February Issue - Shades The Magazine by Shades Of The Departed

contents

Columns

Penelope Dreadful

Dreadful Timing

Features pg. 6

Behind The Camera

pg. 44 pg. 50

J.P. Ball Black American Daguerrotypist

The Year Was . . .

pg. 12

A Date With An Old Photograph

The Healing Brush

pg. 16

Saving Face

pg. 20

In Every Issue

The Year Was 1847

Gifts Of Our Ancestors

Archives Curated & Created

In2Genealogy

Your Ancestors Were Travelers

The Future of Memories

Release Your Inner Ken Burns - Part III

Captured Moments

A Few of Elizabethâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Februaries

Appealing Subjects

On Hiatus - Returns March Issue

pg. 40 pg.. 54

A Series On Dating Old Photographs

From My Keyboard

pg. 3

The Exchange

pg. 5

Letter from the editor Your comments

Smile For The Camera On Hiatus - Returns March Issue

pg. 62

The Last Picture Show

The graphic image on the back of a carte-de-visite or cabinet card

Download The Magazine

The Humor Of It

On Hiatus - Returns March Issue

On The Cover Postally used commercial French Postcard 1920.

Back Cover

from my keyboard fOOTNOTEMAVEN

Happy Valentine’s Day! Yes, it’s February and Shades celebrates Valentine’s Day in conjunction with Black History Month. Combining the two is most evident in “The Last Picture Show,” where black photographer Harry Shepherd’s conduct makes him the editor’s Valentine choice. This issue of Shades debuts a new feature article titled “Behind The Camera.” Each month Shades will look at the personal and professional careers of the men and women behind the cameras of old. In honor of Black History Month we look at the professional life of J.P. Ball, one of the most famous daguerrotypist of his time. His life can only be called fascinating. This month “Twice Told” has been combined in the “Behind The Camera” article to recount the description of J.P. Ball’s Daguerrian Gallery Of The West from Gleason’s Pictoral Drawing Room Companion, April 1, 1854. I was so fortunate to purchase an original framed copy of the article. The eBay gods were very good to me. Shades has made every effort to include period photographs of black Americans in this issue. In recent years the vintage photographs of African Americans have received greater attention by historians, collectors, institutions and more importantly by the family historian. Shades has found some beautiful examples and hopes you will enjoy them. As always, the authors of our regular columns have outdone themselves. On a personal note, I would like to thank Shades readers for being so patient during my recent illness. Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated.

f M

contributors PENELOPE DREADFUL

VICKIE EVERHART

GEORGE GEDER

Penelope Dreadful is the alter ego of Denise Levenick. Denise authors the blog, The Family Curator and gives us this month’s “Dreadful Timing.”

Vicki is the author of Creative Moments. She also authors the blog BeNotForgot. Her column this month is “A Few Of Elizabeth’s Februaries.”

George is the author of The Healing Brush Column. He also authors the George Geder blog. His column this month is “Gifts of Our Ancestors.”

DENISE OLSON

SHERI FENLEY

CAROLINE POINTER

Denise is the author of The Future of Memories Column. She also writes the blog Family Matters and gives us this month’s column, “Release Your Inner Ken Burns.”

Sheri writes The Year Was . . . Column. She also authors the blog The Educated Genealogist. Her column this month highlights the year 1847.

Caroline is the new In2Genealogy Columnist. She is also the author of the Family Stories blog. Her column this month “Your Ancestors Were Travelers.”

REBECCA FENNING

CRAIG MANSON

DONNA POINTKOUSKI

Rebecca authors the Saving Face column. She also writes the blog A Sense of Face. Read her column this month, “Archives Curated and Created."

Craig authors the Appealing Subjects column. He also writes the blog Geneablogie. Craig’s column is on hiatus and will return with the March issue.

Donna authors The Humor Of It column. She also write the blog What’s Past Is Prologue. Donna’s column is on hiatus and will return with the March issue.

THE EXCHANGE

LEAVE A MESSAGE WITH THE EXCHANGE Love your new magazine! It has covered so much great material already and is so striking in its presentation. My only complaint: Each new issue comes out before I’ve exhausted the previous one! Lisa 100 Years In America Via Email Lisa, Thank you so much! We are thrilled you enjoy the material presented in Shades. It will seem like an even shorter period of time this month as February only has 28 days. fM

I finally got around to reading the December edition of Shades, the Mag just over a week ago and here is the January edition already! I got around to reading this one much quicker ;-) Both editions are terrific fM! You've got a real winner on your hands that's for sure. The look is perfect vintage, the technology is simple and sleek, the contents are A1 quality. Thanks to you and all your authors for a terrific read! I know you must be putting in a tremendous amount of time on each edition but dear friend, it's worth it. Very well done! Do Widzenia! Jasia Via Email Creative Gene Blog Creative Genealogy Blog Discover St. Joseph, Michigan Blog Jasia, There would be no Shades without your encouragement. Thank you! -fM

Courtesy footnoteMaven

PENELOPE DREADFUL

dreadful timing MR. JONES LEAVES WASHINGTON BY PENELOPE DREADFUL

Gideon Jones dreaded the upcoming month. Soon, his family would once again pack everything they owned into trunks, valises, and boxes and become vagabonds for the journey to their new home. Once again, he would say “goodbye” to newly‐forged friendships and be faced with long lonely days until he found new friends. And this time, he would be saying goodbye to a very special girl, one he had just begun to dream about as he fell asleep in his attic bedroom each night. The Ambassador’s booming voice broke into his reverie, “Come on there, Gideon. Snap to. Your mother needs you to take the twins to school.” Gideon knew better than to keep his parents waiting. At 21, he was old enough to be out on his own, but he knew that traveling with his family in his father’s varying political appointments was invaluable career training. Each day he walked his young brothers to school, and then met them at the end of the day for the return trip home. Maybe today he would see her again, he thought. The three boys walked briskly along the Georgetown streets, past the Mount Zion United Methodist Church, until they came to the iron gate that marked the entrance to the Billings

School. Gideon gave his young charges an affectionate pat on the shoulder as they waved goodbye and passed through the gate. Gideon turned his attention to the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the young woman he Wirst saw last week. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his dark wool trousers and turned away, certain he had missed her today, when a Wlash of color caught his eye. There she was! Walking with a little girl, about the age of Gideon’s own brothers and dressed today in a somber gray dress and black hat with a scarlet rose pinned to the band. She saw Gideon staring, and smiled. It’s now or never, Gideon thought, crossing the street to speak to her. She bent down to smooth the girl’s coat and kissed her cheek. Waving goodbye, the young woman turned to Gideon. “Hello,” he said. “It would seem we share a similar task. I just saw my two brothers through the gate.” The young woman smiled, her dark eyes shining and her cheeks Wlushed with the February chill. “Yes, my cousin is off to third grade herself.” “I’m Gideon Jones,” he said, offering his hand. “My father is Ambassador Thaddeaus Jones.” Her eyebrows rose. He shrugged. “It must be an exciting life,” she offered encouraging the conversation. “I would be glad to tell you about it,” Gideon replied quickly. “But it’s rather cold standing here. Would you care to go to inside for a coffee? There is a café in the next street?” The young woman paused, then smiled and gave him her arm, “What a nice idea.” As they walked the short distance, Gideon learned that her name was Julia Whiting and that she lived with her aunt and uncle nearby. They chatted comfortably and easily passed an hour sharing coffee and stories.

Suddenly, Julia gasped and looked at the gold watch pinned to her bodice, “Oh dear,” she said. “I am to meet Aunt at ten o’clock at the portrait studio. She is having a photograph made for her father in the Carolinas.” Rising to his feet, Gideon pleaded, “May I have the honor of escorting you there? I. . . I. . .” “Yes, yes,” she hurriedly replied as she started for the door. “Oh, the coffee.” Anticipating her anxiety, Gideon had already pressed a bill into the waiter’s hand and was leading her to the door. “Lead on, m’lady,” he said with a mock salute. She smiled in gratitude and they rushed along the street. Ten minutes later the young couple stood in front of the photographer’s studio. Julia’s aunt had not yet arrived. Gideon took a deep breath and said, “Julia, Miss Whiting. Although we have only met, I hope I am not amiss in saying that I feel we might become better friends in the days ahead. . .” He paused. Julia lifted her eyes to his and smiled encouragingly. “however” Her gaze never left his eyes. “However,” he went on, “my father the Ambassador has been posted to the Islands and we are leaving in a fortnight. I may not be able to see you again before we leave Washington.” “You could write,” she quietly suggested. Gideon blushed. What a girl! Beautiful and sensible too. “Yes, I would like that. May I write?” Just then, a tall stately woman advanced toward the couple. “Write?” she inquired. “Write? Why Julia, have you made a friend in town, then?” Now it was Julia’s turn to blush, and she turned a most becoming shade of rose. “Aunt, this is Gideon Jones, son of Ambassador Jones. He was just telling me. . .”

“. . . of his father’s new posting,” I presume. “Yes, I heard about it at the dinner party last evening.” Turning to Gideon, the woman nodded smiled. Gideon felt relief Wlood over him. The woman was as beautiful and as kind as her niece, clearly traits that ran in the family. “With your approval, madam,” Gideon ventured. “I would very much like to write Miss Whiting when we depart from Town.” “Hmmm,” the older woman offered, as her eyes looked him over from the top of his hat to his polished black boots. “Oh, and Julia?” “Yes, Aunt,” her niece said softly. “I should like that very much.” “Well then, Julia,” she said. “We shall have your portrait taken today as well, so that you will have a memento to send your young man.” Guiding her niece to the studio door, she called back to Gideon, “You may call at Ambassador Stevens home for Julia’s address before you leave.” Gideon smiled and nodded. With a wink, the woman added, “Perhaps we shall have a photograph for you then, as well.”

THE YEAR WAS . . .

the year was 1847 WHAT DO JANE EYRE AND OH! SUSANNA HAVE IN COMMON?

The Wirst U.S. adhesive postage stamps went on sale July 1, 1847 in the form of Benjamin Franklin 5¢ stamps and George Washington 10¢ stamps.

Photos Courtesy of www.1847usa.com

BY SHERI FENLEY

Salt Lake City, Utah is established on July 24, 1847 when after 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley. Over 350,000 Irish immigrants enter the United States through the Port of New York in the year 1847 largely due to the potato famine in Ireland.

There were two advances in photography in 1847. Abel Niepce de Saint‐Victor introduces the albuminized glass plate to photography. All previous photographs used metal, paper, or even asphalt, but the glass plate produced Winer images. Sir David Brewster develops an improved stereoscope. Two photographs are taken from slightly different angles. The stereoscope causes each eye to view just one of the images. This gives the viewer an impression of three dimensions when the two different images are combined into one by the brain.

Photos Courtesy of www.historiccamera.com

Photos Courtesy of WikiMedia Commons

Legend has it that Stephen Foster's most memorable song, Oh! Susanna, is Wirst performed at a saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1847.

October 16, 1847 Charlotte Bronte's book "Jane Eyre" is

Photo Courtesy ‐ www.famouspoetsandpoems.com

published.

Oliver R. Chase of Boston invents and patents the Wirst American candy machine in the summer of 1847. With his brother, Silas they start NECCO (New England Confectionery

Photo Courtesy NECCO

Company).

1847 found the United States in the middle of the Mexican War. 35 battles were fought that year, the biggest being the Battle of Buena Vista where on February 23rd Zachary Taylor led the American Troops to defeat General Santa Ana.

Battle of Buena Vista on February 23, 1847 CREDIT: Currier & Ives, lithographer. "Battle of Buena Vista. Fought February 23rd, 1847." Copyright 1847. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Do all old photographs need restoration? How bad should a pictureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s condition be before considering restoration?

THE HEALING BRUSH

gifts of our ancestors MIRRORS OF THE SOUL BY GEORGE GEDER

Those old photographs, the cabinet cards and the tintypes, are the gifts of the ancestors to their descendants. They are the reWlections of our heritage and the mirrors of our souls. Unfortunately, those pictures didn't get the love of technological reproduction upgrades as did books or recorded music. They languished deteriorating in acid Willed photo albums or shoe boxes. What to do with that 1872 image of your 2nd great grandmother? Photo restoration is as much about the preservation of such precious artifacts as it is about the transferring of those images to the latest archival digital format. When it comes to telling your family history, you certainly want to enhance the stories with pictures. Without photographs and charts you run the risk of boring today's audiences to tears with just plain text. You want to jazz it up with those old images that have been languishing, sometimes undiscovered, for years in shoe boxes, deteriorating photo albums ‐ and heaven forbid, basements and attics. I want you to pause and think about the signiWicance of those precious photographs. The older they are the more precious. If there are no negatives, they may be the only copies in existence. They may be in very fragile condition.

Let's look at some examples. Here you see a 'tin‐type' of my grandfather, the boy in the dress‐like outWit on the Wirst page of this article. This picture was taken around 1890. The emulsion has come off in places, particularly on my granduncle Fred's face. It has darkened considerably and shouldn't be handled too many times, approximately 118 years later, from here on. I would deWinitely scan, restore and make digital copies of this picture to distribute to family members. A good repository for this image could be the historical society near where this picture was taken, which is probably in Waverly, Tioga county, New York.

This photograph was taken some time around the turn of the century and you can see that it's fading. Detail can be brought back into this picture with image editing software. Presently, the man is unknown. I would make digital copies and pass them along to family members in the hope someone will recognize him.

Every picture has or tells a story. This one was taken in 1958. It's the only one in existence and is heavily damaged. The little boy in the photo is the current owner of the image. It's also the only picture he has of his mother who passed away when he was quite young. So obviously, he wanted this one restored which I was more than happy to do.

Finally, here's a picture that a client wants me to take my time to restore. It's a deteriorating image of her grandmother. She sent me the photograph and it was crumbling as I took it out of the package. Yikes!

Now, take the time to evaluate the gifts from your ancestors. Are you in need of some restoration? ^

SAVING FACE

archives curated &created WHAT I DO AS AN ARCHIVIST & LIBRARIAN REBECCA FENNING

I hate the word "archiving." I really do. Why? Well, because I may be the only archivist to feel this way, but I think it's misleading. I feel as if the "archiving" of things like email have made archive‐related verbs into buzzwords that get a lot of use, distorting our understanding of what archives curated by librarians and archivists actually are and how they are created. So this is why I'd like to explain what it is I actually do as an archivist and librarian, because this can be unfamiliar to even the most highly educated, library‐frequenting of us. Indeed, most people I know who aren't information professionals themselves (that is to say, librarians or archivists or records managers) have no idea what I do ‐‐ and that includes my boyfriend, my dad, my sister, my best friends and pretty much everyone else I know. I hope that my quick walk‐through of basic archival activities will give you a better sense of how archivists and archives work. I have worked with lots of different kinds of archival collections from contemporary business records to 18th century family papers, legal records to professional correspondence, big collections to small collections. Regardless of the variations among these collection types, the basic archival concepts you use in approaching them remain the same. With any new archival collection that waltzes through the door, one of the Wirst steps is accessioning, or, the formal addition of a new collection to your institution and the

recording of its particulars. In the days before computers, accessions were usually recorded in a ledger or on catalog cards, though these days they are generally done electronically. Accession records include information about the date an object was acquired, if it was acquired through purchase or gift, the source of the gift or purchase, the price paid for the item or the appraisal value of a donated item, plus additional details like title, date created and author. Also important is the assignment of an accession number, which will help to track items as they are cataloged and organized. This is particularly important with things like archives, manuscripts or photographs – items that do not usually have title pages and formal titles, like books with title pages and covers do. There are rules for catalogers, archivists and librarians that govern how to come up with titles for these title‐less things, and as a result, their titles may change between the time they are acquired and when they are formally cataloged and described. For example, my library might purchase a manuscript simply described on sales receipts and dealer descriptions as “18th century poetry manuscript,” and I would probably enter that title in my accessions database. However,

An old manuscripts acquisition/accession card file at my library

when I take that same manuscript out to catalog it days or months from the accession date, I may determine that another title is appropriate, based on my own research and the national standards for deriving titles for such manuscripts. That change in title makes it difWicult to track the manuscript from accessioning to cataloged item, which is why accession numbers are important. In my institution as in many others, we assign numbers that include the letters MS (to denote manuscripts or archives), the year of acquisition, plus a consecutive number (such as MS.2008.003). The next step with a collection is generally appraisal (though depending on the circumstances of acquisition, this can happen before accessioning, too). Appraisal encompasses a range of activities, but basically boils down to making decisions about the overall purpose and value of a collection, especially what items you want to keep, and what items you want to get of (or, deaccession). For example, in the voluminous papers of a law professor I once helped work on, it was clear that the c o l l e c t i o n ' s g r e a t e s t enduring value lay in his correspondence, lectures, and articles ‐‐ not in the l e f t o v e r u n u s e d

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Christmas cards or

A processed collection housed in acid-free folders in an acid-free box

travel packages to South America scattered throughout his Wiles. Here, it was easy to make the choice to relegate such items to the circular Wile, though it is not always so simple. With family papers for instance (especially when they are your family's papers), it can be hard to determine where to draw the line: blank deposit slips and check registers, old birthday cards, family correspondence, insurance forms, report cards, grocery lists, address books, wedding invitations, newspaper clippings, or photographs where everyone's eyes are closed can be kept or chucked depending on how you choose to rationalize the ongoing value and purpose of the collection as a whole. Once the appraisal and weeding process is through, the next step is the processing and arrangement of a collection. This encompasses things like placing items in acid‐free folders and other archival housings, labeling and numbering folders and boxes, and deciding on collection's overall physical organization. A major concept in archives work is the preservation of original order, which dictates keeping papers and folders in the order in which they arrive at your door, because this is hopefully the order in which they were kept by their author or collector. Doing this means you are not just preserving the items themselves but the organizational thought process of the creator. Of course, this only works when there is an actual original order in place ‐‐ not when you just have a free‐for‐all of papers and pictures and things jumbled in a box, which I Wind happens to me quite a lot. Collections without a discernible original order are a different ball‐game, one of the places where you get to exercise your archivist know‐how to impose your own order, choosing whatever organizational scheme makes the most sense to you, whether that be something thematic, alphabetical, chronological or something else entirely. In archives, the hierarchical categories (like “correspondence,” “business records,” “legal Wiles”) that we use to organize a collection are called series. These series can be further separated out into subseries (like “outgoing correspondence” and “incoming correspondence”) if the collection requires more organization in order to be easily understood.

After a collection is housed in proper enclosures and physically organized and sorted, the next is its intellectual arrangement and description. Description, in most cases, is the creation of a Winding aid, which is quite simply a sort of table of contents to the collection. A Winding aid usually contains relevant historical/biographical background information, narrative‐style description of the objects in the collection, and acquisition information in addition to the real heart of things ‐ the container listing, which itemizes folder by folder (or box by box, or even item by item) the actual stuff in the collection. Though the hierarchy that you created while sorting collections into series and subseries adds some structure to this list of stuff, sometimes it isn’t quite enough if you have a large enough collection or if you have a collection with an original order you don’t want to

Courtesy Of The Author

An example of using intellectual ordering to alphabetize correspondence files instead of physically placing files in alphabetical order

disrupt by moving things around. This is where intellectual order comes in. See, if you have a collection comprising 25 folders, contained in one box, a straightforward list of folder titles, numbered 1‐25 is pretty easy to browse through. But what if you have a collection of 20 cubic foot boxes, or 75, or 500? And what if this collection has an original order that you left undisturbed, resulting in a less than intuitive organizational scheme, where like items and topics are not grouped near each other? That can get confusing and very very long pretty quickly. Reading through 10 or 20 or 1000 pages of folder titles in consecutive order is maybe not the easiest way to Wind what you are looking for. Adding more hierarchy through intellectual arrangement and structured series can help make your container listing and your collection more readily understandable. Embracing the idea of intellectual order can also make your physical arranging and sorting a lot easier. For example, let’s say you have a collection with folders of letters from Mrs. A to Mr. B in box 1 but also in boxes 23, 78, and 174. It might not be practical to place these folders physically together all in one box (because it might disrupt original order, and also because it would take way too much time to do) but intellectually arranging your Winding aid into series by subject or correspondent or alphabetical order can allow you to list boxes 1, 23, 78 and 174 next to one another on paper and make it much easier for researchers to Wind these items. These days, the standard and ideal form of a Winding aid is one delivered on the internet and encoded in an xml schema called EAD, or Encoded Archival Description. Like any xml document, EAD adds semantic tags that denote Winding aid contents. For example,

titleproper tags bracket Winding aid titles and acqinfo tags bracket acquisition information. These tags make it easier to search Winding aids for speciWic information, like persname (or personal name) for example, and also allow for different displays of your document. I'm no xml or EAD expert, so I won't go into details here, but there are many resources on the internet for learning more about how this works, if you're interested. The encoded Winding aid placed on your institution's website (or elsewhere) is how users Wind out what it is you have and how they know what to ask for once they're there. So, to sum up, all of these steps are reasons why I don't like the word archiving. It's only my personal opinion ‐‐ a search of professional archives listservs show that other archivists use it all the time ‐‐ but hopefully by showing you how many processes are involved, I've

A section of an encoded finding aid

illustrated why I feel the way I do about it. I also hope this short course in the basics has sparked some questions and some curiosity about archival practice and how to apply it to personal archives and research.

Writing this column in a vacuum is no fun and new avenues you’d like me to pursue are always welcome. Please feel free to leave questions, comments and other feedback at the main Shades Of The Departed, or email them to me.

Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa.K0492/pg.1/

Behind the Camera J. P. Ball, African American Daguerreotypist, Entrepreneur, and Activist. - fM J.P. Ball (James Presley Ball) was born in Virginia in 1825 to William and Susan Ball. His parents were listed as free persons of color at the time of their marriage in 1814 in Frederick County, Virginia. A young Ball became interested in photograph in 1840 when he met a black daguerrotypist from Boston named John B. Bailey, in White Sulphur Springs, Virginia (now West Virginia). Bailey taught Ball the art of the daguerrotype and in the fall of 1845 he opened a one room studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. The studio was unsuccessful, attracting only two clients. One of whom sat for the portrait on credit. The daguerrotype was new and expensive, costing as much as Wive dollars, a week’s wages for all but the rich. Few cities of the time could support the efforts of a resident daguerrotypist and that included Cincinnati. Ball, like other photographers of his time, took to the road traveling from city to city as an itinerant photographer. In 1846, he arrived in Richmond, Virginia with his equipment and a small trunk. The last money to his name was given to the porter who carried his belongings to his rented room.

customers were "like angels' visits, few and far between." ^

DAGUERRIAN GALLERY OF THE WEST Courtesy of the Author

Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, April 1, 1854. “It occupies four rooms and one ante‐chamber, on the third, fourth, and Wifth stories. Two of these are operating rooms, each twenty‐Wive by thirty and Witted up in the best manner. One of these was prepared expressly for the babies and children. This is quite an accommodation for those parents who wish to have the sweet faces of their little ones preserved, not only as mementoes of the past, but also to compare with the sterner features which ripened age shall give them. The third room is the workshop where the plates are prepared and likenesses perfected. Possessed of the best materials and the Winest instruments, Mr. Ball takes them with an accuracy and a softness of expression unsurpassed by any establishment in the Union. The fourth room is the great gallery; it is twenty feet wide by forty long. The walls are tastefully enameled by Wlesh‐colored paper, bordered with gold and Wlowers.

The north wall is ornamented with one hundred eighty‐seven of Mr. Ball's Winest pictures. Babies and children, young men and maidens, mothers and sires look you in t h e f a c e . J e n n y L i n d , w i t h o t h e r distinguished personages, and Wive or six splendid views of Niagara Falls are among the collection. Every piece of furniture in this gallery is a masterpiece of mechanical and artistic skill. . .there is a noble piano by whose sweet notes you are regaled. As for the enterprising proprietor, he is the very essence of politeness ‐‐ nor are his brothers less tinctured with this sweet spirit of human excellence and a disposition to please every one who patronizes them. No wonder then that there is daily such a rush for this gallery! No wonder that its throng of fashion and beauty is so dense! Mr. Ball commenced his career as a daguerreotypist in the year 1845. At that time the art was in a very low state indeed in Cincinnati. There were but few engaged in the profession, without means, enterprise or instruments, and customers were "like angels' visits, few and far between." Mr. Ball's Daguerrian Gallery is situated in the very heart of the city, where the busy din of commerce and the rolling of carriages are heard from morning til night; and the streams of visitors that are continually pouring into his spacious saloons, show how wide spread is his reputation, and how successfully he has worked himself into popular favor. Mr. Ball employs nine men in superintending and executing the work of the establishment. Each man has his own separate department, and each is perfect in his peculiar branch. We are so well aware of the indomitable industry displayed bt the proprietor, that it is no conjecture of ours but our Wixed opinion, that it will not be very long before Mr. Ball will be obliged, from the great increase of his business, to have rooms twice as large as he now occupies.” Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, April 1, 1854.

“The Virginians rushed in crowds to his room; all classes, white and black, bond and free sought to have their lineaments stamped by the artist who painted with the Sun’s rays.” He took a job in a local dining room until he had saved enough to invest in furnished rooms near the state capitol. Here he experienced more clients and more success. Ball's registry in Greenbrier County Court documents, dated December 27, 1847. Virginia required “Free Negroes” to register. "Be it rembered [remembered] that on this day, James Presly Ball had registered in this office his certificate of Freedom in this month and figures following to me: State of Va [Virginia], Frederick County. Be it remembered that on this 13th day of December 1847 personally appears William Joliffe before me this surrender a Justice of the Peace for said county made oath that he is acquainted with James Presly Ball a free man of color who is now about 22 years of age and that he is the son of William and Susan Ball, like persons of color, and that the said James Presly Ball was born free in the county and state aforesaid. Given under my hand and seal this 13th day of December in the year 1847."

His business in Richmond lasted only a year with Ball returning to Ohio, again traveling the state. In 1849, Ball and his brother Thomas opened a studio in Cincinnati, the “gateway to the West,” home of many slavery activists and abolitionists, and the center for the free black population. Ball was a major recipient of the white abolitionist patronage. “Colored prints” were one of the most important aspects of the photographer’s bag of tricks in the 1850s. Ball was extremely fortunate in 1854, to employ the skills of a black painter by the name of Robert S. Duncanson. It is believed that the engraving included in this article shows paintings of Duncanson hanging on the studio walls. Duncanson had studied in Europe and provided landscape drawings to a rich clientele while earning a reputation as a Wine American Artisan. It is believed that Duncanson was hired exclusively for coloring and retouching photographs.

A popular form of entertainment in the 1850s was the panorama. These were vast stretches of canvas generally shown in theaters. They were unrolled before the audience with stagehands creating light and shadow effects, sound effects, and music while an orator provided the narration. In 1855, Ball produced a panorama titled ‘Ball’s Mammoth Pictorial Tour of the United States Comprising Views of the African Slave Trade.” The panorama began with views of native African villages and progressed to slave ships, slave markets, and the plantations of American. It is believed that Duncanson was the artist that helped Ball create the canvas. The pamphlet pictured above accompanied the performance and proclaimed Ball’s anti‐ slavery message. Ball’s panorama was extremely successful in the abolitionist communities and toured the United States. Ball’s panorama toured Europe where he added Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens to his list of clients. If you were rich and famous you would have had your photograph taken by Ball. Sadly the panorama’s whereabouts are unknown. In May of 1860, less than a year before the start of the Civil War, tragedy struck in the form of a tornado that destroyed the beautiful Ball and Thomas (Ball’s brother-in-law and business partner) Photographic Art Gallery. Timber penetrated a salon in the rear of the photographic studio killing a woman and child. Everything in the famous gallery was destroyed. Ball faced financial ruin, but the white community came to his rescue in the form of financial assistance to rebuild. The studio returned to its position of prominence averaging more than one hundred dollars a day in receipts. Ball photographed the President Ulysses Grant family, opera singer Jenny Lind and many Union ofWicers and enlisted men. The studio was a family operation including Ball’s brother Thomas Carroll Ball, his brother‐in‐law Alexander Thomas, and his nephew Ball Thomas. In or around 1870, Ball dissolved his partnership with Thomas and moved to Minneapolis/St. Paul to open a new studio, the reasons for dissolution are unknown. The Twin Cities boasted

J.P. Ball & Pamphlet Cincinnati Historical Society

“Thus, slavery, which at the beginning of our national existence was barely tolerated for the few years it was supposed would be necessary to terminate its miserable existence now reigns supreme, and boldly demands recognition and protection wherever the Llag of the Republic Lloats.” Taken from the pamphlet.

Courtesy of the Author

I am very fortunate to have acquired two of J.P. Ball’s photographs of black citizens of Helena, Montana.

J. P. Ball in Helena Helena enjoys the notoriety of having the only colored photographer in the Northwest. Mr. J. P. Ball, who has had a studio here for a number of years, has a large patronage among many of our best citizens. He is one of the oldest members now in the profession, dating back to 1845, the famous taking numerous medals for superior work over many of the most skillful and artistic competitors in the largest eastern cities. Prior to, during, and for several years after the war Mr. Ball had one of the largest and best equipped studios in Cincinnati. The Colored Citizen, September 3, 1894 Helena, Montana

Courtesy of Cincinnati Historical Society

daguerrotype era, and has had the satisfaction of

many famous and successful photographers. In direct competition with Ball was Harry Shepherd’s, The People’s Photo Gallery (the subject of Shades’ Last Picture Show). Because of Ball’s national reputation, his advertising, and promotion in the black newspapers he was again successful. In 1887, Ball was named as the ofWicial photographer of the 25th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation held in Minneapolis. Then, in October of the same year, Ball relocated to Helena, Montana. During the years 1887 to 1894, he photographed hundreds of people in the white, black and Chinese communities, as well as documenting the construction of the Montana state capitol. He operated the studio in Helena with his son J.P. Ball, Jr., an attorney, and his son’s wife Laura. The large black community in Helena had probably attracted Ball Sr. He established a black newspaper, served on the Lewis & Clark County Republican Party central committee, was president of the state's Afro‐American Club, and was a co‐founder of the St. James' African Methodist‐Episcopal Church. One of the most infamous photographic projects for Ball while living in Helena was the chronicle of William Biggerstaff. Biggerstaff who was born a slave in Lexington, Kentucky in 1854. He had come west to Montana for a better life. What is known of Biggerstaff’s life is little more than its unfortunate conclusion, documented by Ball. Biggerstaff was tried and convicted of the killing of “Dick” Johnson after an argument that took place on June 9, 1895. Biggerstaff had pleaded self‐defense. Ball photographed him in a typical studio pose, a photograph of his hanging and a post‐mortem photograph. Ball did not shy away from controversy, but worked to portray the photographs as a story. In 1890, Ball who has proven to be a rolling stone, moved to Seattle with J.P. Ball, Jr. and family to open yet another photographic studio in yet another city.

J.P. Ball, Jr. practiced law while his wife Laura operated the photographic studio. Ball, Sr. helped out in the studio when needed, but spent much of his time establishing black lodges. In Seattle they operated under the family name and under the name of Globe Photo Studio. While in Seattle, Ball suffered crippling rheumatism and moved with his family to Honolulu, Hawaii. On May 4, 1904, J.P. Ball died at the age of 79 in Honolulu. Records indicate his remains were sent to Cincinnati for interment. Without question, J.P. Ball was one of the most interesting and famous photographers in American history.

Note: This is a professional biographical history. information, other than birth and death are as they pertain to his business.

William Biggerstaff by J.P. Ball Montana Historical Society

Family mentioned only

SOURCES Brown, Robert O. Collector’s Guide to 19th Century U.S. Traveling Photographers. Forest Grove, OR : Brown-Spath, 2002. Gagel, Diane VanSkiver. Ohio Photographers 1839-1900. Nevada City, CA : Carl Mautz Publishing, 1998. Goldsby, Jacqueline Denise. A Spectacular Secret: Lynching in American Life and Literature.Chicago : Univ. of Chicago Press, 2006. Kelbaugh, Ross. J. Introduction to African American Photographs. Gettysburg : Thomas Publications, 2005. Ketner, Joseph D. The Emergence Of The African-American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson, 1821-1872. Columbia : University of Missouri Press, 1993. Mautz, Carl. Biographies of Western Photographers. Nevada City, CA : Carl Mautz Publishing, 1997. Morgan, Kitty. “A Room Of His Own.” Cincinnati Magazine. 2001 Painter, Nell Irvin. Crearting Black Americans. New York : Oxford University Press, 2006. Williams, George Washington. History of the Negro Race in America From 1619-1880. New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1883. Willis, Deborah. Reflections In Black. New York : W.W. Norton 7 Company, 2000.

[2] Anna Wood [3] Rabbi Max Lillienthal [4] Aunt Jennie and Edward Bishop [6] Rufus C. Phillips with surveying tool [7] Professor William Byrd powell [8] Frannie W. Gamble, daughter-in-law of James Gamble founder of Proctor & Gamble.

ADDRESSES: SEATTLE, WA Ball, J.P. & Son (Globe Photo Studio)

1892

Ball, James P. and James P. Ball Jr.

1892

Ball, J.P. & Sons. (James P. Ball and James P. Ball Jr.)

1892-93

Globe Photo Studio (J.P. Ball & Son, proprs.) (James P. and James P. Jr.)

1892

Globe Photo Studio (J.P. Ball Jr., propr.)

1893-94

Globe Photo Studio (Mrs. Laura L. Ball, mngr.)

1894-95

Ball & Sons

1897

Ball & Sons (Mrs, Laura L. Ball, James P. Ball Jr. )

1898

Ball & Son (Mrs. Laura L. Ball and James P. Ball Jr.)

1899

Ball & Son (Mrs. Laura L. Ball and James P. Ball Jr.)

1900

Ball & Sons (Laura L. Ball and Robert P. Ball)

1901

Ball & Sons (Laura L. Ball and Robert P. Ball)

1902

Ball, J.P. & Son

1903-04

Note: I am compiling a listing of all the studios and dates of operation for J. P. Ball. Above, is the example of the names and dates for Seattle, Washington. I would greatly appreciate any information Shades readers are willing to share. If you have a daguerrotype, ambrotype, tintype, carte-de-visite, or cabinet card I would love to have a scanned image of the front and back. J.P. Ball is known to have worked in Richmond, Virginia; Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Paul, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Helena, Montana; Seattle, Washington; Honolulu, Hawaii; and perhaps North Dakota and Mississippi. Oh, and who knows where else. They can be emailed to the footnoteMaven. Thank you.

IN2GENEALOGY

your ancestors were travelers FULL OF ANXIETY, HOPES, DREAMS & FEARS BY CAROLINE POINTER

"Are we there yet?" This is a common question made often by children everywhere on their way to a particular destination. However, it's not one that's usually welcome by parents after the Wirst Wifteen times, especially when moving their household across the country to a new home. For some, the move is long and tedious on the highways. The stresses of moving ‐‐ including anxiety of living in a new place, wondering if you forgot anything, moving from what you know to something you don't know, and praying that the new job, the reason for moving, works out ‐‐ are magniWied by your children's incessant questions. Like you, your ancestors were travelers full of anxiety, hopes, dreams, and fears when they moved their households across the country. However, they, unlike you, didn't have the luxury of highways and convenience stores with bathrooms. They were traveling under tough conditions. Some, even, having to create the path or trail. As Seymour Dunbar indicates in his book, A History of Travel in America, "The pioneer, no matter of what date or locality, was always a traveller [sic] before he was a producer or shipper of goods, and the common experience of the people, gained on their journeys, was...the basis on which future permanent routes and methods of travel were planned and created." In addition to the rural pathways, their mode of transportation was primitive. For example, William R. Polk describes in his book The Birth of a Nation, "To trek from New York to Philadelphia in the middle of the eighteenth century, the traveler began on a Hudson River

ferry, then changed to a stagecoach, and Winally Wloated on a bateau down the Delaware from just below the site of modern Trenton." Could you imagine the slow and bumpy ride in a . 23 47 [

P&P

]

stagecoach or covered , no

wagon? Not to mention

76-8

t r a v e l i n g b y f e r r y,

- LO

T 30

horseback, or even by foot,

a f t e r m u c h d e v e l o p m e n t o f transportation infrastructure, carrying a ton of goods 30 miles inland from any of the coastal cities cost about the same as shipping it from London or Liverpool to Boston." The price, of course, indicating

LOC - LC-D4-32103 <P&P>[P&P]

Philadelphia. Polk adds "in the 1830's

LOC

and that was only from New York to

The Ferry Highlander - New York

just how difWicult it was to move the freight overland, and it can be inferred that those who were moving westward had even a harder journey. They were traveling in areas that didn't have ferries to help them pass over bodies of water, and as mentioned above, paths sometimes hadn't been blazed yet. To make matters worse, they were going to a place they had only heard about and never seen, which, more than likely, increased their move‐ related stress. However and wherever your ancestors moved, one fact remains the same. They moved from point "A" to point "B". How did they do that exactly? More importantly, how can knowing how they moved, help you to learn more about them? Certainly, learning this makes telling their story more colorful, but it just might even help you to Wind additional spouses and their families and additional children that you might not have found otherwise.

The further you, as a researcher, go back in time, there seems to be less records available. Oftentimes, you might only have census records to track your ancestors' movements, but what about those years in between? If they were in different locations on those census records, then they had to have physically pulled up stakes and moved their household, passing through sometimes multiple states, counties and towns, but which ones? Yes, land records, military rolls and tax rolls can be helpful, but which county do you look in for them? Is your only recourse to look through all the possible states, counties, and towns hoping to Wind your ancestors? Well, unless it's a small state like Delaware or Rhode Island, that's probably not an efWicient use of your time. One tool that can be helpful is studying how they moved. Though there might be less records to Wind, the further you go back in time, the more transportation was limited to speciWic routes. Ambitious men, some of them your ancestors, with eyes full of dreams blazed trails through forests and valleys making a way to new opportunities, and hopeful families, again some them your ancestors, packed up all their earthly possessions to follow them. So, how does this help the family researcher? Well, if your ancestors only had a speciWic route that they could follow to move from point "A" to point "B" and you can Wind which one one it was, then you've just narrowed down the states, counties and towns that you can look in for possible records that they may have left behind or family members that died en route to their new destination. As Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, FUGA and Loretto Dennis Szucs, FUGA point out in the book, The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy:

The goal for successful research is to locate each placename on a map contemporary to the time of the event or document being examined, and relate the place to nearby rivers, mountains, valleys, large towns and cities, ports, and adjoining political jurisdictions. This instruction is also helpful in Winding your ancestors' migration routes. Oftentimes, waterways were a more efWicient mode of transportation for the early pioneers.

Furthermore, while mountains were difWicult, if not impossible, to scale, valleys were generally easier to travel through. Therefore, locating nearby waterways, mountains, and valleys will help to Wind the most likely way they could have traveled. Here are some general steps to help you look for the possible migration routes your ancestors may have taken:

• • •

Identify the time period. The further you go back in time, the less routes there are, which can be extremely helpful. Identify your ancestors' point "A" and point "B" on a map.livepage.apple.com Based upon the above information, Wind the appropriate trail, notating mountains and waterways. Plot their path on a map identifying counties, but keep in mind that there were possible boundary changes and new counties made from old counties.

courtesy footnoteMaven

•

The first step in your migration map. “Identify time period.”

A finished map of the Casteel Family

TRAILS/ROUTES • • • • • • •

Genealogy Tutor: Migration Routes ‐ A webpage created by Beverly Whitaker, M.A. that lists important links for migration including those she created and that are found on Rootsweb. Her Migration Fact Sheets are invaluable. Migration Charts ‐ provided by AAG International Research and includes charts from Western States, Eastern States, and North Eastern States. The Library of Congress: American Memory ‐ There are 13 collections in their Immigration, American Expansion section including the Ohio River Valley, Traveling in America, and Utah and Western Migration just to name a few. Lineages, Inc. ‐ They provide a comprehensive outline entitled, First Steps: Colonial Routes to Kentucky and Tennessee. Migrations ‐ A database of user submissions of their known ancestor's migrations and searchable by location and/or surname. Cyndi's List ‐ Cyndi's Migration Routes, Roads, and Trails provides an extensive list of additional links and resources. USGenWeb ‐ The USGenWeb Project is a free resource organized by state, it's and supported and maintained by volunteers. Checking states here that had migration routes running through them can provide even more resources. For example, Tennessee provides maps online of the county boundary changes throughout the years.

MAPS •

• • • • • • • •

Geology.com ‐ Provides maps by country and state. Each state has 5 different types of maps available to look at and print out: a physical map, elevation map, river & lake map, county map, cities & road map. These are excellent in helping to identify counties (present day), waterways, mountains, and valleys. Library of Congress: American Memory ‐ Their Maps section provides eleven collections of various maps. Marshall Historical Maps Collection ‐ Available from MyTopo.com. LibrarySpot.com ‐ Various collections. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection ‐ Various collections Perry‐Castaneda Library Map Collection ‐ Various collections and links. Wikipedia ‐ Lists of state rivers are available with maps which is helpful in identifying particular waterways. Also, state pages provide historical information about each state, including historical information. Wikimedia ‐ SpeciWic river maps are available here including those of smaller waterways that are hard to Wind elsewhere. USGenWeb ‐ The USGenWeb Project is a free resource organized by state and supported by volunteers. Checking states here that had migration routes running

• • • • •

through them can provide even more resources. For example, Tennessee provides maps online of the county boundary changes throughout the years as well as important waterways. Cyndi's List ‐ Cyndi's Maps Gazetteers & Geographical Information provides an extensive list of additional links and resources. HistoricMapWorks.com ‐ This a site of historical maps, that can be searched for free before purchasing a map. Maps can be printed out for a small fee, and/or they can be ordered in various sizes at different price levels. Google Earth Google Maps

BOOKS/AUDIOBOOKS • • • • • • • • • •

A History of Travel in America (Google Books) by Seymour Dunbar The Winning of the West (Google Books) by Theodore Roosevelt Map Guide to American Migration Routes, 17351815 (book)by William Dollarhide American Trails Revisited: Following the Footsteps of the Western Pioneers (book) by Lyn Wilkerson Southern Migration Routes (Audiobook) by Lynda Childers Suffridge and the National Genealogical Society Colonial Roads of Our Ancestors (book) William Dollarhide Westward the Wagons: Some OutMigration Routes From Virginia and North Carolina (Audiobook) by Russell Pierce Baker and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (U.S.) Conference Atlas of American History (Atlas) by Rand McNally and Company The Family Tree Resource Book for Genealogists: The Essential Guide To American County and Town Sources (book) Edited by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and Erin Nevius Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County and Town Sources, 3rd Revised Edition (book) Edited by Alice Eichholz

There are many differences between you and your ancestors, but many similarities exist as well. On your journey to Wind family, don't forget to look at how they traveled, where they would've gone, and what they would've done. Remember while you climb into your automobile for that move across the country, they climbed into their stagecoaches, wagons, and ferries. All of you, though, with anticipation in your eyes and anxiety in your hearts. As you drive through the cold or rain in your automobile warm and dry, they persevered through torrential rains and dusty plains out in the open. All of you, though, doing it for a

chance to obtain the dream of a better life, with hopes of more opportunity, and with wishes for a bountiful future. Don't forget, they, too, had little ones who eagerly asked, "Are

LOC - LOT 3076-8, no. 2347 [P&P]

we there yet?"

Are We There Yet?

SOURCES Seymour Dunbar, A History of Travel In America (1915), 1‐2; digital images, Google Books (http:// books.google.com/books?id=B5wVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=colonial +travel&as_brr=1&ei=Th5JS6HgK4TWNPqi4fMN&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false : accessed 3 January 2010). William R. Polk, The Birth of America (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006), 157. Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, FUGA, and Loretto Dennis Szucs, FUGA, editors, The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, 3rd Edition (Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2006), 29.

A Date With What do you have? Identifying the format and type of print are the Wirst steps in identifying an old photograph. Dating early photographs is not solely dependent on the information contained in the image itself. Each photographic format occupied a particular time period in history. In this, the second part of the series, “A Date With An Old Photograph,” we look at an overview of formats and prints. Each of these will receive an in depth look as the series continues. What is discussed in this series is the pattern of commercial development in America. Photographs produced in other countries will be distinctive and different.

Old Photographs There are two formats of old photographs. Cased images and paper prints. Cased images include the daguerrotype, ambrotype and often the tintype. Paper prints are classified by the type of print and published format.

Formats include:

Print Types include:

Carte-de-Visite - CDV

Salted Paper Print 1840 to 1890s

Gelatin Printing-Out Paper 1885 to 1920

Albumen Print 1850 to 1920

Glossy Collodion 1885 to 1920

Cyanotype 1840s to 1920

Matte Collodion 1894 to 1920s

Carbon Print 1860s to 1940s

Gelatin Developing Fiber-base 1885 to present

Cabinet Card Card Mounted Photographs

Platinotype 1880 to 1930

An Old Photograph

Cowanʼs Auction House Catalog

MOMA - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

The Wirst step in dating an old photograph is to identify the type of photograph you own. Each photographic format occupied a particular time period in history.

Daguerrotype 1839 to 1865

Ambrotype 1855 to 1865

Named after its French inventor Louis Daguerre. Most popular from early 1840s to 1860s. Image consists of silver amalgam (highlights) and pure silver (shadows) on a silver-coated copper plate; mirror-like surface; usually encased (in America). Each daguerreotype was a one-of-a-kind image. Daguerreotypes have to be held at a certain angle to be viewed due to the mirror-like reflective surface.

Most popular in late 1850s. Silver image in a collodion binder on an opaque glass support. Exposed in the camera the back of the plate was blackened resulting in a positive appearing image. Like the daguerreotype, ambrotypes were usually placed in protective cases. This Ambrotype

This Daguerrotype

Untitled ca. 1860 Photographer Unknown

J.P. Ball Quarter Plate Daguerrotype Of Mulattoes (See Behind The Camera Article)

This is a portrait of an African-American woman with two white children.

This portrait of three young men dressed in suits; light hand-tinting to shirts and piping on jacket of the youngest; brass mat stamped, was auctioned by Cowan’s of History Detective fame. Price Realized: $4,406.25

2 1/2 in. x 3 1/2 in. (6.35 cm x 8.89 cm) Promised gift of Paul Sack to the Sack Photographic Trust.

LOC - LC-DIG-ppmsca-08978

LOC - LC-DIG-ppmsca-10992

Tintype 1850s to 1930s

Carte-de-Visite 1855 to 1870s

Most popular in 1860s. Silver image in a collodion binder on a thin sheet of lacquered iron; some cased, usually in paper mats; dull gray with creamy white highlights. Photographs on thin sheets of iron. These images are commonly called tintypes, although they are more accurately called ferrotypes. The iron sheet was japanned or blackened, and then coated with liquid collodion and sensitized.

Most popular from 1855 to 1895. Silver image in an albumen (egg white) binder on a thin paper support; uniform gloss; purplish-brown, red-brown or yellowbrown hue.

This Tintype Untitled ca. 1870 Photographer Unknown African American woman holding a basket. The tintype is encased in a paper mat.

This Carte-de-Visite "I sell the shadow to support the substance, Sojourner Truth." Photographer Unknown ca. 1864 Abolitionist, women's rights advocate, lecturer, former salve, and author, Isabella Baumfree. During a lecture she ran out of books to sell and started selling copies of a photograph she had recently had made of herself. The photograph sold as well as the book and became a regularly selling item at her lectures.

Cabinet Card 1866 to 1900 Larger than the carte-de-visite photographic format, the cabinet card was about 4 Âź by 6 Â˝ inches and featured space for the photographer's name and studio location to be printed on the front. The cabinet card consisted of a paper print (usually albumen) mounted on a thick card support. The cabinet card eventually eclipsed the cartede-visite format in popularity. After 1900 card mounted photographs were produced. This Cabinet Card (See Behind The Camera Article) Two Black Women ca. 1887 J.P. Ball Photographer Helena, Montana This cabinet card was found on a trip to Montana. While not in good condition it is a treasure to own a cabinet cards by the black American photographer J.P. Ball with a black subject and a Montana address.

Transitions

THE FUTURE OF MEMORIES

release your inner ken burns PART III - FINAL TOUCHES BY DENISE BARRETT OLSON

For all intents and purposes, the documentary is done. Think of it as a cake that has been baked and iced. We could serve it as it is . . . or, we can add a few embellishments. Our embellishments will be in the form of transitions and special effects. A transition is what happens when your documentary moves from one scene or photo to the next. All of the applications we’ve discussed ‐ from Photoshop Elements to movie editing to presentation slides ‐ offer several types of transitions. Experiment with your options to see which Wit the tone and style of your documentary. Using Photoshop Elements, the transitions are selected by clicking on the small blue boxes between each slide. When you select one, the Properties area in the right sidebar offers you options for transition type. The example shows several of the available options. As you see, you can set a different transition effect between each side, but too many choices could distract from your presentation. Having said that, transitions can be used to help build excitement or tension as your story moves forward. Moving from an unobtrusive transition to an “in your face” one immediately tells the viewer that something important is coming. Yes, you’ll have to spend time experimenting with the various transitions available in your application to see how they work within your story line, but it can add professional impact to your Winished product.

Along with transitions, special effects also add a professional look to your documentary. My favorite has to be the pan and zoom effect known as the Ken Burns effect. Presentation software (PowerPoint, Keynote, etc.) doesn’t offer this effect but has some basic zoom effects that offer a limited capability. The Photoshop Elements example shown below works in much the same way as the iMovie effect. Notice the two boxes, one red and one green, in each of the photos making up the slideshow. They appear when the Enable Pan & Zoom checkbox is selected. The green box displays the initial view of that photo and the red box displays the ending view.

In this example, the beginning view is zoomed in on the tower and the ending view includes the entire photo. So, when the photo Wirst appears on the screen, its view will start with just the tower and over the 5 seconds it will be displayed, it will zoom out to display the entire photo.

Notice the caption in the bottom right corner of the photo. Because the slide will transition as soon as the end area is displayed, it’s probable that the caption won’t be on‐screen long enough for anyone to read it. To deal with this problem, you can add another Pan & Zoom effect where both the beginning and ending boxes include the entire photo. That will extend the time the caption is visible. The pan and zoom effect can do more than just zoom into and out of a photo. If your start box sits in the left half of the photo and the end box sits in the right half, the resulting effect will be to move across the photo from left to right.

There are times when no effect is necessary ‐ like this photo of armored personnel carriers sailing through the Wlooded streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. For the few seconds this photo is displayed in the Veterans Day slideshow, the viewer has time to take in the magnitude of the disaster.

Once the story is complete, you’ll want to include title slides at the beginning of the documentary and credits at the end. If you’re using PowerPoint or Keynote, this is as simple as adding slides in the appropriate format. Photoshop Elements allows you to add blank slides anywhere in your slideshow and then place text and graphics on them. iMovie and Movie Maker offer several formats for placing text right over the photo or video like you see in the example below.

The last special effect is sound. While you can Wind and use any number of sound effects, like rain, thunder or train whistles, you’re probably more likely to use music. A favorite song can add to both the tone and the sentimental value of your documentary, but you must understand your legal limits when using music. I try to use royalty‐free music wherever possible, but I will use a speciWic song or track that Wits my story when I’m not posting that project publicly. iMovie and Garage Band have several royalty‐free tracks for use in your projects and there are sites online which offer all kinds of music ‐ some free. They make

great background or mood music for your piece without distracting the viewer from the photos or narration. Yes, there are times when a speciWic song is needed for emotional or historic value, but mostly I prefer background music ‐ especially loops that are automatically repeated throughout the presentation. These are are the easiest to manage since you don’t have to organize and time your photos to match the music, yet they support the project’s theme or mood. When working with background music, some platforms give you more control than others. In my Circle B Ranch project, Keynote will only let me set a background music volume level for the entire presentation. Movie applications allow you to adjust the volumes at any point in the project ‐ louder for the intro then reduced during the narration. Again, it’s mostly a matter of experimenting until you have just what you want.

THE PREMIER Once you’re documentary is Winished, you’ll need to determine how you want to distribute it. You’re options include: • play it only on your computer. • put it on CD and send it to the people you want to see it. • put it on DVD so it can be played on computers and televisions and send it to the people you want to see it. • put it online so it can be viewed via the Web. When distributing your documentary via CD so others can watch it on their computers, you’ll Wind some potential compatibility issues. If your application will create only Windows Media Videos (WMV Wiles), your viewers will need Windows Media Player to view it. No problem if everyone has Windows computers, however there’s no Windows Media Player for Macs. Apple’s Quicktime is a free download for either Mac or Windows computers, but not everyone wants it on their systems. Linux folks will need to install plugins on their computers to watch either. Then there’s Uncle Bob who doesn’t own a computer.

One good alternative is a digital frame that will also play video. Granted, they’re small and generally don’t have the best sound quality, but they are portable and add a bit of punch to any family gathering. And, since almost everybody has one these days, you could distribute your video on either a USB thumbdrive or a small memory card. Check with family members to see which models they have and can they play video on them. Many newer computers include a DVD/CD combo drive instead of just a CD drive. If you have one, creating DVDs that can be played on your family’s televisions is a great option. Both Apple’s iDVD and Windows DVD Maker will not only convert your movie to a DVD image, but add titles and menus much like you Wind on commercial DVDs. One of the easiest things you can do is upload your documentary to a video‐sharing service such as YouTube [Link] or Vimeo [Link]. If you’re going the PowerPoint/Keynote route, you can upload your creation at Slideshare [Link] or Slideboom [Link]. If you choose one of these options, your documentary will be visible to anyone with a web browser and an Internet connection. Some provide better quality video and some offer the ability to limit who can view your project. You can take a look and choose the one that suits your needs. I highly recommend premiering your production. If you make it a big deal, so will your family. In my family, we have a Thanksgiving tradition called the Caroline Cup Regatta where we race homemade vessels (calling them “boats” can be a stretch of the imagination) across a swimming pool. I’ve been documenting the event for several years and generally use our Christmas get‐together as an opportunity to premier the video before offering downloads or DVDs to family and friends. We usually play it on the host’s TV over dessert. Everyone enjoys re‐living the fun from a different perspective.

With that being said, here for your enjoyment is the Circle B Ranch [Link] which was premiered as part of a family barbeque just a couple of days ago.

RESOURCES Sources for royalty‐free music clips include: • • • •

Partners in Rhyme [Link] opuzz [Link] Sound Loop Studio [Link] Music Tracks Library [Link]

CAPTURED MOMENTS

a few of elizabethâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s februaries WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN BY VICKIE EVERHART

The Garden In Winter

I feel as if I had opened a book and found roses of yesterday sweet and fragrant between it's leaves. ~ L.M. Montgomery (1874-1942) ~

The Februaries of her life, there were not to

The daughter who never knew her was

be many of them. She arrived on this earth

blessed to inherit a photo collection

in the autumn of a Leap Year ‐‐ October of

documenting some of the days and events

1912. And she left this world less than 20

in Elizabeth's short life. At this time, it is

years later, near the beginning of yet

believed that most of these treasured

another year in which February had 29

snapshots were captured by Elizabeth's

days.

older brother, Tom Smith (1904‐1959).

Read along with me as we take a peek at what might have been a few of Elizabeth's Februaries. Most of these speculations are based on faded photos adhered to the black pages of an old photo album.

The Hallmark Company produces its Wirst Valentine card in 1913.

1913 HER 1ST VALENTINE'S DAY In February of 1913, four‐month‐old Elizabeth is napping peacefully in her pram while her self‐employed parents, Eva and T.W.A. Smith, busily prepare for the annual Valentine's Day rush. Baby Elizabeth had been an unexpected surprise, arriving eight years following the birth of her only sibling,Tom, and 39‐year‐old Eva sometimes Winds herself staring in awe at the little dark‐haired sleeping angel. Eva is known throughout York County, Maine for her "artistic and handsome Wloral designs," and T.W.A. "has an unexcelled reputation for the excellence of his work" as "an experienced and practical horticulturist and landscape gardener."

1920 DEATH OF HER FATHER It is a cold winter's day in Maine, and Elizabeth is seven years old when her ailing 53‐year‐ old father takes his own life in February of 1920. The lengthy write‐up in the local Biddeford newspaper reveals a surprising number of details about events leading up to his death. His funeral is held at the family home on the day following Valentine's Day, with burial at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco, Maine.

1927 CHILDHOOD FRIENDS By February of 1927, 14‐year‐old Elizabeth is friends with Diantha, an "older" girl from the neighborhood who lost her mother in 1923. In later years, Diantha would recall about a young Elizabeth that, "She wore curls when we started to chum together. Her mother had to curl each one over her Winger. I guess she had two layers of big fat thick bouncy curls." Meanwhile, though their paths have not yet crossed, Elizabeth's future husband ‐‐ a 3rd‐ generation Texan ‐‐ has been a member of the U.S. Navy for less than a month, and is currently at the U.S. Naval Training Station at Hampton Roads, Virginia. One of his shipmates is Win Hooper from Maine who, unbeknownst to anyone involved, will be marrying Diantha in June of 1931.

1928 MEETING THEIR FUTURE HUSBANDS Based on letters written by Diantha, it does appear that the Valentine's Day of 1928 came around very shortly before the young women met their future spouses. Diantha wrote that they Wirst encountered Robert and Win when the shipmates were on spring leave in Maine visiting Win's sister. Robert's

service record supports this timeline, as it indicates that he had a 12‐day‐leave beginning April 30, 1928.

1929 ELIZABETH & ROBERT MARRY Proof of Elizabeth's residence as of Valentine's Day in 1929 has not yet been located, but it is suspected that she was already living in Lynn, Massachusetts, while Robert was still assigned to the USS Sturtevant. His service record shows he has a 14‐day leave beginning July 6, and on the 8th day of July 1929, 16‐year‐old Elizabeth marries 24‐year‐old Robert Henry in Lynn. Their marriage license indicates they have a residence in Lynn, which is shared with Elizabeth's single brother, Tom, as well as their widowed mother, Eva.

1930 A NEW BABY BOY By Valentine's Day 1930, Elizabeth has been married seven months, and is pregnant with her Wirst child, a son, who will be born in May of this year. Robert is still in the Navy, but is given a Wive‐day‐leave shortly following the birth of his son, and then another 13‐day‐leave in August.

1931 THEIR ONLY VALENTINE'S DAY TOGETHER In February of 1931, 18‐year‐old Elizabeth enjoys the 1st and only Valentine's Day that she will share with her new baby boy and his Father. She makes note of this date on a page in Little Robert's baby book (a gift from Diantha).

Robert has been "home" (in Massachusetts) since the middle of January 1931, having been given an Honorable Discharge from the Navy after four years of service to his country. This was the 1st time the new little family had all actually lived together under one roof. Sadly, they will have only one short year of familial togetherness before the dark cloud of death settles over their home.

1932 A NEW BABY GIRL Elizabeth's new baby girl is two weeks old when Valentine's Day 1932 arrives, and in a perfect world, Elizabeth would be there holding her baby close, and kissing her rosy cheeks, and joyfully writing in the new baby book. But this happy scenario was not to be ‐‐ Elizabeth died 11 days prior to what would have been her 19th Valentine's Day. Her funeral is held

Winter, a lingering season,

in Lynn, with burial near her father at Laurel Hill

is a time to gather golden moments,

Cemetery in Saco, Maine.

embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour. ~ John Boswell ~

And in my mind clematis climbs and morning glories do entwine. Woodland phlox and scarlet pinks replace the frost if I just blink. My inner eye sees past the snow and in my mind my garden grows. ~ Cheryl MagicLady ~ Winter Garden

WHO WERE THEY? Thomas Warren Alonzo Smith (1866‐1920) and Eva May Brackett (1874‐1936) are my great‐grandparents. Their only daughter, Elizabeth Marilla Smith (1912‐1932), married Robert E. Henry (1905‐1976), and their baby girl is my Mom.

TUTORIALS Except for the family collage appearing on the left side of the main February collage, the collages shown here were all created using Picasa. The elements incorporated into this collage include: • a background collage created by arranging the individual pieces on the scanner bed & scanning them as a single image • a family collage created using a free online scrapbook program • a page from a 1930's baby album • photos of various family members • February calendar for 1932 • free background textures • free fonts & dingbats • free vintage postcard images

THE BACKGROUND COLLAGE The elements contained in the collage used for the background of the main February collage include: • • • • • •

a blank page from a 19th century autograph album a handwritten page from a 19th century ledger containing song lyrics, et al a piece of vintage white linen needlework the envelope from a 1930 birth announcement a piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper purchased at the craft store free background textures found via Google searches

the collage created by scanning an assortment of elements laid out on a scanner bed & then "framed" using the grid collage in Picasa

Background Collage Created with a Scanner: Clean the scanner bed Lay the blank page from the autograph album face‐down on the scanner bed Arrange the linen piece behind the blank page Carefully arrange the crumbling page of song lyrics behind the blank page and the linen piece • Layer the small envelope, face down, behind these pieces • Gently lay the purchased scrapbook paper face‐down on top of the arrangement, and carefully lower the lid of the scanner • Scan the image and save it as a TIF Wile. Before moving or removing any of the elements, view the scanned image to see if you might want to make some slight adjustments to the arrangement, and then scan again if desired, once again saving as a TIF Wile. • • • •

The resulting image is used later in this project as the background for the family collage created outside of Picasa. To frame this image for use as the background for the main February collage, use the grid option in Picasa (see the November and December issues of Shades for detailed instructions).

THE FAMILY COLLAGE The individual elements contained in the family collage include: • Family photos • The background collage created above • Photos corners & word clips from the collection at the free scrapbook page generator

Family Collage Created Using Free Scrapbook Page Generator Go to [LINK ‐ ancestry.mycanvas.com] and login or set up an account (free) Create and / or open your chosen project Import family photos & background collage created above Set the background collage as the preferred background Save (middle of toolbar at top of page) Drag the family photos to the background collage & arrange Save Choose & apply photo corners to the family photos Save Choose & apply Wlourishes & words to the image Save Near the upper right of your screen, Wind the button allowing you to "Toggle between 'Full Screen' & 'Normal Screen'" & choose 'Full Screen' Capture a "print screen" of your computer screen which is showing the collage created using the "my canvas" scrapbook page generator Crop image as needed for use in the Winished collage

SOURCES - SHADES TUTORIALS Free Scrapbook Page Generator [LINK] Picasa [LINK] Picasa for the Mac [LINK] Free Vintage Postcard Images [LINK] Free fonts used include ‐ Copper Alt Caps Expert ‐ iNked God ‐ Old CopperWield ‐ Typical Writer

Shades, November 2009 [LINK] Picasa ‐ Grid Collage, p. 49 Picasa ‐ Dingbats, p. 51 Picasa ‐ Add a Border, Resize Image, Links, p. 53 Shades, December 2009 [LINK] Scanning Images, p. 25 Picasa ‐ Grid Collage, p. 26 Shades, January 2010 [LINK] Creating a calendar for any year, p. 54

Shades Women’s History In The Month Of March

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Past Issues

January

December

November

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

The Imprint Or Logo - This Is The Original and Only, Harry Shepherd, 15 E. 7th St., Saint Paul, Minnesota. (1887 - 1906) At the turn of the 20th century, Harry Shepherd was one of Minnesota's most recognized photographers. So recognized he used an image of himself as the imprint for his photographic studio. Shepherd was the first African-American photographer in Minnesota, opening a studio in 1887 when he was thirty-one. Black and white clientele alike frequented his premises in the heart of downtown St. Paul. He operated several galleries; People's Photographic Gallery, Annex Gallery (tintypes), McFadden & Company and the Shepherd Photographic Company Studios. He was also known for his photographs on watch dials and photo signet rings. As his success grew, so did his desire to better the plight of African Americans. Through his photography and lectures, Shepherd made a name for himself in the early Twin Cities community of black activists.

Harry Shepherd was born in Virginia in 1856. Although married to Margett Shepherd in about 1886, I was unable to find any record of the couple having children. There is a newspaper article that references Shepherd’s arrest for assault. It appears that Margett was called a “liar” by a disreputable businessman and Harry punched him. The judge found him guilty of assault, but he was not fined as the judge found he was defending his wife. Our valentine!.