This is Ann.
She had this photo taken
in Baltimore, Maryland.
She paid 25¢ for four.
Plus tax.
She had this photo taken
in Baltimore, Maryland.
She paid 25¢ for four.
Plus tax.
She represents an example of what I call "people of the shadows"—the subjects who sat still long enough for a camera to capture their likeness during the first decades of photography. The alchemy of early photographs—daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and ferrotypes, that is tintypes like Ann's photo, translated light that went through a camera's lens into subtle tones of waxy whites, chalky grays, and dense blacks. These phototypes lacked the chemistry to record true colors, though occasionally a photographer, as in Ann's tintype, would apply little tints of red to cheeks or lips when processing the image. The general effect of these early photo processes created portraits of people in somber clothing seemingly surrounded by dim backgrounds, hence "people of the shadows." Nonetheless these early photo processes could achieve a remarkable clarity that rivals modern photographs.
But the other reason I call them people of the shadows is that these early phototypes rarely display any information about the subjects. People are usually anonymous, their names, dates, and location unknown. The first generations of fragile daguerreotypes and ambrotypes came in protective wooden cases that often have no imprints for a photographer's name or place of business. Tintypes, being made of thin iron sheet, were more durable photos but often became separated from their paper envelopes and few have marks for names or dates scratched onto the metal backs.
So without good clues to figure out the basics of who, when, and where, these photos can be a very challenging if not impossible puzzles to solve.
Ann's portrait is an exception.
It contains a surprising amount of information.
Yet, as I will explain,
she still remains partly in the shadows.
It contains a surprising amount of information.
Yet, as I will explain,
she still remains partly in the shadows.
This is the full image of her photo scanned without any digital correction. Her photo is pasted into a paper mount the same size as a carte de visite, 3 7/8" x 2 3/8" with her face centered in an elegant embossed oval cartouche pattern. The tintype is much smaller and rectangular. It is a called a 1/16th plate size about 1 7/8" high and 1 5/8" wide. In the upper right is a signature which we will examine in a moment,
The back has a full printed advertisement for the photographer.
FROM
The Original 25 cent
Gem Picture Gallery
No. 9 N. Gay Street
G. W, Hewitt & Co.
4 of this style Pictures. _ 25 Cents.
Large size Photographs, _ _ $1.50
Duplicates, _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.00
Cartes de Viste, Per Doz. _ _ 2.00
The Original 25 cent
Gem Picture Gallery
No. 9 N. Gay Street
G. W, Hewitt & Co.
4 of this style Pictures. _ 25 Cents.
Large size Photographs, _ _ $1.50
Duplicates, _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.00
Cartes de Viste, Per Doz. _ _ 2.00
GEO. W. HEWITT
Manufacturer of
Square and Oval Gilt Frames.
Looking Glass Mirrors,
Bracket Tables, &c.
also on hand a fine assortment of
Albums, Stereoscopes and Views,
Engravings. Figures, &c., 50 per
cent [c]heaper than any other estab-
lishment [in] the city. Pictures of all
kinds copied at the shortest notice.
No. 9 Gay Street,
Photograph & Frame Gallery
Mr. Hewitt's advertisement is printed on a separate paper that was applied over the photo. It shows through as an eight-sided outline of the metal plate. "Gem" tintypes, ½" x 1", are very small, hardly bigger than a postage stamp, but I think this photo was offered as a gem and was produced in the same manner using a camera with four lens. Here is an illustration of a similar camera featured in an 1872 handbook on ferrotype photography. The tintype metal plate was inserted wet with emulsion into the camera back and when exposed the four lens created four images at one time. After developing and fixing the plate was cut into four individual photos. Manufacturer of
Square and Oval Gilt Frames.
Looking Glass Mirrors,
Bracket Tables, &c.
also on hand a fine assortment of
Albums, Stereoscopes and Views,
Engravings. Figures, &c., 50 per
cent [c]heaper than any other estab-
lishment [in] the city. Pictures of all
kinds copied at the shortest notice.
No. 9 Gay Street,
Photograph & Frame Gallery
 | |
| The Climax Camera, No 43, fited with four ¼ lenses Source: The Ferrotype and how to Make it by Edward M. Estabrooke |
Here is a second camera with nine lens for making smaller photos. The process could produce nine duplicates of a single sitting, or nine separate images opening each lens one at a time.
 |
| The Success Camera O, fitted with nine 1/9th and four 1/4th lenses Source: The Ferrotype and how to Make it by Edward M. Estabrooke |
What makes this photo special is a blue 2¢ U. S. Internal Revenue stamp in the upper corner on the back of the tintype's paper mount. It was affixed before Mr. Hewitt pasted on his gallery's advertisement on top of it. Then he marked it with a rubberstamp date: Feb 17, 1866.
It was a Saturday. On this day former Confederate general Robert E. Lee was in Washington, D. C. to testify before a Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction. The committee members had tough questions for him regarding Southern attitudes to war debts, the status of freedmen, and the conditions of reconstruction.
This date was just 8 months and 22 days after the end of America's terrible Civil War. Though the world was now moving on, most Americans were still divided by the horrendous assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 and the complex political mess it provoked in the postwar period. This blue tax stamp was a small remanent of four years of the war's hardships as it was first introduced in the Revenue Act of 1862 to help the Federal government fund the war through an excise tax on a wide variety of goods, services and legal dealings.
Photographs were still a modern novelty when the war started. As tintypes and carte de visites became more popular due to their cheaper price the Internal Revenue department passed a 'photograph tax' in August 1864 that required photographers to pay a tax on the sale of their products. This proprietary tax was applied to several other widely used products, such as cotton, tobacco and alcohol. Even though the war was officially ended on 26 May 1865 the tax had persisted, since, of course, the Federal government still needed to pay its debts. Obviously this still upset many people so Congress repealed the tax on 1 August 1866, two years exactly after it was imposed.
Mr. Hewitt was one of Baltimore's businessmen to take exception to this lingering tax. So he ran advertisements in local newspapers explaining why he need to raise prices.
 |
| Baltimore Sun 29 January 1866 |
Card to the Public
Having been the first to introduce to the public
of Baltimore Four Gem Pictures for 25 cents,
making our calculations for 6 per cent. ad valo-
rem tax, we are now authorized by the commis-
sioners of internal revenue to affix to each and
every card issued from our establishment a two
cent stamp, which will be a stamp tax of 32 per
cent. Not wishing to vary from our regular
prices, we will still continue to take
Four Gun Pictures for 25 Cents.
But we will be compelled to charge our cus-
tomers 10 cents extra for stamping.
We have made no alteration in the price of our
large pictures, as 5 per cent. is all the govern-
ment requires on them, but 32 per cent. being
more than our net profits on our small pictures
our customers will have to pay it.
We cordially thank the citizens of Baltimore
for the kind patronage they have so liberally ex-
tended to us. We will hereafter show our grati-
tude by furnishing them with pictures that can-
not be surpassed by any other Establishment of
the kind in the city.
Geo. W. Hewitt & Co..
No. 9 North Gay street.So when Ann bought a set of four portrait Gems, she paid a total of 35¢ which was a not insubstantial amount consider that many workers in Maryland earned 10¢<15¢ an hour in 1866.
The photographer George Washington Hewitt was born on the 4th of July 1838 in Baltimore, the son of John Hill Hewitt (1801—1890) a noted poet and prolific composer and author. Though he was from New York City, Hewitt the elder made his career in the southern states and became a rival of both the poet Edgar Allen Poe and the song writer Stephen Foster.
His son George W. Hewitt seems to have started his business as a carver and gilder in the late 1850s with an address at No. 23 West Fayette street in Baltimore. In May of 1861, just a month after the Civil War began, he ran a newspaper ad that showed he was a bit of an entrepreneur.
WAR !–WAR !–WAR !– INTENSE EXCITEMENT.—Great Sacrifice in beautiful GILT OVAL FRAMES, for Photographs. Your choice for One Dollar, at the Original One Dollar Frame Store.
 |
| Baltimore Sun 23 May 1861 |
Note the other promotions for a book entitled "The Soldier's Guide" which was marketed as a useful military handbook to young men who were volunteering for the Federal army.
In 1863 Hewitt was listed at 9 N. Gay street in the Baltimore city directory under "Looking Glass and Picture Frame Makers." In his advertisements this address was his store while his factory was on West Fayette street. In May 1863 he included a photographer Mr. W. E. Cook who "occupies a portion of the same store for the sale of Cabinet Photographs, a new style of picture, taken from original Oil Paintings in France and England." By the following year the partnership with Mr. Cook seems finished but Hewitt then begins offering his patrons Gem ferrotypes and larger photos as his gallery of frames and mirrors.
 |
| Baltimore Sun 14 May 1863 |
By 1867 George W. Hewitt is no longer residing in Baltimore, but has moved south to Staunton, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. He sets up a decorator's shop dealing in wall paper and upholstery. Occasionally he also tuned and repaired pianos, but as far as I can determine he never took up photography again. He died in Staunton in 1906 at age 68. He was remembered with an obituary in both Staunton and Baltimore newspapers.
Now it's time to look at a signature
What name can you read?
What name can you read?
I think it spells Ann L Polona or Poloma. The short first name is written with a downward flourish that I think is just decorative but it could be Anny L. The surname is very unusual and I have tried countless different interpretations of the letters. The shape of the letters conform to cursive handwriting standards of 19th century English and the capitals A, L, P are quite consistent. According to Google's AI, Polona has "Slavic and Eastern European roots related to Poland", while Poloma is a Spanish name derived from the Spanish word paloma, meaning "dove"
But I can't find her. No one named Ann L Polona/Poloma is listed in any official records or city directories from anywhere in the United States, much less Baltimore in 1866. Her name is not found in any newspaper archives either. All I could find were a few people with variant spelled surnames but those people lived in latter decades. It is a curious place to put a penciled signature curved around to fit the corner. Perhaps it's not the name of the woman photographed in 1866 but the name of a recipient she gave it to. Or maybe it's the name of a collector who bought the photo in 1946 or 2006. Who knows? I really can't tell.
It's frustrating to have a perfect trifecta of antique photo information on name, place, and date and not be able to confirm a the most important identification—the subject's name. Of course women's names are always a challenge to research since they usually, but not always, adopt a new surname on marriage. Is there a Mr. Polona/Poloma? I've looked, and looked again, and still fail to find anyone who would fit the other facts from this tintype from Baltimore.
But I can do one thing more. I can flip the photo from its positive mirror image created by the tintype process into her real face which we would have seen when Ann visited Mr. Hewitt's gallery in February 1866. Somehow that lightens her features to bring her a little bit out of the shadows that conceal her identity.
She appears to be an attractive mature young woman, late 20s or mid 30s, with beautiful dark eyes and high cheekbones. Her hair is dark, too, and pulled tight back in the feminine style of this era, but I detect a hint of wave or curl. Below her ears are what looks like oval earrings but I think they are some kind of fastener that holds her hair. A locket tied tight around her neck is large and could have a carved design. It might hold a small photo, perhaps a picture of a husband or sweetheart. In 1866 that could be a treasured memento of a beloved lost in the war. Which may explain her serious expression. Yet she doesn't look so much sad as thoughtful. What is she thinking about?
Mr. Hewitt's gallery at No. 9 N. Gay street in Baltimore was in the city's central business district. It was less than a half mile to his frame factory at No. 23 West Fayette. Baltimore's city hall was just a block away, and the city's ship docks were only 4 blocks south. Also very close were a couple of major theatres that offered all kinds of entertainment, even during the war, including minstrel shows, melodramas, and opera. These traveling troupes would play in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore, too. Many included on their playbills performers from Europe—England, France, Germany, Italy, even Spain or South America.
It seems quite possible that Ann L Polona/Poloma might be connected to one of these touring theatrical or opera companies. Her name, like many entertainers of the day, could be a stage name, invented to sound more artistic. Since entertainers lived in hotels without any settled residence, they were rarely recorded in census reports or city directories. Their names might be attached to a newspaper review if they were a star, but not if they were a supporting actor or the spouse of an entertainer. It's only a guess but imagination is all I have left to answer the question of her identity.
Sometimes people of the shadows leave only the essence of their humanity. The details of their lives and loves are unknown. Their past and future forever concealed. Their relations with other people a mystery. Yet their sepia tone photograph presents us with a face that makes us wonder. Who was this person? What were they like? Why did they pose for this picture?
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where fine portraits are a dime a dozen.
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