Old photographs and the questions they provoke

As most of you know I'm a bit of an old photograph nut. I collect them. I paint from them. My stock in trade is to put them up online and digitally preserve them. I torture my family with them.  I torture all of you with them. Seriously! There should be a 12 step program for my problem.

The following is one that I found entertaining and thought provoking. Old photos tell of a time gone by. If looked at closely they speak to social history in a way that history textbooks cannot. They are more personal than facts and figures. They can convey information about a moment in time. I find them infinitely fascinating.

This photograph was supposedly taken at Galveston Beach. JR and I were there this past weekend. It did not look like this but I was dressed just like the woman in front...Not! I was really dressed more like the guy but let's not go there. Let's take a good look at the background. If you look very closely you will see a sailing ship on the left and a steamship on the right. It is hard to tell but I sort of suspect that this photo was taken in a studio and not at the beach. Why do I think this? Check out the sand. It seems awfully smooth to me. The clothing doesn't seem to be windblown though I've never been on this beach without a little wind. It is not like the shutter speeds back then were fast enough to stop the motion. Also, check out where the sand and water meet. I looks a little like a drape. The composition seems just a bit contrived. I, of course, could be totally wrong about this.

If it is a draped studio photo it leads me to ask questions like:

• Why go to a studio to take a picture of a beach just over an hour away?

• Did they also have other photographs taken on the same day with different backgrounds and clothes?

• What prompted them to have this particular photo taken?

 If they were really at the beach, and they very well could have been, the questions change:

• Did the women actually go in the water? 
• Did they take off their stockings first?
• Was that considered forward?
• Were their camps/tents set up to get out of the sun like there is today?
• Where did that big piece of driftwood come from?
• Was there a special occasion to go to the beach that day?
• Where are the seaweed and other stuff that tends to wash up?
• Was the sailboat in the background used for pleasure or trade?
• How did they get to the beach? Did they drive one of those new automobiles? Did they take the Interurban train?
• Was this before or after the great 1900 hurricane?

 

These aren't even half the questions I have about this one photograph. It is little wonder I get distracted when looking at a box full old photographs.

I do know a bit about this photograph. The gentleman was a famous judge in Houston that was instrumental in starting/expanding the Ship Channel. The opening of the Ship Channel changed the face of Houston. His wife (seated next to him) was a leading suffragette in Texas. She was also an inventor. She invented and patented a street sweeper and garbage cans. She tried to get elected to the school board but of course that wasn't going to happen. Their daughters were debutantes and married well. Which I'm fairly sure was expected of them. 

And, I have, once again, proven that I'm an old photograph/history freak but these are the things that I think about.

What are ya'll thinking about today?

Love,
M

WW - Heady the Hatter

In 1912 the last thing you want is for your hat to blow during the parade.

Love,

M

Just about everything about this scares me.

This week's Spin Cycle is Halloween and believe it or not I think I'm on time.
What are the odds?
Not very good I can tell you.
Since, SK gives us a fair bit of latitude on this sort of thing I think I'll use all of it. Yeah, sort of like the bag full of candy I'd collect then promptly chow down on Halloweens in the past.

On Friday I posted this photograph:

It scares the crap out of me.

There is a ton of stuff on this page that scares me but lets start with it's reason for being. This photograph came from a 1910s booklet promoting the great city of Houston, Texas. Yes, folks the reason you should come to Houston is because we let toddlers smoke pipes

and promote ethnic stereotypes by showing Mexican women carrying flowers on their heads. 

I'm a little concerned that the baby on the top left with the flower in her hand was stoned. Look at those eyes and tell me I'm wrong. I've seen eyes like that (true, in the mirror but it was the mid-70s; we all had eyes like that) and they were stoned. This was the early 1900s. I think they were still putting cocaine in Coca Cola.

And, the baby on the top right. Is she supposed to be posing as a bathing beauty? Because she does seem to have the moves down. This was the Victorian era. Didn't they reserve those poses for "fast" women?

She is adorable though.

Last but not least, let's address the elephant in this room. The scariest part of this photograph....the nun! 
(please say this in that dramatic way made famous by Monty Python in "the Bishop" sketch)

 Am I wrong or does she not look like a man dressed up like a nun? I had heard that nuns were scary but holy cow! She/he'd make me pee my pants if she/he came at me with a ruler. And, is she/he casting her/his eyes up to God or something else? Was this a social/religious statement by the photographers? It boggles the mind that they thought this was a good image for Houston.

Truly, I'm scared. Somebody hold me!

Love,
M


PS: It's Monday. Let's all try to make it meatless. It's good for you and it's good for the planet. And we all like you and the planet. Really? What's not to like?

The Shamrock Hotel - A haiku

I'm no poet but I'll give this a try.

Here is a story
Once there was a grand hotel

Built by an oil man

In the late forties
In lovely Houston, you know
The Shamrock by name

It drew all the stars
to be seen and admired
Hollywood did rule

They sang lots of songs
they also played in the pool
While photos were shot

Dressed to the nines
Houstonians gladly came
Incomparable!

Big records were set
on how many people went
to see or be seen

It now is no more
the wrecking ball took it down
that once grand hotel

This haiku made possible by a generous grant from the Sprite's Keeper foundation. In association with nobody because lameness does not need association with anyone. It has its own realm and I seem to be living in it.


Love and sorry for the bad poetry,
M


PS. the images above are from menus of the fancy schancy restaurant in the Shamrock hotel. Built in Houston in 1949 it lived a sad, expensive and not profitable life from 1949 to 1986. Much to the dismay and heartbreak of Houstonians at the time it was torn down to make way for the Texas Medical Center. We are working on a collection of memorabilia of this once famous building in Houston and will be putting a digital collection up soon.

Try to remember Bill, hell and houston both begin with a H

April 19, 1875
Houston, Texas

Dear Bill,
I have been here for 2 months now and think this to be a bad place for any kind of shop that you have in mind. Only a fool would build here.

We are leaving here a week from today so don't reply to my letter. Even Edna don't like it because of the climate. I don't like it because its to far from home. Try to remember Bill, hell and houston both begin with a h.

Your friend -
Albert & family
Houston


some days I couldn't agree more.

Love,
M