Wedding Wednesday - Couple from Waldmunchen, Germany

This well-dressed bride and groom are from Waldmunchen, a town in the district of Cham in Bavaria, Germany situated near the border of the Czech Republic.  There is no date and nothing to identify this couple.  The bride is wearing a beautiful headdress, white gloves, a floor length veil and is carrying a large bouquet of flowers.  She is wearing a dark colored dress with unusual lace panels on the skirt and around the high neckline.  She also us wearing several  unique pieces of jewelry as well.  You will notice she is several inches taller than her groom.

The photographer was Joseph Missoni of Cham.  I believe this cabinet card, which is on the black, graphite type cardboard to have been taken around 1900 give or take a couple of years.

Tintype Tuesday - Mother and Five Daughters

This tintype of a mother and her five daughters, although undated and subjects unidentified, says to me probably late 1890's or early 1900's.   The mother is second from the left and she is surrounded by her five daughters who appear to be anywhere from seven years to perhaps sixteen years old.  They appear to be not as well dressed as some of the subjects you see in the cartes de visites and cabinet cards of the same era and are perhaps of some ethnic background.  It is a fascinating photograph nonetheless - I find their faces quite interesting.

Sentimental Sunday - Women with Hats - Lady in White

Here is a cabinet card with an unidentified woman from Tiffin, Ohio taken by O. P. Frees.  She is seated on a studio prop "rock wall" and wearing a white dress with a fitted bodice, black hat with white flowers and leaning slightly on a black umbrella.

Most of the clues point to the photo being taken about the late 1880's to early 1890's although it is uncommon but not unheard of to see women wearing white dresses during this time period.  I found the photographer Oliver Perry Frees (4 Feb 1852 - 13 Apr 1921) in Ancestry.com in the 1900 Seneca County, Ohio census.  His age was listed as 48, married 24 years to Mary age 47, one son Orva aged 23.   I found a marriage record for an Oliver Frees and Mary S. Wilcox in Seneca County, 22 Dec 1875.  I also found a death record for Oliver Frees in Seneca County on 13 April 1921.  There were numerous Tiffin City Directory records starting with 1903.  I still want to believe that this photo was taken between 1889 - 1894 and it is entirely possible that he would have began his photography career earlier than 1900 even though he does not show up in earlier censuses.

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.

Fashionable Friday - 1880's Woman from Cazenovia, NY

This photograph of a lovely young woman from Cazenovia, New York is quite interesting to me as I find myself increasingly fascinated with the fashions of prior generations. There is nothing written on this cabinet card to identity this woman or when it was taken but there are a few clues to perhaps help date the photo. The card is a dark maroon color with the backside being grey which was popular starting around 1884. The dress on this young woman is so common to the 1880's woman with the very fitted, bustled dress. Note the ruching surrounded by buttons from neckline to waistline and a very trim waistline it is! The sleeves on her dress have ruched cuffs that match that bodice. Her beautiful dress has a high neckline with lace and is adorned with a pin or brooch of some sort. Her hairstyle was quite common of the 1886-1888 woman and it is with all these clues that I date this photo with this time frame.

The photographer was Marshall Bros. of Cazenovia, N.Y., most likely Charles Marshall, however I could find very little to identify and date Charles Marshall and nothing in Ancestry.com.  Also note his monogram at the bottom center of the card; these started around 1886.  There was a very short mention of him on this page:  

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyccazen/MscLists/Photographers.html

To give you some similar mid-1880 fashions to compare with this photograph I have included the following:

http://pinterest.com/pin/16114511137125915/

Although not an exact match to our subject's dress, this dress is from the 1884 Peterson's Magazine and is in the same era.