at bottom of photo.

Another cabinet card with the same traveling photographer's imprint.

George Eastman founded the new age of photography with black-and-white snapshots. From the late 1880s to the present, these prints were taken with box cameras that were easy to use. Eastman named his new camera Kodak, and the company’s promotion was geared specifically to women and children. 

 Photo postcards are a particular class to me. I own a precious photo postcard dated February 1912. The photo shows my paternal great-grandmother, 17, holding her son, my grandfather, Perry Utter. On the postcard side, she wrote to her younger sister in Rocky Comfort. There is a lot of information about photo postcards, which I will write about in a future column. 

An original photo postcard, circa 1912; author's great-grandmother with her son, my grandfather. 

Autochrome photographs were the first color prints dating from 1904 to the later 1930s. There are special handling tips for owners of these types of prints. 

Color paper prints are well known today. The Kodak Company introduced Kodachrome 16mm movie film in 1935 and color prints with negatives in 1941. However, the popularity of Digital Imaging in today’s market ended the manufacture of Kodachrome film. 

Author's photo, Leaving Kansas, circa 1910.

My grt, grt grandfather's family cornet band, circa 1900. 

From 1947 to the present, an instant photo is recognizable due to its thick black pouch-like backing. Polaroids became popular because consumers could snap a picture and wait for a few seconds while the photo developed inside the camera, not needing to take the film to the store for development. Special care is necessary for these types of photos. 

Today, digital cameras are a popular way for photographers to take family photos. Digital imaging goes along with scrapbooking-treasured pictures for fun and easy creative projects. While many people embrace digital cameras, the cameras requiring film continue to be popular.

Sources: 

“Photography as a Tool in Genealogy,” by Ron and Maureen Taylor and “Getting Up To Date,” Family Tree Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 7, November 2010. 

             

The Boom of Photography ~

Humans are visual beings. We like pictures to help illustrate what we are reading or listening to. When photography was born, it is no wonder humans bought into the new invention. The first photographs our ancestors saw amazed them, and they marveled at the detail of the pictures captured. 

The word photography means “light” and “to write.” The earliest cameras were actually boxes that used light to project images through a small hole onto surfaces. Rather than recording an image, they were projectors of light. 

A French inventor, Niepce, made the first permanent photograph in 1825, and Louis Daguerre collaborated with him to refine the process. When Niepce died, Daguerre continued to experiment. In 1839, he developed photographic plates and discovered that an image could be made permanent by immersing it in salt. You may recognize the name Daguerre for his invention, which produced the type of photograph known as the Daguerreotype.

Society first viewed the new photographic process as threatening painting and drawing, but the interest outweighed the negativity. When our ancestors embraced photography, they liked its qualities. The demand for the new images spurred inventors to develop new and better ways to produce photographs. 

An interesting fact I found is that in the 1850 US Federal Census, 938 males over the age of fifteen were listed with a daguerreotypist occupation. 

By 1840, William Henry Fox Talbert made the first paper print, called either a talbotype or a calotype. Those prints were produced from a waxed paper negative. The images lacked sharpness and clarity, but they were the beginning of a wonderful way to capture people, places, events, and things on paper for posterity.

Ambrotypes appeared in the mid-1850s, but by 1860, the tintype method was the most popular method for owning images. Tintypes were more durable and could be carried in a pocket or mailed to loved ones.

I own three tintypes in my photograph collection. One is a small wallet-size tintype of my great-great-grandfather, Thomas Nathaniel Johnson, who lived in Kings Valley, McDonald County. Another is a large 8x10, and the last is a 3 x 4 case image of a mother and daughter. 

After paper prints were invented, card photographs became popular. The paper print was mounted onto cardboard stock. Carte de visite, cabinet cards, and stereographs are the three types of card photographs. I also have many of these in my collection. 

Early photographers' goal was to simplify the photography process. Using large cameras and heavy equipment was cumbersome. 

George Eastman considered the father of photography, ushered in the age of candid photography with the slogan, “You push the button, we do the rest.” Eastman developed the roll film camera that anybody could operate and called it the Kodak camera. 

The Kodak Company is instrumental in the age of photography. They marketed their cameras to women, and I’m glad they did. My great-grandmother owned a camera at a very young age, and snapping photos of her friends and of her life events became one of her passions. Through that passion, I have a wonderful photograph collection today.

Cameras, film, and photography have evolved into the digital wonders we enjoy today. But make no mistake; photography truly is an art form. I admire award-winning photographers, for there is nothing more breathtaking than seeing a person, animal, place, or event captured and saved to a paper print.  

In the coming posts, I will describe each type of photograph listed. Understanding the pictures you may own is necessary to identify and study them. 

I hope you enjoy collecting old photographs as much as I do, and better yet, I hope you use your camera to snap those pictures that tell your family story.

 

"Say Cheese!" The Art of Photography

"Say Cheese!" The Art of Photography  

Photography is an art form. 

A photographer should love using the camera to capture moments that will be lost in time. I am lucky to own an excellent and varied collection of family photographs from all the family lines in my genealogy tree.  

Photography has been around for almost 200 years. It began about 1839 to 1840 when William Henry Fox Talbert announced to the Royal Society of London, England, that he had perfected a paper photographic process. 

While doing family history, I'm thankful for the many pictures I've found. Many families are less fortunate. Sometimes photographs are lost in a house fire or other disasters. Occasionally, people are not interested in old photograph collections, so they toss the pictures out with the trash! Many times, people keep the family pictures in a box and store them in the garage or attic, where year after year, the old photos are susceptible to extreme heat, cold, bugs, rot, and dirt. The elements will eventually destroy those photos that are records of history. It's a pity.

Photographs are among the most valuable genealogical tools. Family pictures contain a vast amount of history and details of social significance. They offer many clues about ancestors' lives, adding to the information we obtain through paper records, stories, and certificates.

A family photograph collection is a direct link to family history. The photos and images will provide insight into your ancestors and their lives. The problem is undocumented photos. Suppose no names, dates, or other pertinent information are written on the photos. In that case, you'll have to use your detective skills to solve the who, when, where, what, and why questions. Do this by comparing those photos with those documented with the necessary information.

When you work on the old photographs in your collection, you must play the part of the detective. You need to research every clue in the picture and follow the lead to uncover information usually hidden in the elements of the image. You must learn to search for clues to the answers you want from your old photographs. 

Orphans and heirlooms are photographs and items lost in the family of origin. They are belongings that were once very dear to someone. We find orphaned photos and heirlooms in antique stores, flea markets, and garage sales, or left in a box in the closet, garage, or attic of a home when someone dies or moves. They are in those boxes of "junk" we buy at an auction. Or, in my case, they are precious items that were sold at auction after a particularly nasty grandfather stole my inheritance from me on the day of my great-grandmother's funeral. 

In future posts, I'll discuss the brief history of photography, the different types of photographs and picture postcards, separating and organizing your photograph collection, dating and identifying clues in photos, and caring for those old photographs. Did you know you can make a photo timeline with the photos you have, and then you can write your family history using the information from those photographs?

Even if you aren't interested in genealogy and don't own old kinfolk photographs, you probably have modern photographs of your family, children, and pets. These photographs must be cared for just as much as the old ones. And there are some fun ways to use your modern photos and help take care of them at the same time…through scrapbooking. I'll discuss scrapping and the above topics in future blogs.

My next post will focus on the boom of photography, its history, and how the Kodak Company made its own history in photography. I'm glad they did! 

Resources: 

Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs by Maureen A. Taylor, Tracing Your Family History by Lise Hull, and The Everything Guide to Online Genealogy by Kimberly Powell.