Before the Parade

The bandsmen patiently wait.
Trombone and bass helicon players
give their shoulders a break
letting their instruments rest on the pavement.
This brass band keeps in formation,
anticipating the command
to come to attention and play.
 

Their audience waits too.
Men in straw hats,
ladies with parasols,
and school boys in caps.
all hope the parade will begin soon.

Meanwhile the Sir Knights
stand at sharp attention,
heels together, arms straight.
The officers and ranks are in full dress uniform,
with feathered bicorne hats, full coats,
satin sashes and belts,
gauntlets, and a few swords too.

It's a warm afternoon day.
The crowd of onlookers
try to stay in the shade
of shop awnings.
Some are wondering
if there is time to get
an ice cream soda
from the druggist.

In that instant
the photographer opens the shutter
on his camera and captures the moment
just before the parade will start
on Congress St.
in Portland, Maine.

This street scene of a band and fraternal society was taken by Conant, Artistic Photographer, 478½ Congress St., Portland, Maine as noted on the front and back logos of this cabinet card. The photograph shows an assembled group that in late 19th century America would have been very common to see in most cities. This was an age of clubs and uniforms when people joined all manner of civic organizations. For men especially, the so-called "secret and benevolent societies" offered fellowship with like-minded comrades pledged together for mutual aid and public service.

Newspapers often used a shorthand phrase, "Sir Knights", that could refer to several benevolent orders that dressed in fancy uniforms. In Portland there were 6 encampments and 6 lodges of the I.O.O.F, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. There were numerous masonic lodges for both the Ancient Craft and Accepted Scottish Rite. The Knights Templars has 4 commanderies. The Knights of Pythias had 7 lodges which all met in a complicated schedule once a week at the same hall. There were also various commanderies, councils, and lodges for the Knights of Honor; the Patriotic Order Sons of America; the Ancient Order of United Workmen; the United Fellowship; the United Order of the Golden Cross; and the Sovereigns of Industry. For men in trade and business the societies offered a network of useful connections. And in an age of limited estate planning, for many the biggest benefit to membership was a society's life insurance paid to a member's family on their death.

Many men and women also belonged to other charitable associations that served Portland. There was the Aged Brotherhood, incorporated in 1869, for people age 65 and upward. Members were assessed dues of $1 per year. There were two separate brotherhoods for the men who worked side-by side on steam locomotives, the firemen and engineers. There were charity missions for the poor; for widows and children; for veterans,  longshoreman, bricklayers, and seamen. There were 11 different temperance organizations, and numerous Christian church groups.

Source: Illustrated Catalogue of Uniforms
for the Knights of the Golden Eagle,
Louis E. Stilz & Bro. Co., Philadelphia, 1906

In order to distinguish one group from another, many society members were outfitted in colorful military style uniforms. The uniforms of the I.O.O.F, the Knights Templar, and the Knights of Pythias were particularly elaborate with complicated symbols and regalia that mimicked the full dress wear of army and navy officers. Plumed hats, swords, and various accoutrements were required dress whenever an order conducted a public event.

And of course all of these fraternal orders marched in parades, so there had to be a band. In later decades some of the larger societies were able to form their own bands. But in the 19th century typically a town's band, or bands, would provide nonpartisan music for any and all occasions, whether Democrat or Republican, Presbyterian or Methodist. Portland had two marching ensembles. Chandler's Band, organized in 1873 by D. H. Chandler, was "composed of performers of much practice and distinguished ability."  The Portland Band, "organized in 1825 for the performance of martial music", was the oldest band in the state of Maine.

Bandsmen also wore very colorful uniforms that imitated military styles. This band have striped trousers, light-colored full coats with epaulets and cross belts to hold their music pouches, and tall custodian hats with a large cap badge. Both bands were described in newspaper reports as having  talented instrumental soloists. Mr. Chandler's band seemed to be the more successful in the Portland community.

The photographer's full name was Charles Bean Conant. Born in 1839 in Topsham, Maine, Conant listed his occupation as photographer in the 1870 census for Lewiston, Maine, 30 miles north of Portland. In about 1875 he moved to Portland with his wife Eleanor and 4 children, and in 1877 set up a larger photographer's studio at 478½ Congress St.. This location was in the heart of Portland a few blocks from the city hall and next to the Market Square, now called Monument Square. Charles B. Conant took our an advertisement for his studio in the 1879 Portland city directory.

Source: 1879 Portland ME city directory

In 1880 Portland could boast of 33,810 citizens. It was the most northerly major port on America's Atlantic coast and had a large transient population of travelers and seaman. The Portland city directories had several pages devoted to long lists of the sailing ships, barks, barkentines, brigs, schooners, sloops, steamers and other vessels, 382 altogether, that operated out of the port.

Source: 1877 Portland ME city directory

In the early days of photography, landscape photos were difficult to make. Getting the contrast balanced between sunlight and shade was tricky with the glass plates then used in cameras. Any movement of subjects, whether people or trees, would blur images or leave faint fog. In the right middle ground of this photo there is a band of light which I suspect is the ghost of a Portland street car.

But it is Conant's unusual choice of perspective that interested me. The camera is positioned high above street level, at a 2nd or perhaps 3rd floor window. As cameras of the 1870s were bulky and delicate optical instruments, it seems likely that Conant would found it easiest to take from his studio window on Congress St. In the Portland city directories I found a street listing for all the adjacent businesses near his studio. Diagonally across the street from his address was Preble House, where an apothecary, or druggist, occupied a corner of the building block. Visible just above the awning advertising ice cream soda, choice cigars, and pure drugs, is a sign with a chemist's mortar and pestle.

In the 1885 Portland directory Connant's studio on Congress St. goes missing, and his name is absent altogether by the 1886 directory. Evidently he moved away from Maine. But by coincidence, the editors of the 1886 directory published a full page heliotype photo of this very intersection of Congress St. and Market Square. Even in the dark scan we can see the same awnings, the tall bricked up false windows and the streetcar tracks.

Source: 1886 Portland ME city directory

In the 1870s the drug store at 473 Congress was owned by Fred T. Meaher, who took out a small advert in the 1879 city directory as a druggist and apothecary. Physicians' Prescriptions a specialty.
Dealers in Imported and Domestic Drugs, Fluid Extracts, Patent Medicines, Cigars, Perfumery, Trusses, Suspensory Bandages, Shoulder Braces, etc. Plus a large assortment of pure Confectionery.

Source: 1879 Portland ME city directory

In 1884, the drug store changed proprietors, coming under the management of C. H. Guppy & Co. And in around 1885 Charles B. Conant moved his Congress St. studio to 341 Cumberland, eventually leaving Portland altogether by 1886. This roughly dates my photograph of the Sir Knights and the Band to around 1877-1884. But could there be other clues?

On the corner wall of the building, behind a sign advertising, "Try the Bastianelli Cigar, Genuine Havana" is a billboard for the theater. There are two large figures, one dressed in tight leotards, and above it are the words: Maffitt & Barth... Was this promoting a traveling theatrical show?

Chicago Tribune
23 July 1869

It was indeed the famous Maffitt & Bartholomew Comique Pantomime Troupe appeared in newspaper notices from 1866 onward. This one ran in the Chicago Tribune in July 1869. The feature was a "Grand Trick Pantomime" called Dame Trot and Her Komical Kat. Also on the bill were the Brothers Rizarelli in "their unprecedented performance on the Double Flying Trapeze." The show commenced with another pantomime, Love Among the Milliners. 

_ _ _

Portland ME Daily Press
2 August 1878

The comic duo of James S. Maffitt and W. H. Bartholomew toured America for nearly 40 years from the late 1860s to 1900. Never described as exactly vaudeville, their troupe put out a series of panto musical revues, interspersed with circus and minstrel acts. They first played Portland in May 1876. Then returned again in March 1877, July/August 1878, and March 1880.

Notice that the shadows are cast to the right on Congress Street which has a northeast by southwest orientation. The sun is strong and the crowd of people are dressed for warm temperatures. If I am correct that Conant's photo was taken on a summer day after noon, then the billboard is promoting the Maffitt & Bartholomew show of July 26-27, 1878.

The notice in the Portland Daily Press had their feature pantomime as Flick and Flock. It also included N. D. Jones, Pantaloon par Excellence; A. W. Ravel, Harlequin and Miss Rose Thomas, Columbine; the great Ethiopian Comedians, Schoolcraft & Coes, in their mirth-provoking specialties; the beautiful, fascinating queen of the air, M'lle Geraldine, in connection with the great English athlete, George Leopold, appearing in their marvelous and sensational performance up the flying trapeze.

_ _ _

Portland ME Daily Press
4 May 1878

Earlier that year, Charles Conant earned a paragraph ot two in the local Portland paper. It praised one of his crayon portraits of Mr. Thomas Goodall, the proprietor of the Woolen Mills in Sanford, Maine. By coincidence, back in October 2019, I did a story on a photo of the The Sanford Mills Band.

The paper also reported that Conant was continually enlarging his gallery of theatrical celebrities. "No sooner does an actor strike Portland than he goes at once to see Conant and have his picture taken."

_ _ _

As a photograph made in 1878 of people 100 feet away from the camera had little chance of producing clear details on uniform patterns, it's impossible to say exactly which fraternal order the Sir Knights represent. By a frustrating coincidence, the Odd Fellows hall in Portland was at 439 Congress St. The Knights of Pythias hall was at 490½ Congress St. One commandery of the United Order of the Golden Cross held meetings at 457½ Congress St. And both the Portland Band and Chandler's Band had offices only steps away, at respectively, 19½ and 27 Market Square.

Portland ME Daily Press
12 July 1878

In July 1878, the Portland Daily Press announced that the Portland Encampment of No.19 I.O.O.F. would make their annual excursion to Bridgton, Maine on Tuesday, July 16th. They would be accompanied by Chandler's Band who would later perform an evening concert there at a pavilion illuminated by calcium lights.


On Thursday, July 18th all of the Portland Odd Fellows and their families were invited to another excursion to Cushing's Island where there would be swings, foot ball, bowling, bathing, and dancing. Again, Chandler's band would furnish music.

Don't you wish you could march along with them?

_ _ _

Portland ME Daily Press
15 July 1878

 * * *

I never expect to solve the riddle of this Portland photo, but because Ancestry.com's archives provided several Portland city directories and the Library of Congress has digitized the Portland Daily Press, I was able to find good answers to my questions. I can't claim my analysis is 100% certain, but I think it's very, very close. 

On my blog I have featured other bands and musicians from the 1870s, but they are nearly all carefully posed studio photos. I have also featured a story set in Boston about The Grand Parade of the Knights Templar, but that photo was taken in 1895. This makes Mr. Conant's 1878 outdoor street-view photograph of the Odd Fellows and Mr. Chandler's Band a rare example of what public music once looked like in America 142 years ago. Shiny, colorful, and ready to strike up a strong beat as the parade steps off.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where uptown and downtown meet in the middle.