CDV. Private Collection.
A CDV that looks like a mini cabinet card with the embossing on the front. This one is of an about 12 year old boy who graduated from knickerbockers to a grown up suit a bit too large for him (smart parents).
But the kid made sure he looked the part with a cigar, holding it like all the adults did on pictures.
They started young…
Photographer: J. Zimmermann. Eggenfelden. Germany.
Circa 1890. J.H.Kent CDV. Private Collection.
Another wonderful J.H. Kent photograph added to the fold. This time a CDV of a toddler boy placed behind a sofa with his hands over the back. I love how plain everything is so the focus is exclusively on the sitter, and I love that one of the buttons of the jacket is undone. No matter how still the pose seems, this is still an active little kid!
J.H. Kent. Rochester N.Y. CDV
William B. Edgar circa 1880. CDV. Private Collection.
The signature was digitally added onto the photograph from a part of the sleeve that came with the CDV.
This gentleman from Fall River was born October 14, 1856 in Maine, of William Edgar and Marion E. Hanlon Buffinton. His father passed on February 3rd, 1858, leaving his mother to care for him alone. William Jr wasn’t even 2.
Not just a pretty face, he enlisted and went on to have a long military career, serving during two conflicts; the Spanish War and WWI, first as an ensign aboard the U.S.S Catskill and later on in life as the high ranked Lieutenant Commander of the U.S. Naval Training Camp in Hingham, Massachusetts. From 1918 to 1921 he was the Captain of the United States Naval Reserve Force.
He settled in his hometown where he also ran a firm, ‘Edgar & Buffinton’, selling electrical supplies like gramophones with his partner and family member, Elisha Wilbur Buffinton from his mother’s side, maybe a cousin.
William married Eliza Lord and had two children: William L Edgar in 1889 who unfortunately didn’t survive his first year, and a daughter in 1895, Marion L Edgar, who went on to live until 1956. His own wife tragically passed in 1889 at the age of 35, leaving him to mirror his own mother and raise his 3 year old daughter as a single parent.
He passed on November 17, 1938 having lived a full life to the age of 82.
Photographer: Gay’s Gallery of Art. Cor. Main & Borden St. Fall River, Mass.
His memorial at Find A Grave.
Civil war era 1862 CDV of dandy Mr. Burghy. Private Collection.
Just what is going on on top? It looks like a big swirl. How this could stay in place while the gent wore his hat demands an explanation. I’m not sure if the curls on the side are entirely natural or ringlets.
The hat next to him is a “John Bull” most commonly worn in the 1860’s. The back of the CDV is blank but has his last name and is dated May 24th, 1862. Mr. Burghy was a dandy if ever there was one, and he seems to have come from a well-to-do family.
1860’s working class little boys. CDV. Private Collection.
These two seem about the same age but they don’t look like twins, fraternal twins maybe? If you look closely there is a contrast of personality between them. The one to the left looks like he ran everywhere and climbed everything in sight while the other looks more calm and poised. The unbuttoned jacket, the couple of stains on the trousers…the left one looks a bit more shabby than the other one, probably the most terrible of the two whose parents couldn’t keep clean for more than an hour! He has a furrowed brow, probably questioning the photographer’s use of a body stand for him and not his brother!
There’s no expensive furniture on this one, the photographer choosing instead to hang a flowered drape from the ceiling down over a small round table.
Photographer: A. Chapman. Oneonta, N.Y.
Bowlers And High Collars 