This is a good photograph of Japanese ‘Baron’ (or danshaku) Kentaro Kaneko. Actually, the Japanese usually use the family name first, so he was known as Kaneko Kentaro. An 1878 graduate of Harvard University, Kaneko was born in Fukuoka to a samurai family. Here he is resplendent in his military uniform, about 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War. Later in that year he was sent as special envoy to the United States, to entreat President Roosevelt (who had been his classmate at Harvard) to help negotiate an end to that war.

This photograph was taken in the Japanese studio of Riyo Maruki (born 1850 or 1854; died 1923), in Tokyo. A prominent photographer of that era, Maruki even took photographs of the Emperor, in 1888, and another in 1915. His studio in Tokyo was in operation from 1880 until his death in 1923.

The photographer titled this portrait “Love finds the way” — and leaves it to us to decide what that means. The subject is actress Minnie Madden Fiske (Mrs Fiske). I thought at first that she probably appeared in a play of that name, based on the 1904 book — but then I noticed that the image was dated 1896 by the Library of Congress, though they don’t give their reason for choosing that date. I’d have thought it somewhat later, the high collar is typical of 1895-1905. The dress sleeves have a fluffy sleeve-cap at top, but are rather too tight for typical mid-1890s, when leg-o-mutton was more in vogue. On further research, I discovered that the book was based on a play, rather than the usual vice-versa, and Minnie appeared in that play in 1898 (the movie came out in 1912). This photo must date from that year or later.

The photographer was Zaida Ben-Yusuf (1869-1933). According to an 1897 article in Leslie’s Weekly, she was “Algerian by birth, though reared and educated in England.” She had a studio on 5th Avenue in New York City, and took many celebrity portraits such as this. Another source states she was active 1896-1915, which may be why the LOC staff chose the earlier year for this image. The title, however, demonstrates that it is from at least a couple years later.

Here is a photo from October 1st, 1940, showing Albert Einstein receiving his United States citizenship papers from Judge Phillip Forman. I suppose he must have passed the test — wonder what his score was?

The photographer was Al Aumuller. Searching for Al I found lots of references to his photographs, all celebrity photos, dating from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. But poor Al has passed under the radar of photographic biographers. I could not find any information on his life. I searched the genealogical resources, censuses and city directories — found a couple possibilities, but no way to know which (if any) were him, since they were not listed as photographers in the 1920 and 1930 censuses. This one stumped me.

This cute photograph shows four children at work, filling a wagon with gravel, while a fifth child sits on the ground nearby and plays with his horse and cart pull-toy. The children seem very engrossed in their work, and ignore the photographer entirely.

This image was taken by well-known photographer Jessie Tarbox, or as she was known by her married name, Jessie Tarbox Beals. Jessie was born in Hamilton Ontario in 1870, and in 1902 took a job as photojournalist with The Buffalo Inquirer. She left the newspaper in 1904 and went to Saint Louis Missouri where she photographed the World’s Fair then in progress. In 1905 she moved to New York City, where she opened her own gallery. In 1917 she separated from her husband and moved to the artsy Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York, where she opened an art gallery. This photograph was taken during that period, probably in Greenwich Village. In 1928 Jessie moved to California, and began photographing homes of the stars for postcards. In 1933 she moved to Chicago, and later returned to Greenwich Village where she died in 1942.

This public domain image shows one of the Vanderbilt summer cottages, Biltmore House, now a National Historic Monument located near Asheville, North Carolina. It is still owned by Vanderbilt descendants. Modeled on the French chateaux styles, it is the largest private residence in the U.S. Construction began in 1888 and was completed in 1895. This image shows how it looked in the year 1900. The architect was Richard Morris Hunt, and the grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

This photo was taken by John H Tarbell of Asheville. Most of the photo credits we have seen for this photographer are from 1895 to 1905, though he was listed in the 1910 census as a photographer, living in Boston by that time. In the 1900 census he is shown in Asheville, age 50, born September 1849 in Massachusetts.