Early Photography Studios Web site?

Didn't there used to be a web site that identified early photographers and their addresses and dates and all of it...

Or was that just a dream I had?

Trying to decide when a company in Marietta, Ohio went from "Crescent Studio" to "Crescent Photo Co" (or vice versa) and I'm having no luck at all.

 

http://www.washogs.org/photographer.html

 

I did find that page, but I didn't find any info regarding the name with "studio" in it. If I can find when the name changed... it may/may not help with my genealogical fool's errand.

 

There's no one source for every photography studio, and there might or might not even be one for all of Ohio. The page Quincy linked looks good, and there could be other sources. If you can find city directories from Marietta for the right periods of time, that could resolve it.

You have access to Ancestry, don't you? If so, you could try there for city directories.

 

This 1906 book about Marietta says the following:
"Crescent Photo. Co. — Est. 1897. (A. J. Gage, J.
C. Breesh.) Photographs, medallions, photo but-
tons. Pictures enlarged. 187 Front street-
Up stairs."
https://archive.org/stream/bookofmarietta00mcdo/bookofmarietta00mcdo_djvu.txt

So if it's a name change it would be 1906 or later.

It might help to see the whole card mounts and images.

 

Thanks, fig. Sadly, I've had no luck with Ancestry or various newspaper sites.

Here are the two mounts with pics. If even a portion of the info I have on these two pieces is accurate, they are within a couple of years of each other.

 

Yes, I think both are from within the first decade of the 20th century. Well, the one of the boy might be slightly later, but not much if so. The one of the couple is earlier. And this also goes along with the idea that the name Crescent Photo came first, if they are both marks of the same studio.

 

The boy was born in 1899 and I place him anywhere from 4-6 years old. So, 1903-1905. The couple, well, they're part of my "fool's errand" so, you know, I have no idea about the one.

 

I don't think he is as young as 4. Maybe 6-8? I am not all that good at guessing ages, though.

And the couple could be very early 20th century. Studios were using that sort of very dark embossed card mount then. It could even be from the very late 19th, maybe, but I am still leaning toward 20th. I wish I could see her whole outfit.

 

I do a lot of work with young kids, I think "six" is solid.

If the couple is late 19th, that makes her Lottie01 (see other thread). If early 20th, she could be either Lottie.

Which is why I've been trying to nail that studio/name change date.

 

I really think it's early 20th, personally.
Her hairdo is starting to go more to the poufy updo of the early 20th century instead of the more tightly pulled up one (often with frizzy bangs) of the late 19th.

 

I've been looking, and found only one Marietta newspaper digitized and freely available online. Unfortunately it's available only in the 1890s up through 1901. I did see a notice that Crescent Photo purchased a studio that used to belong to a man name Weis. They were going to keep doing cheap photos at their original studio and do "fine" photos at the newly purchased one. This happened in 1899. So there is some indication that they ran two studios but also no indication as to whether they ran them under two different names. Also, I looked more carefully at the helpful link that QuincyAK10 posted and realized that the owners of the Crescent studio had moved to the state of Washington before 1910, when they showed up there in the census. The info I found above shows they were still in Marietta up to the middle of the decade, so they moved between 1906-1910. This brings up the possibility that somebody else either took over their studio or decided to use a similar name for their own studio.

None of this helps, but just wanted to say what I've been doing. I see in the other thread that Bakersgma is going to help you now, since she is familiar with research in that area of the country. That is one of the best options you could have! Good luck!

 

You, as always, rock, fig.

And I'll argue that while it doesn't solve anything, it does indeed help. While we're not there, yet -- even finding a dead end is finding something.