All In Line

 

Hats and uniforms
are a common theme in my blog
and for good reason.
There are a lot of examples
of fancy headgear and resplendent costumes
in my photograph and postcard collection. 

Many of them are pictures of female entertainers,
members of bands, orchestras, or music hall troupes.
The genre with the most variety
are the German/Austrian Damen Kapelle ~ Ladies Bands.
These small ensembles of brass bands, trumpeter corps, and salon orchestras
were made up, mainly, of female musicians
who were promoted in a bewildering large number of postcards.

 

Some of these troupes did not pose with instruments
but chose instead to show off their distinctive costumes
like they might appear on the stage of a music hall. 

Today I present a collection
of these young Germanic women
from the golden age of European musical theater.

They liked to stand in a line. 

This group of five young women dressed in the costume of a kind of military band call themselves Häcker's Damen-, Sport- u. Verwandlungs- Ensemble or Häcker's Ladies Sport, Transformation Ensemble. They are really only the drum section of a band as the quintet has only a bass drummer, triangle player, cymbal players, and snare drummer along with a stout drum major to lead them. The caption places their mailing address as in Dresden-North on Ludwigstrasse 2. They look like they made a good noise as they marched around the music hall stage. What exactly they did for "Sport and Transformation" is unknown.

The postcard was sent on 1 August 1910 to Fräulein Lydia Schmidt of Oberköditz, a village in Königsee, Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, Thuringia. Lydia apparently received her mail at a porcelain factory nearby.  

* * *

Herr Häcker either had more than one ensemble or more than five girls. In this next lineup the Damen Sport und Vewrrwandlungs Ensemble are outfitted with swords, shields, and a kind of fantasy Amazonian armor which offers little protection of their legs. I suppose the helmets and chain mail pullover might follow some ancient Germanic traditions but I suspect their style better resembles costumes from one of Richard Wagner's operas. I can't see any face that matches with any of the women in the other Häcker ensemble.

The back of the postcard is addressed but without a postmark or date. I expect it was printed in 1910, too, around the same time as the previous card. Did the Häcker ensemble girls sing? Dance? Play other musical instruments? I don't know, but they probably looked pretty shiny and sharp when marching around on stage. 

* * *

There seems to have been no shortage of costumes and uniforms for German music hall acts of this type. Here a quartet of resolute women are dressed in masculine uniforms with white trousers and dark military-like tunics and hats. On their shoulders they carry fearsome axes. On the backdrop is a symbol of a pair of crossed tools with the slogan Glück auf! ~ Good luck!. The caption identifies them as Max Müller's Damen Ensemble wishing "Ein Herzlich - zum Gruss ~ a heartfelt greeting"  from the Bergmann-Ensemble.

The crossed tools are a Hammer and Pick, a heraldic symbol for miners or mining towns. In fact the word Bergmann is German for miner. The symbol is also on their axe heads too. Looking closely the sharp pointy bit is covered by a tiny marble knob, presumably for safety. Hanging at their waist the women also carry a box with a rounded top. Since they are "miners" I believe these are the lamps used by mineworkers down in the mines. However I can't imagine that white trousers and gloves, along with tall hats with white feather plumes, were standard apparel for any coal miner, male or female.

This postcard was sent from Dresden on 18 December 1904. 

* * *

Saluting was another common pose seen in many postcards of German ladies orchestras. Here a quintet of five women offer a kind of half-hearted raised hand that looks more like they are shading their eyes from the sun's glare. They wear matching feminine uniforms with long dark skirts, tight-waisted jackets, and floppy cloth caps pinned to their hair. Each has a small canteen slung over a shoulder, which I suspect contains a more invigorating refreshment than water. 

The caption reads: Gruss von den Marketenderinnen des Damen-Orchester P. Schultz. The word Marketenderinnen is the German word for a sutler, also called a victualer. Since ancient times a sutler was an important part of any military force as they were the civilian merchants who sold provisions to an army. They typically traveled with an army on a field campaign or to a remote military outpost where they sold wares from the back of a wagon or a temporary tent. But I don't think sutler women usually wore stylish uniforms like these.

This postcard was sent on 5 February 1905 from Halle, Germany, a major city in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The large circular stamp on the left corner is commemorating or advertising something, possibly a concert by this group for St. Lukas Halle.

* * *

This group of six women appear to be not so much saluting as scratching their heads. They wear identical dark skirts, capes, and pillbox hats sporting a single pointed feather. Their capes/shawls are attached with a musical lyre pin which is appropriate for their name: Erste Pertrianer Tamburitza-Kappel "SLAVIA", Direktion: A. Wuksan. 

A Tamburitza or Tamburica is a family of long-necked lutes traditionally played in Southeast Europe and Central Europe, especially Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia (of which it is the national string instrument), Slovenia, and Hungary. Since nearly all of this region was once part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire until 1918, there were many ethnic ensembles that performed popular music on these string instruments. Most of the postcards of Tamburitza Ensembles from this era are usually a mix of men and women, all dressed in colorful folk costumes. Herr Wuksan's Slavia group are unusual for their more somber dress, though the black and white print may hide a more colorful fabric. 

Their postcard has a postmark of 15 December 1909 from Leipzig, Germany. Stamped on the message side is a logo for the "Goldene Krone" Hotel und Konzerthaus, which presumably is where they were performing.

* * *

This line of five young women seem to be pointing at something in their eye rather than actually saluting. They wear a kind of 18th century military tunic along with short swords and tall metal shako hats. However I don't think their shapely white hosiery and lightweight slippers are regulation. According to the postcard caption they are: Hans Lämmermann's Damen, Variété, uund Burlesken Ensemble. This multi-function name suggests that the group performed several kinds of acts, maybe singing and dancing, possibly playing some instrumental music too. But judging from their costumes I'd expect they strutted onto the stage rather than high kicked ala a French can-can. This postcard was never mailed but has a simple handwritten note of their name and a location of Chemnitz in Saxony, eastern Germany. 

* * *

This quartet of ladies are dressed similarly but have longer cavalry swords and fancier imperial Prussian helmets topped with golden eagles. They are not saluting but instead look like they are conducting a band. They are The Brustons Damen-Gesangs-Ensemble. Using the English article word "the" suggests they might be a British group imitating a German fashion. Again we can assume they sang—Gesangen and doubtless marched onto the stage, but surely they did not ride horses with such leggings and pretty slippers.

This postcard has a postmark of 8 April 1905 from München~Munich, Germany. 

* * *

My last example of ladies of the German music hall stage are more of a platoon as they are dressed in uniforms of the Imperial German Army. Kind of.  These eight women wear the German soldier's standard field tunic of 1914-1918 complete with haversack, rifle, bayonet, and spiked helmet or pickelhaube. But instead of practical wool trousers they wear a forerunner of yoga pants with matching white leather mid-heel boots. Probably not the best choice for marching off to battle. The postcard caption calls them Unsere Feldgrauen 8 Germanias ~ Our Field Grey 8 Germanias.

On the back of the postcard is printed their name with a date and place: 8 Germanias, März 1918, Cöln a Rh. which place them on March 1918 in Cologne, Germany which is on the Rhine River. 

The postmark is dated 5 April 1918 which happens to be the day when British forces prevailed over a major German advance at Ancre, France, ending the first stage of the final German Spring Offensive, also known as Operation Michael. 

This operation began on 21 March 1918 and was the start of an attempt by the Germans to push through British and French forces before the main American forces arrived in France. Despite advancing more than 65 km (40 mi) into French territory and capturing over 75,000 British soldiers, 1,300 artillery pieces, and 200 tanks, the German offensive was finally stopped by the British at its most western point in France. It cost the German army 250,000 casualties while the Allies sustained around 255,000 casualties which included 177,739 British, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand soldiers killed, wounded and missing. The numbers are beyond any  comprehension as the remains of thousands of fallen soldiers have never been recovered or accounted for. The full German spring offensive of 1918, also known as the Kaiserschlacht or the "Kaiser's Battle" would not end until 18 July 1918. The final casualty numbers would be a staggering three time greater. 

This medley of women in hats and uniforms
is just a fraction of my postcard collection
of German/Austrian female music ensembles.
Readers who would like to see more
should check out these earlier stories:

• Postcards of German Ladies Orchestras
• Ladies with Brass
• Ladies of Brass with Hats
• Still More Ladies with Brass

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where nice nurses are numerous.

Feminine Charms of Music

 

grazioso — graceful

 

 zart — tenderly, delicately 

 

 We may never hear the music in a musician's photo

but we can still appreciate the personal qualities 

conveyed in their photographs,

especially when they are young women.

Today I present 

four portraits

of young concert violinists.

My first postcard photo is a close-up portrait of a violinist whose left hand reaches for a high note. Her serious demeanor suggests she is playing some graceful and tender romantic  melody. Her name is unknown and only the location of the publisher, Berlin, is on the back. So that matches with her German hair style. I think she is a solo concert artist from around 1910, possibly the leader of a small family or ladies' ensemble.

* * *

 

 

tranquillo — calm

con amore — with love

This young woman looks directly into the camera lens, her violin and bow at rest as if she has just finished a performance. Her expression is calm and confident, the look of an accomplished musician.

 Her name was May Harrison (1890—1959) an English violinist and the oldest of four sisters, all child prodigies who became concert artists during the early 20th century. Her sisters, Beatrice (1892-1965), Monica (1897-1983) and Margaret (1899-1995) trained respectively as a cellist, a mezzo-soprano, and a violinist. And all four were also accomplished pianists. 

May began her studies at age 11 on a scholarship to the London Royal College of Music in 1901. In 1908 the Harrison family moved to Berlin, Germany where Beatrice Harrison began studies at the Hochschule für Musik. That same year May Harrison left for Saint Petersburg, Russia to study under the celebrated soloist and teacher Leopold Auer. She made her European debut in 1909 in Berlin, Germany, which is when I think this photo postcard was produced, as the photographer's mark is from Berlin. May would be age 19 on the start of a very successful career. She often performed with her sisters and became a close friend and colleague to many eminent British artists and composers. All four sisters never married and remained single. May died in 1959.

 

 

 

 * * *

 

 

trés doux — very sweet

avec abandon — with abandon

My third photo shows a young woman standing in profile as she sweetly contemplates her violin as if it were a beautiful child. Her name, Nicoline Zedeler, is printed in the upper corner. 

 Nicoline Zedeler (1889—1961), later Nicoline Zedeler-Mix, was a Swedish-born American violinist who was born in Stockholm but came to America with her family in 1894 . Her father, Franz Zedeler, taught music and violin at Bethany College in Kansas, and later at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Like her older brother, Nicolai Franz Zedeler, who also became a professional musician, Nicoline first studied violin with her father and then in Chicago and Berlin. 

In 1910 she was engaged as soloist by John Philips Sousa for a world tour with his band. At one concert Nicoline was excused as she was "indisposed". In fact she and another woman, who shared a cabin on their ship, were nearly asphyxiated by a broken gas valve. Fortunately a steward noticed and was able to break into their room and rescue the two women. 

This postcard is unmarked but was printed in America, so I believe it was produced for Sousa's world tour. The band played hundreds of concerts which established John Philip Sousa as America's premier band leader and composer. Nicoline also gained a special reward from this tour as in 1912 she married Emil Mix, a tuba player in the Sousa band. Nicoline continued as a concert artist and violin teacher. She died in 1961, in New York City, at age 72.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

freudig — joyous, 

scherzando — playful

My last violin soloist also turns her gaze to the lens as she cradles her violin in her arms. But unlike the serious aspect of the other women, she has a more playful, lightheaded smile.

Her name is not complete but the caption on the card reads:

 Dirigentin u. Solo-Sängerin  A. FRANK

Damen-Salon-Orchester „Alt Wien”

 

 

She is Austrian and a directress of a ladies salon orchestra. I have not yet found a postcard of her group, there are quite a lot of these orchestra from Wien—Vienna. But when I do, it will be because I recognize that smile. Her postcard dates from before the Great War, probably around 1912.

 

 

Music is the art of sound. 

Photography is the art of light. 

Both can express 

the infinite emotions of life.

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where every postcard tells a story.

The Elegant Guitarist

 

The guitar is a versatile instrument.
It can be played solo
or in a group
by contributing melody,
accompaniment,
or both.

It's a very tactile instrument, too.
The guitar's strings and fretboard 

invite fingers to touch it
and make a sound
that vibrates the wooden body.

Whether strummed or picked,
chords and arpeggios
come naturally to the guitar
and create music
that is intimate and personal.

It's also lightweight and very portable
which makes it easy to make music anywhere.

Today a modern guitar can easily rock a stadium
with its amplification turned up to eleven,
but in earlier non-electric times it was known 
only in its acoustic form,
a shapely classical instrument
with a warm quiet tone.

 

Today I present
three vintage photographs
of young women who enjoyed
playing the guitar. 

 

My first guitarist posed for her portrait seated with her instrument in playing position. She wears a dark satiny dress made with tight sleeves and collar and a generous amount of material for the skirt. She looks about age 21 to 30 years old with attractive features of a high society woman of the 1880s. I can't say very much about her instrument except that the guitar's body seems smaller than most modern acoustic guitars. The ribbon bow tied to the headstock gives it a light-hearted style.  The photo has no annotation so the woman's name is unknown. Her dress and hair style fits with fashions of the late 1880s and early 1890s. 

Her photograph was taken at the studio of W. Kurtz in New York City at Madison Square & 233 Broadway. The back of the photo has the Kurtz business mark advertising its 12 first class medals from New York, Vienna, Paris, and Philadelphia. The bottom imprint of Branch 233 Broadway  likely means the photo came from that studio which was located, I think, on Broadway across from City Hall park just two blocks up from St. Paul's Chapel. 

The proprietor of this studio was Wilhelm or William Kurtz (1833 – 1904) , a German-American photographer and illustrator. He is recognized as a pioneer in the development of halftone and color printing for reproducing photographs. Kurtz was born in Hesse, Germany in 1833 and as a young man trained to be a lithographer. However after serving his compulsory two years of military service he lost his apprenticeship and left Germany to seek his fortune. 

He first traveled to England where he joined the British German Legion and fought in the Crimean War. After surviving that war he set off for China only to be shipwrecked off the Falkland Islands. He was rescued and taken to New York City where he found work in a photography studio. When the American Civil War started Kurtz enlisted in the New York Seventh Regiment and managed to survive that conflict, too. 

William Kurtz photograph gallery, circa 1885
Source: New York Public Library Archive

Returning to New York he went back to work as a photographer and in 1873 opened his own studio on East 23rd Street opposite Madison Square. The building was five stories tall and Kurtz's studio was on the top floors to take advantage of window lighting. Later his studio was one of the first to introduce electric lights. In this illustration his studio is covered in advertising promoting his name, but it is interesting that he shared the building with the Remington Sewing Machine Co., too.

William Kurtz became very successful making portraits of New York's society people and theater and literary celebrities. The last decades of the 19th century were a time when photographs became a very popular medium largely because innovations in photo printing allowed them to be reproduced in great numbers. It's quite possible that this guitarist's photo is a souvenir photo of a well-known actress or socialite but without more clues she will have to remain anonymous.

 * * *

My second and third guitarists appeared together as a duo on the same cabinet card photograph. Both wear fine dresses of a dark color with tight sleeves but modestly puffy shoulders, a fashion that dates from the early to mid 1890s. The girl on the left seems rather young, perhaps 14 to 18 years old maybe, while the woman on the right it closer to age 22 or 30. They might be sisters but they don't share many facial features so I'm inclined to think this is a photo of a student and teacher. Their guitars are small like the previous woman's instrument. The girl on the left has a capo across the fretboard to transpose her strings to a higher key. 

This photo is in remarkably perfect condition with a high gloss finish that makes it look as if it was taken yesterday. It has none of the surface abrasion or faded contrast that I usually find in antique photos of this period. The photographer was F. T. Bannister of New Richmond, Wisconsin. His business imprint on the back announces that "Pictures like this may be had at any time, for $2.00 per dozen, after the first dozen."  For this kind of quality that sounds like quite a deal.

The photographer's name was Frank Truman Bannister. Courtesy of one of his descendants who posted his family tree on Ancestry.com, I learned he was born in 1854 in Rome, Michigan. In 1888 Frank Bannister set up his own photography shop in New Richmond, Wisconsin with a specialty in "General Viewing of Railroads, Bridges, Mills, Residencies, Life-size Photographs, Fine India Ink and Crayon Portraits." 

New Richmond is in St. Croix County, Wisconsin about 40-35 miles northeast of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. In the 1890s it was a thriving small town of about 1,500 residents that served a larger region of farms and timberlands. 

On Monday, 12 June 1899, New Richmond was welcoming many visitors because the Gollmar Bros. Circus was in town. The weather was not ideal and the afternoon brought heavy rain with hail that spoiled the show, but by suppertime the rain let up and people began heading back to their homes and to the town's center.  

Suddenly the sky grew very menacing with flashes of lightning and rumble of thunder. Within seconds a tornado touched down near the southwest corner of the town in a residential neighborhood where many of New Richmond's prosperous families lived. In an instant over fifty homes were destroyed. 

The tornado then rapidly advanced on the town's central business district where many people had sought refuge in the stone and brick commercial buildings. Yet these masonry structures were no defense against this tornado's monstrous energy and fury. All were demolished killing many people sheltering inside. In moments it hit the circus grounds, shredding the tents and killing a few horses and an elephant. The town of New Richmond was almost completely obliterated and hundreds perished with many more injured. 

Minneapolis Tribune
13 June 1899

The 1899 New Richmond cyclone was estimated as an F5 tornado, the most  powerful kind with the highest velocity winds. That evening of June 12th it ripped a 45-mile path of devastation through St. Croix, Polk, and Barron counties in west-central Wisconsin. Within New Richmond and the surrounding area 117 people were killed, and at least  twice as many more were injured. Hundreds were left homeless. The wind peeled the bark off trees. Houses were totally destroyed. Damaged tanks of flammable material caught fire setting off a secondary wave of destruction. This next image taken the next day shows only part of the damage. It was clipped from a larger panoramic photo that gives a better view of this terrible tragic event.

Elevated view of New Richmond after the tornado hit on June 12, 1899.
The Willow River is visible in the foreground.
Source: Wisconsin Historical Society image 61758

Reports on the destruction of New Richmond continued through the week as the world learned of the horrendous disaster. Mr. Bannister's business appeared in one account which was repeated in several newspapers around the country.

        The people are still so dazed that, with few exceptions, the bereaved ones evince no grief or apparent emotion.   This gives the impression of indifference, but physicians say they are so dazed by the disaster that they do not realize its extent or their losses of friends and property.  One old man was looking over the ruins of Bannister's photograph gallery.  In answer to a question as to what he was looking for he replied, in a perfectly indifferent manner:

        "Oh, I was just looking for a picture of my wife and children.  They were all killed and my house went, too."

        This is a fair sample of the state of mind every one is in who lost part of or all they possessed.  Money and supplies are coming in constantly, but as far as money is concerned, it is not enough to give the desolate town anything like a new start.  It is problematic whether or not this once thriving community will rise from its ashes, or rather debris, and attain the prosperity which prevailed before it was demolished.

A few weeks later in another newspaper, Mr. Bannister told a reporter that he had begun building three small buildings to restart his photography business. By the 1910 census Frank T. Bannister listed his occupation as photographer and included his eldest son, also named Frank, in the business. He died in 1919 at age 65. 

 * * *

My third photo and fourth guitarist is posed standing in a photographer's studio while leaning her head on her instrument's headstock. This is not how you tune a guitar. She wears dark skirt with a a loose blouse made of a broad crisscross pattern satiny fabric with big puffy shoulders. That fashion and her hair tied into a top knot, (along with the ornate rattan chair, too) are a typical style of the late 1890s. Her direct gaze at the camera also gives her a subtle provocative quality that is not common in photos of this era. Her guitar is similar to the others but has a darker varnish. 

The photographer was E. E. Spracklen of 101,103 & 105 Allen St. in Webb City, Missouri. Webb City is located in the southwest corner of Missouri, west of Springfield and near the border corners of Kansas and Oklahoma. It was developed partly on 200-acres owned by a farmer named John C. Webb who drew up plans for a town in September 1875. He incorporated his self-named city in December 1876 when it already had a population of 700. 

Mr. Webb knew the value of the land as he had discovered lead ore there while plowing. In this great age of the industrial revolution it did not take long for mining companies to start digging. By the late 1890s when this photo was taken there were over 700 mines located within the limits of Webb City and adjacent Carterville. The region was also rich in other minerals, especially zinc ore. By 1880, just a few years after its incorporation, Webb City's population more than doubled to 1,588. By 1890 it jumped 217.6% to 5,043 residents. After a decade it was 9,201 in the 1900 census and then 11,817 in 1910. 

In 2020 Webb City has a modest but respectable population of 13,031, but in the 1890s it was clearly a prosperous place with enough wealth for a photographer to make a good living producing fine photos like this one of a young woman with her guitar. 

The photographer's full name was Edwin Eveliegh Spracklen. Courtesy of information posed on the FindaGrave.com website, Edwin E. Spracklen was born in December 1853 on the Isle of Guernsey in the English Channel. As a child he immigrated with his family to London, Ontario where he evidently got a good Canadian practical education. He trained as a photographer in Chicago and after a period traveling around the west, Spracklen settled in Webb City opening his own photography studio there in 1880. He was remembered as an artistic photographer and dealer in picture frames and art sundries. In 1898 he was elected mayor of Webb City, a position he held of two years. He died in March 1941 at the age of 87 and is buried in the Webb City cemetery. 

We may never know the names of anonymous people in old photographs but sometimes we can make a sketch of their lives by learning more about the person behind the camera. I'd bet good money that Mr. Kurtz, Mr. Bannister, and Mr. Spracklen each got to hear their guitarists play a private concert in return for a beautiful photograph.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where things outside always look better
if you clean the windows.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

 

They called themselves “Die Nymphen vom Nordseestrand” ~ “The nymphs from the North Sea beach” Wearing shiny satin bathing costumes complete white tights, slippers, and royal crowns this ladies singing quartet was one of director Franz Appel's Variety and Burlesque Ensembles. 

The postcard was sent on 24 February 1911 from Mittweida, a small town in Saxony, Germany. It's a very long way (300 miles) from the cold North Sea shore.

* * *

The Damen-Orchester “Monte-Carlo” dressed more sensibly for a visit to the seaside with matching sailor suits. But their small rowboat looks dangerously overloaded for a sextet. They do look a bit worried as one young lady waves a white handkerchief in hope of rescue.  Good thing they did not bring their instruments along.

The postmark is from 27 September 1911 from the port city of Bremerhaven, Germany where their costumes would certainly be familiar to most people. 

* * *

The four young ladies of the Original Flora-Truppe, directed by Frau M. Hinsch, chose more fashionable dresses with matching parasols for a stroll along a seaside boardwalk (at least that's what I think it's supposed to be).  Their specialty is not included in the caption but the short hem length of their dresses suggest they were a song and dance troupe. 

The postmark is dated 16 July 1910 but the location is smudged. However the writer conveniently included a place name in their message of Neuhaus, a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany at the mouth of the River Oste on the North Sea.  

* * *

This next quartet of young women wear matching red costumes with short-shorts and rolled sleeves that hint of some recreational activity. Behind them is a gloomy backdrop that could be a boardwalk along a riverside but it's too vague to know for sure. They are “Die Feschen Original Lobersiana Mädels” ~ The attractive Lobersiana Lassies. Their act is not described but I think singing and dancing were part of it. Evidently they also promoted a beauty product as there is a 25 Pfennig advertising stamp affixed to the front of the postcard for Shampoon mit dem schwarzen-Kopf! mit Eigelb-Zusatz ~ Shampoo with the black head! With added egg yolk.

This  postcard was mailed by a German soldier during WW1 using the free military postal service on 5 May 1917. The postmark is possibly from Rodenberg, a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, just west of Hannover.  

* * *

But for shear joie de vie or Lebensfreude as Germans would say, few female acts could compete with the 6 Original Thalias Akrobatische Tanzsängerinnen from Gäthgen's Hamburger Variété und Brilesken Ensemble. Posed in a three tier human pyramid these young ladies did it all. Singing, dancing, and acrobatic feats in costumes made out of heavy embroidered upholstery fabric. 

This card was sent from Cassel, now Kassel, a city almost in the center of Germany. The writer includes a date of 8 December 1913. 

Several years ago I began collecting postcards of groups of professional female entertainers who performed on the music hall circuits of the German and Austrian/Hungarian Empires. As I have discovered, there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of young ladies who were members of small orchestras, brass bands, vocal groups, dance troupes, and folk ensembles. Their postcards made the German postcard publishers very wealthy men as every group used postcards to promote their act at a theater, restaurant, or beerhall. By themselves some of the cards are less interesting, but when they are put together in subcategories by their acts, they present a rich and vibrant Germanic culture. I only wish I could describe their music. I guess we will have to use our imagination.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where some people are enjoying a day at the beach.

Even More Fashionable Lady Cornetists

 

In the early days of photography
there were no candid snapshots.
A photograph was the result of a formal event
conducted at a photographer's studio.

Taking a photo was never done
on a spontaneous impulse.
It was always scheduled 
with a photographer in advance
and the client was expected to look their best.

The photographer used their artistic judgement
to place the camera in a position
that presented their subjects
in the most flattering light.

For photos of young women it was very important
to have an undistracting background
with gentle side illumination to avoid shadows on the face
or any glare reflected in the eyes. 

And sometimes when the occasion allowed
a skilled photographer might invite
their subject to look into the camera lens
and smile.

Today I present five beautiful portraits
of young women from New England,
all cornet players from the 1890s
and all, unfortunately, missing any identification.

My first young cornetist sits in the Holden studio of 393 Main St. in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is wearing a dark satin gown with puffy shoulders and a very tight waistline as she reclines on a velvet covered box. She has a pleasant wistful look as she gazes off to the left. Her B-flat cornet is embellished with a lot of engraving, the sign of a premium instrument. 

The photographer was Luman Holden who was born in 1865 in Massachusetts. In the 1900 census he was married to Addie Holden and his occupation was photographer. But the earliest date I could find for his photography studio in Worcester was around 1897. By 1902 his name was missing from the city directory and in the 1910 census he worked as a foreman in a shoe shop.

The second young lady's portrait is a ¾ view in an oval cut print. She is standing in the Haley & Akers Studio of  Meriden, Connecticut. Dressed in a dark striped blouse with modest puffy shoulders and a slim dark skirt, I'd put her age at around 17-20 years old, but I find it hard to be sure when a young girl is so elegantly dressed.

The photographers were John P. Haley and John Akers. Their studio first appears in the 1894 Meriden city directory but by 1901, Haley has left and only Akers remains in the photographers listings. 

My third cornetist is actually performing for the camera with her cornet at her lips. However I think it is only a pose as her embouchure would show some tension around her mouth if she was actually blowing a note. Her gown is all white with a ruffle band along the front button seam. Like the previous women she also has a very tight waistline. 

The photographer was the Partridge Studio of Boston, Massachusetts in Brookline. The back of the cabinet card photograph has a nice illustration of the studio building showing a kind of Arts & Craft style cottage with a fanciful tower on one corner. Perhaps the many windows on the circular tower was a way to insure good lighting throughout the day. 

The photographer William H. Partridge (1858–1938) was born in Wheeling, West Virginia to a father who was a photographer. William and his two brothers, Edward and Samuel Partridge, all took up photography too, and began working with their father in Boston in 1878 as A. C. Partridge & Sons. In 1884 Edward and William moved to Portland, Oregon where they established a successful studio there. They both made several trips to Alaska and made a number of landscape photos that were printed for sale on both the west and east coasts. In about 1887 William Partridge moved back to Boston where he ran a successful photography studio until 1914 and became known for his portrait and landscape photographs as well as botanical paintings. My collection has several fine portraits of female musicians including some string players that were taken at the Partridge studio, so I believe they all may be connected to the same Boston women's orchestra. 

The fourth cornetist is similarly dressed in a white gown with puffy sleeves. She looks the youngest of my set of young ladies, maybe 15-17 years old. The photographer has posed her standing in front of a vague cloud-like backdrop which give her an angelic attitude.  This picture was taken by Chipman & Keefe of the Temple Studio at 180 Temple St. in New Haven, Connecticut. 

The photographers were Walter F. Chipman and William J. O'Keefe. Chipman was born in 1863 and when he was 17 he listed his occupation as photographer in the 1880 census for New Haven. However his partnership with O'Keefe on Temple St. began with a listing in the 1894 New Haven city directory. This business only lasted two years as in the 1896 directory O'Keefe has the studio  at Temple. The following year, in 1897, O'Keef has departed and Chipman has a new partner named Beck with a studio on Chapel St.. And in 1898 New Haven has 25 photographers in its business listings but neither Chipman nor O'Keefe have a studio, though they each list their occupation as photographer in their individual listings. It's an example how photography became a booming field for entrepreneurs in the late 1890s but it was also a very competitive trade. It does mean that this young woman's portrait dates from the years 1894 to 1895 that Chipman and O-Keefe worked together.

My last cornetist has the most glamorous photo. This young lady is also dressed in a white satin gown with full puffy shoulders, ruffles, ribbons and a super tight waist. She is the only one who gazes directly at the camera lens with a very slight but confident smile. Her curly hair is tied with a ribbon into a topknot. In this ¾ view she is seated on an ornately carved wooden chair with her arm around her instrument that rests oddly on a wooly sheepskin. 

The photo was taken at another Boston photography studio operated by Elmer Chickering of 21 West St. in Boston. Elmer Chickering (1857–1915) was born in Vermont where he learned photography but in 1884 relocated to Boston opening a studio on West St. just a half-block from Boston Common park. His establishment had a first floor gallery that was arranged like a museum exhibition space. On the third floor his studio was outfitted with the best cameras including one of the earliest telephoto lens. Chickering was also skilled in several graphic techniques, being a good painter in oils, and an accomplished draughtsmen with crayons, pastels, and India ink. His studio employed several photographers with specialties in arranging photographs of artistic, landscape, and outdoor scenes. Chickering's handsome photo portraits became very popular and attracted a large clientele, especially with theatric entertainers, who purchased multiple cabinet card promotional prints.  

Like the Partridge studio, Chickering produced a large number of photos of Boston's female musicians, some of which are now in my collection. Like this young cornetist, almost every one is dressed in a white gown with big puffy sleeves, a fashion popular in the late 1890s. A few of these musicians are identified on the photo and I've been able to find them on the player rosters of several Boston ladies' orchestras from the 1890s. Because Boston was such an important center of American culture and entertainment in this era, it provided female musicians with a number of ladies' bands and orchestras that performed in the New England region. I think this young woman was one of those professional musicians. 

But as I put these photographs together this week I noticed a curious detail that I'd not seen before. It's quite small, and unusual to see on a woman of this era. Can you spot it? 

It's a tiny diamond or gold stud in the right ear lobe of the cornet player in the Partridge and the Chickering photos. I think it is the same young woman. Both have the same kinky hair which looks to be a ginger color. And both have a very narrow waist. But that pierced ear makes a statement that I believe only a confident talented soloist would make. Maybe one day I'll find her in a group photo of her orchestra. 

This is my contribution for Sepia Saturday

where grandma always tells
the best stories.