Featured Picture ID?

I don't know if this is an original photograph or a reprint or what, ... it's not glossy under the glass, there's none of that metallic sheen of some old photos, and the texture of the paper is rough.

I think the pencil writing on the back says "Ina _____ ? Calif poet"

I see there's a famous CA poet Ina Coolbrith, but this doesn't look like her to me, and I don't think that's what's written.

It's a long shot, I know.

Image measures apprx 8"x10"
Found at a flea market in Portland Oregon



Thanks for any help!

 

I think it says 'Ina Galbraith?', so with a question mark at the end.
Looks like they weren't sure. They may have heard of Ina Coolbrith and thought it was her, without exactly remembering the name.

 

Yeah-- those names are graphically similar, aren't they?

Thanks for the 'eyes'.

 

They are, and they probably had the same Scottish origin.

 

Interestingly, Ina Coolbrith was the niece of Joseph Smith, founder of the LDS / Mormon Church!

A pretty elaborate bio here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ina_Coolbrith

 

But again, I'm not sure these are the same person:

 

Difficult to say. The ears look the same, and ears don't change much over the years.

 

The Nose also looks the same to me. She was a handsome woman at both ages.

 

Not an exhausted search, but your picture was framed on or before April 1906, and that location burned due to the earthquake.



Other locations found are 1987 & 1910.

 

Looks very close to me ...

The following places the younger image in the 1880s.
https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/21198/zz002d3wvw/

 

Wow-- awesome sleuthing, @Roaring20s! Thank you!

That devastation after the earthquake and fire is unbelievable. Looks like a WW2 scene.

And based on your image comparison, I think it's safe to assume that this picture is indeed the 'Sweet Singer of California.'

I'm going to read some of her poetry...

 

I've read some of her lyric poems, and, truthfully, they read pretty dated, pretty 19th C-ish: the elevated tone, the celebration of an idealized nature as the salve to urban life, the confining rhyme and iambic meter.... I know everyone writes within the conventions of their time, but for my money, I'll take Emily D (an insane radical genius) or Walt W. (also a radical and a personal hero). Anyway. I digress.

I do love the list of people she influenced, helped, and was helped by. Mark Twain, Ansel Adams, Bret Harte, Jack London, Mary Austin, Joaquin Miller, Isadora Duncan. Her membership in the 'Bohemian Club' and her 'salons' makes her sound like a California Gertrude Stein. Good stuff, for sure.

My son suggested that I contact the Oakland Public Library (and maybe some of the other libraries) where her surviving papers--- the ones that weren't burned in 1906-- are located today, and donate the picture. I think I'll do that.

And I'll be sure to let everybody here know what happens with that. Thanks for the help--esp @Roaring20s!