Ink & Ancestry

For a long time, this cabinet card from my collection was a mystery but thanks to a little bit of detective work, this face finally has a name. Meet Augusta Wilhelmina Bredlau. The front of the card immediately anchors us to a specific place. At the bottom runs the imprint of McKecknie & Oswald, a prominent photography studio.  ​Augusta stands before the camera wearing a prime example of late Victorian and early Edwardian youth fashion (circa 1898–1905).  ​Turning the card over, her name is preserved in cursive: Augusta Bredlau . ​Because the surname Bredlau was heavily concentrated among 19th century German immigrant families in the Upper Midwest, tracing her exact path took a bit of digging. The breakthrough came when looking just up the rail line from Toledo. ​Born around 1881, Augusta grew up in a rapidly changing world. In her late teens or early twenties, she was captured in time at that Toledo photographers studio. Not long after, her journ...

This week, I added an 1896 cabinet card to my collection, and the notes on both sides let me piece together a story of a late 19th century farming family. The portrait itself, dated April 1896 in pencil on the front, features a young couple surrounded by their four children. The children's heavy velvet and plaid dresses and the white lace collars are all classic styles of the decade. ​But it’s the back of the photo that truly brings it to life. Written in elegant cursive, it says: Jesse Packwood Family. They was Friends of Mr & Mrs E.H. Powell. With a location, a surname, and an exact date, the pieces of the puzzle quickly fell into place. This is the family of Jesse W. Packwood and his wife, Amanda, who operated a farm just west of Exeter in Barry County, Missouri. ​By looking at historical records from the spring of 1896, we can actually name every single child in this portrait: ​ Cordelia & Della: The two older daughters standing on the right, born in th...

Turn over almost any vintage cabinet card, and you might find a penciled name or a cryptic family clue. But rarely do those fragments open up a window into early American history like the inscription on the back of this recent addition to the collection: ​ Miss Lizzie Sheeks or Mrs. Lizzie Arnold. Mary Danelys mother. ​Who was this woman standing by a rustic fence? To find out, we have to travel back to the dense forests and pioneering days of 1830s Indiana. ​Elizabeth A. "Lizzie" Sheeks was born on November 2, 1837, in Lawrence County, Indiana. Lizzie’s grandparents, George and Elizabeth Sheeks, were legendary early pioneers of the region. Their original family log cabin was so important to local history that it was later preserved and still stands today as a historic landmark inside Spring Mill State Park. ​The 1850 Federal Census captures a 12 year old Lizzie living in Spice Valley Township, surrounded by a busy household of five younger siblings: William...

A portrait of two young Victorian era children carries an embossed studio mark from Siegel Cooper & Co., Chicago. Turn the card over, and a simple script reveals their names: Harry and Rosa Volberding. ​By combining the physical evidence of this cabinet card with local archives, we can uncover the story of this late 1890s Illinois sibling pair. ​Picture the busy streets of downtown Chicago around 1898 or 1899. The Volberding family lived just west of the city limits in the farming communities of Addison Township and Bensenville. To get a family portrait taken, they likely boarded a train line directly into the heart of Chicago. ​Their destination was Siegel Cooper & Co., an iconic, massive department store located at State and Van Buren streets. Known affectionately as "The Big Store," it had a high end photo studio that was popular to both city dwellers and visiting suburban families. ​For the occasion, the children were dressed in their finest attire:...

Take a look at this beautifully preserved late 19th century cabinet card. Seated on a wooden prop fence, wearing a white lace dress and dark leather boots, is a little girl with a very serious expression. ​If you turn the card over, a handwritten pencil note reveals her identity: ​ Mabel Halsey Woodrow ​So what ever became of the little girl captured on that wooden fence? Census and historical records reveal that Mabel grew up to leave a profound, lasting mark on American art and philanthropy. According to the 1900 and 1910 US Federal Censuses, Mabel grew up in a comfortable Camden household. Her father, Howard C. Woodrow, worked as a bookkeeper, while her mother, Mary, stayed home to raise Mabel and her younger brother, Howard Jr. Her distinct middle name, Halsey, was a nod to her mother’s family name. ​As Mabel grew, so did her talent for the arts. By the 1910s, she had immersed herself in the thriving creative community of Philadelphia. ​When World War I broke out...