Here is a classic image of the Great Sphinx in Egypt with some of the Giza Pyramids in the background. Three persons in Arab dress are included to give scale to the picture, one standing on a ledge near the chest of the Sphinx, and the other two tending to camels standing on the outstretched right paw of the Sphinx. Other figures are barely visible in the distance, approaching the Pyramid of Khafre, easily recognized because it is the only one to retain part of its original polished limestone casing at the peak. To the left is the Pyramid of Menkaure, with two peaks of the Pyramids of the Queens beyond that. The Pyramid of Khufu, sometimes called the Great Pyramid, is not visible in this view, being off to the right from this viewpoint.
The photo is by Félix Bonfils (1831-85), a Frenchman who moved to Beirut in 1867. At first studio was called ‘Maison Bonfils’ but in 1878 it was renamed ‘F Bonfils et Cie’. This image is identified as being from Maison Bonfils, and so dates between 1867 and 1878. The author titled this work ‘Le Sphynx et les pyramides de Cheffren et Mycérinus’ which translates as ‘The Sphynx and Pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure.’
OK, so this one isn’t a beautiful image. It is a rather poor photograph, in fact. But it is one of those historically interesting images one comes across occasionally, leading one to wonder — what was their life like? An Internet search did not reveal any information about this group, just a digital copy of this same image available at exorbitant prices.
The picture shows three short men, wearing typical dress suits of the time, holding hands. There is clearly a family resemblance. According to the caption, these are ‘Murays Midgets, Tripplet Brothers, Age 19 years.’ I have my doubts they were triplets, but the family resemblance is unmistakable, so perhaps they were brothers. The fellow on the left, who has moved a bit and is blurry — looks younger, while the fellow on the right, looks older than the middle gentleman, who was the tallest. Muray or Murray could be their surname, or it might be a stage name, or even the name of their manager, and the ’s’ at the end is possessive, though there is no apostrophe. There is a swirl over the r that suggests it may represent a doubled-r.
The photograph was taken by Charles Eisenmann, a New York photographer during the late 1870s and early 1880s. Charles was born in Germany about 1850. In the 1880 census his wife Dora is also listed as a photographer, so they probably ran the studio together. This image was taken right around 1880.
This photo shows a pair of pottery workers, one sits on the ground kneading the raw clay, while the other uses a broad paddle to put the finishing touches on a tandoor oven. Today, we associate the tandoor with northern India and Pakistan, but this image comes from north of there, in Turkistan, part of the great Persian empire at the time this image was taken, around 1870. The image originally appeared in an illustrated book published in 1872.
The citation for this image from the National Archives does not include the photographer, but from contemporary images from the same area, we can guess that it may have been N V Bogaevskii (with an accent mark over the first i). This, however, is just speculation.
Whoever took the image was a talented photographer. It is well composed, with a door in the rough adobe-like walls of the building behind the main subjects breaking-up what would otherwise be a boring back-drop. There is also a raised platform, with three more tandoors on it, presumably drying before they are fired. The workmen, who are the main subjects, are absorbed in their work, completely ignoring the photographer.
This fine old image looks best very dark, as it is presented here — but if you want to see more details, just edit it in Photoshop to be much lighter. It shows a steamboat, apparently a stern-wheeler, approaching the dock at Silver Springs Florida in 1886. The boat rounds the bend into the small protected bay amid great anticipation — more than 20 people are on the shore, and almost all of them face the oncoming boat.On the boat too is anticipation, people line the decks and stand on the roof, looking shoreward. It can’t be moving very fast, for very near the prow is a small rowboat, while another waits midway between the boat and shore.
At the lower left we see a railroad car, sitting alone on the one of the two pairs of tracks. A building with an elevated platform holds some of the spectators, while others are lined along a boardwalk that runs across the lower-center part of the picture. A covered boat-dock is on the right, with a porched shed on the hill just above it. at the bottom right, beneath the large tree, is the foundation of new building being constructed, with piles of lumbers scattered around it.
This photo was taken by George Barker (1844-94), a Canadian landscape photographer who worked in London Onatrio 1857-61, then moved to Niagara Falls New York, where he worked for Platt D Babbitt for a couple years before going into business for himself. He is best known for his views of Niagara Falls, but also published a wide range of stereo views. In 1886 he took a trip to Florida, and this is among the photographs he took while there. A few years later in 1889 he hurried to the site of the Johnstown Flood disaster and recorded the carnage there. Many of his stereo views of other areas were purchased from other photographers. After his death, his negatives were purchased from his estate by Underwood and Underwood, and copies continued to be printed for many years.
I do not believe that the average person wants a ‘map’ of his face - I believe he wants to be idealized. -Louis Fabian Bachrach [But I, II or III?]
If this stern looking fellow had any taller of a collar he would need to stretch his neck out to fit. Notice how the knot of the tie is under the collar, and only shows through a narrow slit, while the rest of the tie hangs down under his vest, and is restricted with a small pin.
This is Albert Jeremiah Beveridge, born 6 Oct 1862 in Ohio, died 27 April 1927 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His biography mentions his political career (he was a Republican in the U.S. Senate 1899-1911) and his historical writing (he won a Pulitzer for his four volume biography: The Life of John Marshall.) But what did he do for the first 30 years of his life? The 1880 census shows that at 17 he was assistant to the local Post Master in Sullivan IL.
The photograph, with its dramatic lighting so characteristic of formal portraits of the era, was taken by Louis Fabian Bachrach (1881-1963), probably just a few days before it was published 17 Jan 1922. Louis was the son of David and Fannie Bachrach. His father, David J Bachrach, was a German-born photographer in Baltimore Maryland. Louis seems first to have taken up lithography, as that is his occupation in the 1900 census, before turning to his father’s occupation of photography by 1910 when he was living in Worcester Massachusetts with his wife Dorothy. They had several children, including a son Louis Fabian Bachrach Jr, who must have also been a photographer, because his son — Louis Fabian Bachrach III — notes that he is a 4th generation photographer.
