1920s Postcard. Private Collection.
Another tinted French postcard of a beautiful couple kissing. Can’t get enough of these! He’s got a well placed hand too, doesn’t he?
Category Archives: Types of Subjects
Mr. I Look Quite All right in a Fedora
Cabinet photo. Private Collection.
This stylish 1930s-40s gentleman with the piercing stare must have left a long trail of admirers in his path. And that is why he’s in my collection. He’d look good without the fedora on, but the hat adds that something extra.
My first star crush was Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. I’ve been appreciative of the hat ever since. ;)
Photographer: Benjamin. La Moure. North Dakota.
The rugged old father and his two sons
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- The old father and his two sons. Tintype. Private Collection.
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- His elder son? Tintype. Private Collection.
I got these two tintypes from the same place. I didn’t notice when I got them, but the boy on the second one looks like he could be the same one as on the first.
What do you think? He has the same short nose, downward curled lips and dark eyes. The chin is different but it could be the way he’s posing. He also likes his bowlers.
The same boy ?
I like the way they’re posing with their hands on their father’s shoulders. He had them late in life it seems, or -less likely- he was their grandfather. Isn’t he a character too with his rugged looks and bushy beard? Right out of a Gold Rush story.
These tintypes give me this feeling this was taken in a rural area, a smaller town somewhere in the plains or mountains of the American west or northwest. They are dressed well, but decidedly adapted to the country life.
On the second tintype the boy is dressed up without a collar or tie (leave those uncomfortable accoutrements to the city boys!), and his shoes are dusty. There is something on them, some kind of flap, perhaps to protect from backsplash while riding a horse or wagon.
On the first tintype, the younger brother looks like he’s wearing some type of low hanging striped apron over the trousers. Maybe this served the same purpose.
Also, while the two backdrops are different they look like they were painted by the same artist.
The Short Tails gang
The Short Tails gang by Jacob Riis. 1887
The only known photo of the Short Tails gang that roamed the Lower East side of Manhattan in the 1880s-1890s. This picture was taken under a pier by the East River at Corlears Hook (a notoriously bad spot known for their brothels).
The Short Tails were drinkers, brawlers, and generally the worst kind of bad boys honest New Yorkers had the bad luck of running into. They were known to push loaded wagons into the river and turning around to ask the owner for a reward if they saved the contents.
They were also known to pirate boats. Then of course they’d spend all their ill-gotten dough at the local saloons like the upstanding citizens they were. They numbered around at least 50 or more, often partying in large groups on the streets late at night. Because of their ‘achievements’, their precinct had to employ twice as many cops.
They’re thought to have disbanded in the 1900s, members joining either the Five Points gang led by John Kelly west of the Bowery, or the Monk Eastman one east of it.
Here they’re seen drinking. Notice the mountain of discarded large tins (growlers) they used to carry beer.
An early 1860s frowning student with books
1862-1863 CDV of student with books. Private Collection.
A Civil War era nice little CDV of a literate boy posing with a few books on a small round table by him. He’s wearing the classic baggy coat of the period, but this one only has one round button by the collar.
Photographer: D.D. Wright & Son, Hamilton.
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