Paul Hotchkiss


There is something special about holding a 19th century cabinet card. You look at a sepia-toned image of a child from generations ago, and you can’t help but wonder: Who were they? What kind of life did they live after the camera shutter clicked?

​Recently, a new piece of history came to light: a beautiful cabinet card from May 1892, captured at A. Pritchard’s Photographic Art Studio at the corner of Main & Grove Streets in Meriden, Connecticut. The subject? A neatly dressed four year old boy standing beside an ornate wicker photography prop chair.

​Thanks to a penned inscription on the back of the card, we have a name to go with the face: Paul Tyler Hotchkiss.

​In the portrait, young Paul is a perfect example of late Victorian style. Born around 1888, he is pictured at age four wearing a dark jacket, a matching buttoned vest, a large plaid neck bow, and dark button-up boots.

​You'll notice he is wearing a long skirt rather than trousers. To modern eyes, this might look unusual for a young boy, but in 1892, this was standard tradition. Young boys wore dresses until they reached an age somewhere between four and eight, at which point they underwent a major childhood milestone known as "breeching" receiving their very first pair of trousers. Paul was photographed right on the edge of this transition.

While a fire in 1921 tragically destroyed nearly all of the 1890 U.S. Federal Census, erasing what would have been Paul's very first appearance in official records as a toddler, genealogical records allow us to follow his footprints forward.

​Paul carried a deeply rooted Connecticut heritage, directly descending from Samuel Hotchkiss, an original 17th century settler of the New Haven Colony, as well as early settlers of Cheshire, Connecticut. 

As Paul grew up, he chose to establish his adult life in Cheshire, Connecticut, where he served as Master of the Cheshire Grange (1915–1916) and raised his family with his wife, Clara Kurtz Hotchkiss.

Paul and Clara had one child, a daughter named Elsa born in 1932.

Unfortunately, the exact death date for Paul Tyler Hotchkiss is not recorded in easily accessible public vital indexes.

​When the Pritchard studio carefully archived Paul’s glass plate negative in 1892, noting on the back stamp that duplicates could be made "at any time", they couldn't have imagined that more than 130 years later, his image would still be admired.

​Every antique photograph that escapes a dusty attic is a window into a real life. Seeing Paul as a bright eyed four year old reminds us that the prominent figures who shaped our local communities were once just children, standing patiently in front of a photographer's lens, waiting to see how the future would unfold.



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