Featured Carved wooden photo album

The genealogy-obsessed cousin who never had a chance to get his/her hands on that album would be all over it. The cover is beautiful.

 

I agree, the cover is like eye candy. I always feel badly when I see things like this, or Purple Hearts for sale.

 

Purple hearts for sale make me a little sick. I've never found one, but have rescued ruptured ducks whenever possible.

 

Thank you for doing that!

 

I figure each one represents a year of someone's life. There are a dozen or so in a shadowbox frame in my bedroom, and more in a baggie here somewhere. Those shouldn't be sold, but often are.

 

Wow, I love this album. Albums like this sell well online (if you ever take that route), but like you I would prefer these items to be returned to family if possible. Are there any names on the backs of the photographs? Clues as to the sitters? That would be a starting point for further research

 

Thanks Batman.
1 or 2 have names. (Very few last name, but some) and sadly, there is a memorial card with name, date of death, and age. In looking quickly, I couldn’t find, but I’ll delve further.

 

So, in looking at your SECOND image down, the handsome with the mustache, I'm wondering how long ago that "Page Curl" process was applied to photos???? I think @Figtree3 might have a good idea, but I thought that was a fairly 'recent' application, and maybe someone just wanted it recently on that image???? Pondering and will dig!!

 

Good to know. Glad I wasn’t going to sell. Thank you.

 

It's funny you should ask about that, @Aquitaine -- I've just been reading the book that was given to me by Gila at Christmas. She was my Santa in the gift-giving drawing here on Antiquers. The book is about identifying and dating 19th century card de visite and cabinet card photos. (More info about the book here: http://www.phototree.com/book_card_photos.htm)

Although I already knew some things, this book is teaching me a lot! The author has carefully studied photos with dates on them, and there is a page on which he talks about photos of this type. And coincidentally, I just read that page last night!

He calls this type of mask put over a photo "Trompe l'oeil framing" and he found that this type of treatment was done mainly from the very late 1880s through the early 1890s. He says that the time, this kind of framing was used a lot in posters, signs, and other art work.

He also says that people often think this type of framing means that it was a memorial card, but he has found no evidence that that is the case in the photos he studied.

 

Oh, and I just realized that at the link about the book, some of the pages are reproduced in PDF form. I clicked on one of the thumbnails and three pages from the book popped up.

 

Thank you Figtree3. I am going to look at that information.

This was the memorial page. Most of the photos are from Illinois. I have not been able to find this young lady. I joined find a grave.
If any genealogist are out there, I could give some other last names, or some counties where theses were taken, if that could help to find her.

I also saw a photo by this photoghrapher labeled trick photograph. I’ll have to find it again. Just checked, doesn’t give first initial of photographer, so maybe not the same.

 

Yes, that one is a memorial card, obviously. The author of the book was saying that the ones that have photos surrounded by a scroll or some other designs show no indication of being memorial card photos. The person is not often even identified in the photo, and he couldn't find any evidence. He even mentioned that he has a photo of his grandmother at three years old that includes a design around her picture. Not the scroll, just something else.

 

Thank you Figtree3, I also just noticed some penciled names I didn’t see before. Maybe I can make some sense of these photos. I googled the term you have and saw other examples. This album has become a real roller coaster!

 

I found her in Find A Grave. A couple of things... her first name on the gravestone was spelled Maud, not Maude. Also, the gravestone says she died a year later than the memorial card does! So one of them has to be wrong.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147659027/maud-m-mcgregor

Her parents' and one sister's names are linked there, too.

 

If you are interested in knowing about any photographers in Illinois, sometimes you can find things through Internet searches. Also, I ran across this group on Flickr when doing a different search a few weeks ago. I didn't join it, but maybe somebody there can help?

The group is called Early Illinois Photographers.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/2840432@N23/

 

Thank you so much Figtree3! I didn’t want to bother anyone and ive been looking since I got this! Thank you so much !!!!

 

You're welcome! You can post other photos with names if you want. I'm not going to be here more tonight but there are other people here who enjoy doing some looking.

 

This is the second photo. There is no photographer or state mentioned. The page has Margaret Ann Worsham
And Joe.

I’ll post some more later.
Thanks for looking.

I think I found them too, Coles County.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69006924/joseph-theodore-worsham

Someone is “Following” this grave. Can someone please explain, is that usually a relative? It says follower is not accepting messages. Would it help I contacted the person who created this profile?
Thank you.

 

On antiquers a genuine question is never a problem. Please bother us.