Fashionable Friday -1860's Civil War Era (Victorian) Philadelphia Woman in Checkered Hoop Dress

This 1860's CDV of an unidentified Philadelphia, PA woman in a checkered, hoop dress is simple, but interesting. I'm not an expert at deciphering fabrics, but this dress has a very striking checkered fabric with dark waistband. There is also a dark piece of matching trim running down the length of the pagoda sleeves. In addition, she has the typical 1860's small white collar.  Her hair is worn in the style of the times; parted in the middle and pulled back in a bun and note her decorative headdress. This young woman was quite lovely and demure in her pose.

It is very hard to tell from the scan, but it appears the photographer lightly tinted her cheeks.  This photograph appears to have been taken between 1862 to early 1864.  The back of the photo is almost more interesting than the front.  The photographer is listed as "Rehn & Sons' New & commodious Ground floor Galleries.  510 Arch Street Philadelphia. 

 I found a number of similar time frame photos on Google by Rehn & Sons, but little information on the photographer.  I found this information on Ancestry.com in the 1864 Philadelphia City Directory, but due to the large amount of Rehns in Philadelphia was not able to pin down the exact name of which was the father and/or the sons.

Mystery Monday - Twin Sisters Alice and Mary Kerr 1903 - 1907 (Edwardian)

Some time ago I purchased these two photographs of sisters Alice and Mary Kerr from an eBay seller who noted that they were twins.  If I remember correctly she stated she got them from an estate sale and that she knew the family or the family story.  I usually print out all my eBay purchases so I can refer back to them if needed, but for some reason I cannot find this one.  These photos have seen extreme wear over the years, especially Alice's.  My initial purpose of this post was to try and prove that they were twins, and after spending way more time than I should researching someone else's ancestors I did indeed find the proof I needed!

The sisters do look very much alike and their facial feathers, nose, mouths, eyebrows, seem identical. Their clothing and hairstyles are very much typical of the 1901 - 1907 period.  I will explain how I narrowed down the time frame to 1903 - 1907 later in the post when I discuss the photographer.

The back of Alice's photo is written in ink "Aunt Alice Kerr, never married."

Alice Kerr ca 1903-07

The back of Mary's photo is written in ink, "Mary Kerr who married Amos Reid - my Great Great Grandmother."

Mary Kerr Reid 1903 - 07

I've cropped these down some but the photographer was C. Myland of Philadelphia, PA which helped me to find  the sisters and their family in Ancestry.com.  There is actually more than one Kerr family in  Philadelphia in the correct time frame with daughters named Alice and Mary, but their ages ares separated by six to seven years. The family I believed to be theirs was in the 1900 Philadelphia Ward 33 census with father Thomas Kerr aged 46, mother Mary Ann aged 43, brothers Andrew 23 and Chas 22.  The twin sisters Alice and Mary were 16 born about October 1883.  That would make them about twenty to twenty-three in these photographs.

My mystery to solve was this the correct family and were these sisters indeed twins? Mary Kerr married Amos Reid on 21 August 1907 and they had three children.  They remained in Pennsylvania through the 1940 census where my information ran out. There was only one person researching Mary Kerr on Ancestry.com and they did not have much information, but suddenly a death certificate popped up for Mary and all the pieces fell into place.  I then was able to find each census year of 1910 - 1940 for Alice and her mother who lived together after the father died sometime before 1910.  I also found Alice's death certificate.  The twins were born on 31 October 1883 in Philadelphia and died a year and half apart; Mary on 17 Feb 1944 and Alice on 9 Aug 1945.  Mary was a housewife throughout her lifetime and Alice worked as a weaver in the cloth-mill to support herself and her mother.  What different lives these two twins lived!

Alice Kerr 1883 - 1945

Mary Kerr Reid 1883 - 1944

I believe these photographs were most likely taken before Mary's marriage to Amos in 1907.  The photographer was C. Myland of 2125 N. Front Street, Philadelphia.  This was Christian Myland who emmigrated to the U.S. from Denmark in 1890 and petitioned for citizenship in 1903.  He was born in Denmark 8 Jan 1861 and upon his arrival in the Philadelphia in 1890 began his photography business which he ran until his death on 2 Nov 1925. He was listed in numerous years of the Philadelphis City Directory and this is how I narrowed down the years of these photographs.  In 1901 and 1902 he was located at 2733 N. 4th, moving to the 2125 N. Front Street address in 1903 which was also his home until his death according to his death certificate.

Myland was married to Mathilda Boston also from Denmark and they had four children all born in the U.S.; an infant son who died in 1891, Clara born 1892, Ejner Christian born 1895 and Harry born 1897.

Sentimental Sunday - Women with Hats - 1898 Woman with Big Hat!

Woman identified as Retta Fairlamb photo dated October 1st, 1898

*UPDATE:  This photo was purchased in a huge lot of 175 photographs and now that I have had a little time to look through all of them I have discovered more photos of Retta Fairlamb and other family members.  In doing so, I have realized that the information below is incorrect.  This woman is Maretta Vernon Fairlamb born 25 Mar 1869 in PA to Samuel E.  (1818 - 1892) and Frances (Kreider) (1829 - 1912) Fairlamb.  She would have been about 29 years old in this photo, not 22. 

In the 1900 Philadelphia Ward 7, Philadelphia PA census she was living with the Charles Carver family and interesting enough listed her occupation as music teacher as did the Margaretta Fairlamb mentioned below.  I suspect she lived with the Carvers as a nanny.  Mrs. Carver (Emily) must have died before 1908 because on 30 Apr 1908 Maretta Fairlamb married her employer Charles Carver as is evidenced in the Pennsylvania Marriage Index and the 1910 Philadelphia census.  Therefore she was not the woman who married William Compton.

This photograph which measures 3' x 4 1/4' was taken by Broadbent Co. in Philadelphia and is dated on the back October first -98.  The subject is identified as Retta Fairlamb who is actually Margaretta Fairlamb, born in January of 1877 in Hinkson's Corner, PA to Joseph and Eliza (Knight) Fairlamb.  Inn the 1900 Glenolden, Delaware County, PA census she listed her occupation as "Music Teacher."  On 10 Apr 1901 she married William Vance Compton and they had a son Joseph Wilbur in 1903.

In this photograph Retta Fairlamb would have been about 21 or 22 years old.  She is quite lovely in her white high-necked dress with large bow and her hat was probably quite the style at the time.  It appears to be made out of straw and is sporting a number of large flowers including roses.  Very chic, Miss Retta!

Mystery Monday - Unknown Civil War Era Philadelphia Woman

This attractive young woman posed for this CDV between 1864 and 1866 as evidenced by the revenue stamp seen below on the back of the photograph. Her hairstyle, parted in the middle and drawn at the nape in most likely a bun, was quite typical of the times and reminds me of Melanie Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind." Her dark hoop dress is quite lovely and appears to be made of satin.  She has a small white collar and white cuffs.

The photographer was H. C. Phillips located at the N.W. cor. of Ninth and Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia.  Phillips was Henry Chapman Phillips born in Chester, Pennsylvania 8 Sep 1833 to John J. and Mary Phillips. Philllips is found in Philadelphia City Directories almost every year between 1864 - 1903 at several address on and around Chestnut Street in his profession as photographer.  Married wife Catherine J. Magill 19 Apr 1860 they were the parent of four children, Carolyn H. (born 1861) Geo. C. (born 1862), Ryland. (born 1866) W. and Howard M. (born 1868).

According to www.ancientfaces.com Phillips started his career with daguerreotypes in 1856.  He worked with a number of other photographers over the years including his own brother R. R. Phillips, Curtis Taylor and S. Broadbent.

Sepia Saturday #127 - The Kine Recline Deep in Grasses Lush

Coming up with ideas for each week's Sepia Saturday theme is always a challenge and this week's theme of markets, cow, tea, coffee stalls was no exception.  As a child my grandparents had a farm in Bonnie, IL where they raised cows and pigs, but sadly other than their house I do not have any pictures.  I do have memories of playing in the barn with my cousins when we met periodically for family reunions.  We had to go through the barnyard gate past all the cows who, although quite docile and tame, scared me half to death.  My cousins would run laughing right past them for the barn,  but I would see all those big brown eyes looking at me so solemnly and I would be frozen with fear.  Those are my memories of cows!

However I made new cow memories in September of 2009 when my husband and I took two weeks vacation, my dream trip, and went to the Highlands of Scotland where we drove from place to place.  I took many pictures on our trip and one of my prerequisites for some reason was I had to get a picture of a long-haired Highland cow.  We saw plenty of sheep, believe me we saw sheep....everywhere.  The cows however seemed to avoid us.  When we did see them it was not possible to stop or they were too far away.  Finally one day on the Isle of Skye we came across this small band of cows who actually wandered over close to the fence to pose for us.  You know, it's the little things in life - even though I took around 3,000 pictures in Scotland these pictures made me a very happy woman!

Highland Cows, Isle of Skye Sep 2009

These two cows actually walked over to the fence as if they were posing for us.  I wonder if they were trained to do that for all the silly tourists stopping to take pictures?  :-)

This guy looks like he was trying to tell us something - get lost maybe?

My favorite shot - he looks quite bored with the whole thing!

And finally, I bought this wonderful old book of the entire 1884 Peterson's Magazine which was a renowned women's literary and fashion magazine published in Philadelphia, a successful rival of Godey's Ladys Book.  This book is so wonderful - it  is full of hundreds of wood engravings, full-page steel engravings, hand-colored steel fashioned plates, articles, fiction, poetry, crafts, household domestics hints, etc.  I am so giddy about owning this book so expect to see a lot more from this in the future.  Today I am sharing a poem written by Alexander A. Irvine from the May 1884 issue along with a wood engraving (artist unknown).

The poem reads:

Oh, my soul, be glad to-day;
All the air is full of May!
Winter, with its storms, is over;
Bees are humming in the clover;
Lilacs waft us their perfume;
Apple-orchards burst in bloom;
Deep in grasses lush the kine;
Chewing slow the cud, recline;
Through the trees the sunshine gleams;
Birds are singing as in dreams;
Waters laugh; and breezes free
Blow as if from Araby!

Check out more "moo"ving stories at Sepia Saturday.

Wedding Wednesday - Unknown Philadelphia Couple

Here is a picture of a newly married couple taken in Philadelphia, PA, probably between 1900 and 1910 I'm guessing based on the style of her dress (I'm still working on my photo dating skills).  She is holding a lovely basket of roses and note her eyeglasses.  He is very dapper in his dark suit, wearing white gloves and I particularly like his handlebar mustache.  I could not find any information about the photographer,  "The Sommer Studio, 210 N. Eighth St., Opp. Bijou Theatre, Phila."