One of four sites chosen to be the first National Monuments in the United States in 1906, Montezuma’s Castle was built by the Sinagua people, who were related to the better-known Hohokam. This cliff house was built about 1100 A.D. and occupied for four hundred years. The main structure was five stories high. Obviously, you don’t build your home that high on a cliff-side unless you need a defensive position, an that was the case here, with conflicts between local groups over access to water and food resources. The population peaked about 1325 A.D. There was an even larger pueblo at the foot of the cliff, but it is not so well preserved.

This public domain photograph is another image by Dr. Edgar Alexander Mearns (1856-1916), whom we profiled under his image of Emma and Mex. This further confirms a date of 1887 for that image, as this one is dated that same year and notes it is just “3 miles from Fort Verde”.

The nice thing about public domain images is that you can do pretty much whatever you want with them — use them on your website or even commercially, use them to illustrate your book or CD, and as I demonstrate here — modify them in any way you like. Here, I’ve taken an image of a young woman holding flowers, labeled ‘Flora’ by the photographer, and colorized the image. I’m no expert with Photoshop, but even so I can create a modified version of this image that is much more attractive (in my opinion), and could be used in a variety of ways. Now the question arises, do I own the copyright to this colorized version? That is not clear. If it is different enough from the original to constitute a new work — minor changes are not sufficient — then it is a copyrightable derivative work. Is colorizing a minor or major change? Seemed minor when I did it — took about 5 minutes. In any case, if this qualifies as a derivative work, I hereby place it in the public domain. The original would remain in the public domain regardless of any derivative I might produce.

The original photograph was taken by Edwin James McCullagh of Stockton California, about 1900. Edwin was born in Michigan in January of 1870, and is listed with his wife and baby son in the 1900 census in Stockton California. In the 1920 and 1930 censuses they are found in Berkeley California. In the 1920 census 21 year old son Gavin is also listed as a photographer.

Here is a typical carte-de-visite style, card mounted photograph. This was the normal family photo of the 1860s to 1890s, along with a larger type called a ‘cabinet card’. Almost every antique store has a pile of these sorts of images, many without a clue as to who the person was. This card has an inscription on back ‘Adam Bentz 1864′ — as well as the photographer’s imprint which indicates it was taken at Racine Ohio. Such clues — and they are only clues, and in need of further verification before being accepted — make a card photograph much more interesting. Sometimes we find the name written on a card is a person who was to receive the card, not the subject. And dates may be added much later, and are only as reliable as the memory of the person adding them.

In this case, we see an immediate problem — this is not the style of card found in the 1860s, it looks much more like a typical 1870s image. In searching for the photographer, Thomas W Mercer, we find him living in Racine Ohio (Meigs county) in 1870, but at that time his occupation is shown as saddler, while in 1880 he has moved to Sutton Ohio (in the same county as Racine) and is listed as a photographer. So it appears he took up photography sometime in the 1870s. In the 1900 census he has moved to Allegheny Pennsylvania, where he is living with the family of his son George, also a photographer.

Searching for Adam Bentz in the 1870 census we find ten listed, two in Meigs County Ohio, the younger of whom was born about 1851 — which would mean he was 13 in 1864, which looks about the right age for this fellow. But the photo was clearly not made that early, and does not look like a copy of an 1864 image either — the pinstripe suite, close-up head and shoulders portrait, both suggest 1870s as well. We see however another Adam Bentz, living in Allegheny Pennsylvania, who was born about 1862. Maybe he was born 1864, and the date is not intended as the date of the photo, but the birth-date of the subject. We know the photographer had connections with Allegheny — we find him living there in 1900 — so it is highly coincidental that we find an Adam Bentz there and two in Meigs county in 1870 — I think if a more complete genealogy were worked up, we would find they were all related to one another. Perhaps young Adam from Allegheny was visiting with relatives in Ohio when he had his picture taken. Either that or someone in the family identified this as the Adam born 1851, but was in error, and calculated it must be 1864 because he looks about 13 — in which case it is probably some other member of the family.

This is an image of Carnegie Public Library, Fort Worth, Texas. There were over 1,600 Carnegie libraries built in the United States and almost 1,000 more in other countries between 1883 and 1929, financed by Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie. Curiously, most of them had an imposing set of stairs leading up to the main doors, to symbolize how users were elevating themselves.

The Fort Worth Carnegie Library was designed by Herbert H Green. Funding was approved in 1899, and the library opened in 1901. This photograph was probably taken soon after it was completed, the landscaping does not look very long-established. The photograph is credited to Charlie L Schwartz, but I could not find any information on him. There are several Charles or Charlie Schwartz’s in Texas in the 1900 census, but none of them are listed as photographers. This very substantial-looking building was razed in 1937 — one wonders why?

Here we have a wonderful image of a tearful-looking Sioux toddler, with a man crouched down beside him, as two women stand by, next to a child in a wicker baby-carriage who is peaking out at the toddler. The photographer has identified this as a Sioux village near Rushville Nebraska. If the women’s clothes weren’t enough to convince us this is a post-1900 photo, then the fact the Sioux are living in canvas tents, rather than teepees, should give us a clue.

This image, which is in the public domain because the copyright has expired, was copyrighted in May 1908, and probably taken shortly before that. The women’s heavy coats and the lack of vegetation, but no snow, suggests early Spring, probably March of that year. The photograph was printed as a real-photo postcard. The photographer is identified as S D Butcher & Son. That is Solomon Devore Butcher, whom we profiled under his image of Broken Bow Hardware. But that image credit didn’t mention the son. Solomon and his wife Lillie had two children, one son and one daughter. The son was Lynn J, born March 1883 in Nebraska. Lynn is listed in the 1900 census with his parents, in 1910 as a photographer with a wife and seven-month old son, and in 1920 as a salesman.