Early Century Photo Album From Hillier, Ontario Part 2

Note: The photograph on the top left side has inherited a ghost or something that caught the light and turned it into what appears a really large smudge. It is possibly glue residue. We couldn't fix this in time for todays blog so we will give it another try tomorrow. The photos are addressed in the copy of todays blog.

GETTING AN EARLY 1900'S GLIMPSE OF AN ONTARIO HAMLET - HILLIER, ONTARIO

FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM IS A DELIGHT FOR THE PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTOR

     When I was editor of The Herald-Gazette, in Bracebridge, I had the enviable task (or at least I thought so), of immersing myself in our photographic archives, to look for historic images to use in our weekly issues. I had thousands upon thousands to sort through, and select, to companion feature stories, or to fill a space between the advertisements when the editorial copy was all used up. This happened when our sales manager would take an advertisement way past deadline, and then would have to bump up the pages for that issue, making the editorial department crazy, because of all the copy that scenario would gobble up. I used photographs to kill space. I preferred old ones to new, for these feature spots.
    I have never been a photo-historian, and don't pretend to be an expert on the subject of the camera, or picture taking as it began and has continued. My exposure to antique and vintage photographs and negatives, has been a sort of education by immersion, and I tutored myself with actuality, of being up to my chin in old archive boxes, containing photographs, and I sought out reference books to help me understand the process of photography from its origin. I studied the content of these antique images, and what studio photographers would employ, to jazz up portraits and group images. There's a lot more to these portraits that you might initially think, because the props were pretty neat, and selected to suit the subject's interests.
     Without question, old photographs, especially from the Victorian era, can appear pretty creepy, and generally unappealing, if you happen to be interested in a nice graphic, even a family portrait, for a condo living room, or in a contemporary design recreation room, bedroom or den. What I see as beautiful on its own, others see as dark and mysterious, as if the work of the local undertaker, more so than the neighborhood photo studio. They are what they are, and regardless of the upgrades of the framing, from the heavy gilt painted plaster, the weight of a small anchor, it's the integral character of the black and white photograph to be just that; black and white, end of story. Hand tinting was the first step to remove this dull, unremarkable trait of basic photography from the early period of the camera, with its limitations of negatives, including glass, film and processing that was available. Also, keep in mind, that in the early days of photographs, the time to take an image was much, much longer than the fraction of a second pictures are snapped today. If you look closely at early studio photographs, you can find the base of the iron stand, that was used to keep your head and body still, for these long exposures. I have seen many examples of these stands, and most of them were visible when children were being photographed, and you can well imagine the furor in the studios, from these unhappy youngsters, being forced to sit still for these portraits; while having a brace at the back of your neck to keep your head from moving. Which of course, would blur the facial features in the finished product. It is impossible to hold a smile for the required time, of a long photographic exposure, which should explain the prevalance of frowns. They're not so hard to maintain, but it doesn't mean they were unhappy subjects at being photographed. Children, well, in the patience department, this was likely a photographer's nightmare.
     Just to illustrate what a long exposure meant, my father told me once, how he used to get in trouble when a photographer came to take class photos in his early public school years. There were students who knew that they could be photographed in different positions in the class picture, by standing in one place long enough to me imaged, and then running to the opposite side of the class, to be photographed there as well. Thus being in the same photograph twice without having a doppelganger to blame. In some cases, the students were too slow, and their run between sides, showed-up as a faint but obvious blur, that undoubtedly irritated the teacher and photographer, and may have even necessitated a re-take. So looking stoic and a little Victorian, for the members of the family in the album we are about to look at, they may have had this knowledge, about staying still and keeping a half-frown on their faces, despite the fact exposure times became less and less, and photographic equipment was improved, including the creation of negatives. The images I want to show you are indeed a little haunting in appearance. But what haunts me, is that there isn't more information available, regarding the family and their personal biographies, in the hamlet of Hillier, Ontario. Hope you enjoy this little heritage offering, as relates to antique and vintage photographic images.
     The pretty well focused, dog eared black and white photographs, published with my blog, are a story within a story. They were taken by someone with a camera, who was definitely not a studio photographer. That's the magic of the images. The  one photograph, in oval format, with this collection shown today, of course, must be credited to W. McReynolds, and his Trenton, Ontario studio. It may even be the case, that some of our own Jackson, Sandercock and Vandervoort family photographs, were taken by the good Mr. McReynolds (I haven't check our family archives yet), because my mother's side also came from Prince Edward Country, and had a farmstead in Trenton, from the mid 1800's into the new century.
     I particularly like antique and vintage photographs that are honest, unstaged, as taken by amateurs, who weren't trying to create Karsh-like art out of family photographs, like what are contained in this small but poignant album. The art is in the naive, folkish way the images were snapped, without fashioning the perfect backdrop or setting on either side, or in front. The images are as close to real life images, as any photographer can hope to achieve, and other than looking at the camera, as you would expect of a typical non-studio portrait, and appearing stoic, a carry over of the Victorian model, (much which had to do with exposure time), those photographed were probably quite pleased with this conservative characteristic, and the serious demeanour it represented as you can see for yourself in good old black and white.
     In these photographs, and with a fair amount of historical background, these family elders, look as if they have had a hard existence in the rural agricultural clime of Ontario. They come by their serious appearance honestly, by having experienced many set-backs in family and personal economy, which we can't ascertain at this particular moment, but can surmise based on other similar albums, and residential circumstances. At the same time, they appear satisfied with their lot in life, and what they have come to possess of house and property, and the extension of family. They appear as if they have held their shoulders to the plow, so to speak, and I apologize in advance, for suggesting, they appear resolved to meet the end of their lives, with the feeling of contentment at having reached a mature age; surviving the disease epidemics and back breaking work in order to make enough money to raise a family, pay the bills and provide food for the table. They look, of all things, wise; intimate to the history of the hamlet in which they resided. Despite their age, the elder couple appear resolved to carry-on living the good life, as they perceive it as being prosperous; which of course may have had nothing whatsoever to do with money in the bank. I think these are important Canadian portraits, but that also has nothing to do with their valuations on the open market. In essence, these might as well have been images of our own ancestors, living through hardships and shortfalls of economy, proud of what they had been able to achieve through hard work and unyielding commitment to family and community.
     The newly acquired, early 1900's photograph album, which I wrote about in yesterday's blog (you can archive back if you missed it), doesn't contain a lot of written information. There is, in fact, a tight budget of explanations and captions. It wouldn't have more words and names than a small paragraph, in terms of critical provenance, but what Suzanne and I have been able to piece together in a few hours of research, is at the very least, a small, interesting, rural Ontario sketch; that while full of question marks, does companion the photographs pretty well; the images themselves having a broader more tangible story-line if you look close enough. You will appreciate this more at the end of my short series to highlight the album. This is the greatest part of being historically well-appointed, and possessing a genuine interest, in making the harvest of research a recreational pursuit. We like building up the story from a tiny amount of available information, into something, that at the very least, provides a suitable platform on which to build a truer, more responsible biography, to companion the vintage images.      It isn't our plan to keep these images for ourselves, because we would like to repatriate them back to family members, who may not know they have become available; and we wouldn't be adverse at all, to have them acquired by the community or region, for its archives collection.
     The hamlet of Hillier, identified by the vintage images of the "Hillier Preserving Company," as published in yesterday's blog, is situated in the region of Prince Edward Country, near both Belleville and Trenton. The late 1800's family photograph, in the oval, published above, was taken by W. McReynolds of Trenton, Ontario, and presumably shows members of the Thorn family, Maude appearing at the top, her husband Charlie, on the right side, beside Emma and Fred Thorn. We aren't one hundred percent sure of this, and would very much like to be corrected, should a reader have more information on this family and community than we do! There are many wonderful images of Charlie and Maude Thorn, throughout the album, standing in the doorway of their house, and on their rural Hillier property.
     On the Currie's Antiques facebook page today, there is photo album panel showing two pictures, with captions as follows. (The image shows a group of people on the stairs and verandah of a cottage on Haliburton Lake, on the east side of Algonquin Park). "Mrs. Gooderham on the verandah, Mrs. Harrop & children, & Maude Thorn on steps, and Charles Thorn at side, taken at the cottage at Lake Haliburton." We expect that the Gooderham (also a community and lake named Gooderham in this area of the province) family had some interests in the distillery industry in Canada, but at this time, we are speculating (more like fishing) on this aspect. The second picture, is of Charles and Maude Thorn, and Leonard Vanalstine, at what we think may be called "The Mission."  We haven't been able to trace this site, but it may have been a hospital or tubercular sanatorium, that operated under this title. If the building looks familiar to you, please let us know, and we will make the correction.
    In another album panel published on our facebook page, there is a photograph of farm workers standing in front of what we believe is a thrashing machine. What a great portrait of agricultural heritage in Ontario and Canada from the early 1900's. Another image shows Maude and Charlie Thorn standing by their automobile, preparing for a little road trip. You can check these photos out on our facebook page today.
     The vintage images above, show various poses of Charles and Maude Thorn, in and around their house, and in two images, in the horse drawn cutter (minus the horse's head) in the farm yard. There are other unidentified family photos, probably related to the Thorns. My favorite image in the photo album, is the top left image of Charles and Maude, well back in the doorway of what we expect is their Hillier home. The other images on the same panel, show the Ontario Gothic characteristic, of emotionless poses, but with considerable dignity and formal dress. These are generally well-executed photographs, taken by a family member, and show a pride of accomplishment and family, in the frames imaging the stalwart Charles and Maude. Don't let the serious looks cast a pall over the circumstances of the portraits, which show an elegant aging of the couple, from late Victorian times, through the decades of the new century.
     Tomorrow, I'll publish some other photographic panels from this family album. We are continuing our research at present, and hope to be able to shed more light on the album in the future. It was purchased in the Orillia area, at an antique mall we regularly frequent, known as "Antiques on 11." And yes, as I noted in yesterday's blog, and a dozen before that, I like vintage photographs, and pulling the story of albums together, from tiny fragments of information, written as captions, beneath these interesting images of yesteryear. Just not much more. I have thousands of unidentified Victorian era photographs that will never be properly identified beyond knowing the studio photographer's name and location. This is hugely frustrating, because some of those unnamed portraits, are of significant Canadians and Americans, because of where they came from in the first place. The fact the keeper-of-the-albums didn't think to write names on the back, or beneath the images glued into albums, is enormously frustrating because of the historical discovery it thwarts in the contemporary sense. Please folks, if you have collections of photo albums, take some time to properly identify the people, places and images featured within. You should recognize, (because it happens daily if not hourly in this world), that sooner or later, because of offspring disinterest, family may surrender these albums to non family members like me, through estate sales and related dispersals; so we need to know what they represent and why we should protect the images within. Think about it! Do you wish that they be thrown out in this case, or respected for what they represent to national character. You'd be surprised how much we can learn, as historians, from these old family albums, even when there's not a lot of companion information to point out the highlights at the very least. I have many albums that are poorly identified, yet the images are superb, and show a considerable panorama of respective backgrounds and settings, that do help us localize where the photographs were taken, and the approximate time they were snapped. It's not much to go on, but I just can't bring myself to toss them out, and continually find reasons to keep them in my collection, even if it's only because of the heritage relevance of the backdrops, and locals framed in the images, more than the rightful provenance of the subjects, and family.
     Just so you know, for future reference, Suzanne, by using the services of Ancestry.ca, and all other genealogical sites, can trace these names, if we get a name scribbled somewhere in the albums, or on the backs of photographs. When we started collecting old photographs, it was ten times more difficult to get this information. Now, well, it's a click of the mouse, and we're in business. Doesn't mean we're always successful, but I've watched as Suzanne has taken one or two names, and a locale identified, and turned it into a stunning biography, image by images, usually at a time when we had just about given up knowing anything more about the collection. It's painstaking that's for sure. But when we can put a more accurate (as sparse as it might be) profile on whatever album or collection we're working on, the better our chance of reuniting family with what may have gone missing from their family archives. This happens a lot, that one side of a family gets the albums, and doesn't let the other side know when they are being turfed, at an estate-settling auction or dispersal sale. We don't make a lot of profit repatriating these albums and collections, but it sure is nice when we can complete the circle, and then fill the void of information, for a family missing part of its own chronology. In the case of the Thorn albums, nothing would make us happier, than to get it back to family, or possibly, its home region of the province. There's certainly more likelihood of this happening via the internet, and our partnered sites, than the way it was, when we had to place ads in local papers, and write copious letters to historical societies, looking for assistance.
     More of this interesting family album from Hillier, Ontario, on tomorrow's Currie's Music facebook page, and on this blog. See you then. And should you have old photo collections you no longer want, or have inherited from some source, we are always interested in acquiring these collections. Contact us through our facebook page, at Currie's Music. Preserving heritage is more than saving old architecture from being bulldozed. Our photographic heritage is just as important. We want to help preserve it so that future generations can enjoy what our communities and families looked like centuries earlier.