Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Wedding Wednesday - 1920's Chicago Wedding Photo - Stunning Bride

Unidentified 1920's Chicago Couple

This beautiful wedding photo was taken most likely in the 1920's by Chicago photographer Zygmunt Rozanski.  This 5" x 7" photo is actually in a large Art Deco looking folder (see below), but I cropped it so that we can get a more close up view of this elegant couple. While the groom is quite dashing, the bride's entire ensemble is breathtaking.  I love the way the photographer has posed her sitting high on a stool so that we can see her long, flowing train.  Her headdress is absolutely stunning, I have never seen anything like it.  It is made of some kind of sheer lace and and covers her head with arches over the ears and forehead - truly unusual and unique.  Her dress appears to be mid-calf length and allows us to see her white high-heeled shoes with multiple bows.  She is holding a bridal bouquet of mixed flowers with long ribbon streamers and the groom sports a boutonniere which seems to match the sprigs in her headdress.  She  appears to be wearing a pearl necklace and I expect her wedding ring is camouflaged by the bouquet; you can clearly see her groom's ring on his left hand.

The photographer, Zygmunt Rozanski, was born 28 Sep 1889 or 1890 in Warsaw, Poland. He emigrated to the US in 1913 and in June of 1917 he registered for the draft during WWI.  He stated that he was 27 years old, lived at 1069 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago,  was single and had blue eyes and blonde hair.  His occupation was photographer and he was the proprietor of a photography business.  On 19 Jun 1918 he married Stefana Wisniewska in Cook County, IL.  In the 1920 Chicago Ward 17 census they had one child, a daughter Jadwiga,  7 months old.  I was unable to find them in any other censuses, however I did find a WWII draft registration for Zygmunt listing his wife as Stephany Rozanski and his address as 1073 Milwaukee Ave.  I also found a Social Security Death Index listing Zygmunt's death in Cook County, IL in January 1976. Interestingly, I found more than one Zygmunt Rozanski so evidently this was a popular name - I am assuming the English version is Sigmund.





7 comments:

  1. This is probably the prettiest wedding photo you've shown us. I bet that dress was exquisite. And those bows on her shoes and ankles are tres chic! I can picture all those ribbons and lace swishing with every step.

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  2. What is the detail on the dress? lace or pleated organdy? wish we could see it closer....I love the detail and tailoring in these vintage dresses!

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    1. It's very hard to tell what the dress was made of - the photo almost seemed to be shot with a "soft" lens. I just enlarged the bride and added that shot to the post if you want to take another look. Still hard to tell though.

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  3. Wow..this is one of the best wedding photos I have seen..what a find! :)

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  4. This is such a lovely wedding photo. Great idea to crop the image so the details can be seen even better.

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  5. Lovely wedding photo!! Bride is looking very beautiful. Last month my sister tied a knot at one of venues in Chicago and her bridal dress was designed wonderfully by her designer. I really liked her attire and want to have similar one for my wedding too.

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