Featured Old Family Photo Album Fun

Found some of my old family photo albums. Not sure how old the tin or metal photos are. The album is like velvet and has a mirror inlaid in the cover.

Tin

Back of tin

These are not tin.

 

I have lots of old family photos, but not in a lovely album such as yours.

What a treasure!

 

Tintypes -- the pictures on metal -- were made for a long period of time and it's often difficult to figure out the dates they were made. On rare occasions I've had one that has scratching or writing on the back that identifies a person or date. You have to hold it in a raking light at certain angles to see it. The back of the one that you are showing looks like it might have some scratching in the middle that says "___ yea__" perhaps the age of the boy (a number followed by the word "years"). It could have other writing that is hidden within the damage.

If you want to identify the pictures you should carefully take each one out and see if there is writing anywhere on it. Also, for the ones that are not tintypes you can often research the photographer that is printed on the card.

Three of the photos you are showing (the ones that are not portraits of just one person) are interesting images -- at least to me. The first one looks like a tourist shot with a backdrop that may be painted. Some people collect things like this. The one with the two women is interesting just because of the unusual pose (it's probably from the late 1890s or very early 1900s). And the trimmed one with the woman is somewhat interesting just because of the studio surroundings (I think early 1890s on that one, due to her sleeves).

Oh, and the portrait of the woman with the voluminous sleeves and topknot in her hair (next to the photo of the man in the album) dates from either 1895 or 1896, I'm pretty sure. That hairstyle and extremely wide sleeves were popular together only for a very short time in the 1890s.

 

The lady behind the iron gate looks like she was very pretty!

 

Thank you for all the responses and information! There are some interesting shots for sure. Many of the cabinet cards are mounted on stock from a studio in the “Dakota Territory”. Im guessing some of them aren’t from that actual period that they may have been using up old card stock.

 

These are such great photos. Thanks for sharing! Keep 'em coming if you have more. I like how a few show the people fooling around and having fun. Often you see such serious expressions.

That first one, could be a backdrop, but seems a little odd choice for a back drop with those guys in formal dress, but could be. Looks like an amusement park in any case, was wondering if they were the owners or something. Would be so great to nail down where that is.

 

Perhaps they were masons.

Debora

 

I wonder if the top hats belonged to the photographer.

 

Looks like a "Coney Island" slide, and the guys in what we see as "formal dress" are likely to have simply dressed in their best clothes for the amusement park visit. A day out at a such a place was a big deal and you wanted to look your best for it.

 

That's also possible.

 

Yea, the guy on the right looks like he needed a larger size hat

 

I just checked about Dakota Territory. That area existed until 1889, so it's possible that the cabinet cards you have were using new card stock.

 

Yes. I’m unsure how it correlates with any of the photos at this point but there is Masonic documents and jewelry in the chest that held this, and a few other photo albums.

 

@Shwikman , can you post a picture of one of the ones from Dakota Territory? Just curious about the old or new card stock idea.

 

LOL!!! The photo of the two ladies, the one holding something in the air, and the other holding out her palm underneath...was driving me crazy.

I have remembered! Back when I was pregnant, one of my friends borrowed my locket to swing over my hand so as to determine the sex of the baby. If the locket swung straight back and forth, it was a boy -- if in an elipse, 'twas a girl.

 

OMG, THANK YOU.

That one has been driving me bonkers! (and now I can even see the locket -- hadn't noticed it, just thought she had a piece of string).

 

In my family they used the pregnant lady's wedding ring to swing back and forth over her head. And like Silverthwait said, back and forth = boy, circle = girl.

 

Thanks for the information! I now remember somebody swinging a pencil attached to a string for the same reason... long ago!

 

Hi,
Did the same thing using the wedding band over the head. Some things were done for years. Gram used to use a key over the head of the cow when she was pregnant. Just for a laugh I did it over my Mom's miniature poodle it just swung in weird different directions. The poor little dog ended up with 10 puppies. One set were identical twins coming out in a single sac. The Vet was so mad he said he never ever saw that before. After the third pup was born the poor dog just gave up and I had to cut open the sacs and rub the puppies. We had to feed them every two hours with a bottle which took about an hour. between my Mom my wife and me we had no sleep for several weeks.
greg

 

This is actually one of them. On the back it’s “J.C. Varney Photographer Sioux Falls, D.T.”