I fell for this cabinet card the second I saw it in The Wurdeman Studio shop. The matching dresses, the doll, the girl pointing towards the sky, combined with the fact that the sitters were identified, pushed me to hit the add to cart button. The Frey sisters, Leah Adda (10) and Bessie J. (8), sat … More The Hope of Heaven
Sarah Jane “Jennie” Gregory first said “I do” when she was 64 years old. She wed Theodore A. Collier, 62, in Pontiac, Michigan, on February 27, 1912. It was his first trip to the altar, as well. As strange as this late-in-life marriage may seem, what makes it all the more interesting is that the … More Secret Lovers
I admired this cased ambrotype, along with a smaller, cased tintype (shown at the end of this post), for at least a year, as they sat listed on etsy. The seller mistakenly identified the sitter as William Wallace. He overlooked the next word, which I came to discover was the surname of Hungerford. William Wallace Hungerford … More Living with Hoboes
During a trip to a local antique mall, I was excited to see quite a few newly offered antique photo albums, tintypes, ambrotypes and daguerrotypes. That excitement grew by leaps and bounds when I flipped through the albums and discovered that they came from the same family. It was a dream find!
Throughout history, flowers have been used at funerals and memorial services as visual expressions of love, sympathy, and respect. This cabinet card is so beautiful that the lack of identifying writing didn’t stop me from adding it to my collection. I also didn’t let it stop me from attempting to figure out who these flowers … More Love and Sympathy
This cabinet card was found in the Pickers Paradise antique mall in Niles, Michigan. Not only was the sitter identified as Mrs. Tillie Gregory, but the date of May 31, 1895 was also noted. Mathilda, “Tillie”, spent her childhood years in Canada with her German-born parents, Charles, and Sophia (nee Shatz) Weishan. In 1884, just … More Pernicious Anemia
These were some of the first old photos I picked up when I began collecting. The green and dark brown cabinet card mounts are especially attractive and I love how crisp and richly saturated the images have remained after more than 130 years. All the photos were taken at the same studio, Mast, in Marshall, … More The Best Deductions
I found a sandwich bag full of black and white photos from the 1940s and 50s in a little shop in Allen, Michigan. At one time, the photos were in an album, as evidenced by remnants of the black paper pages clinging to the back. A handful of the photos contained writing on the back, … More Love on the Run
the rescued photo 