TWO LADIES HOLDING HANDS IN VAIL, IOWA

J. F. Barton documents the resolution of the conflict between the Hatfields and the McCoys. Mrs. Irma Hatfield and Miss Henrietta McCoy met at the Barton studio to resolve the decades old dispute that decimated their families. Sorry! I couldn’t resist making up a story to accompany this cabinet card portrait. The image begs for explanation, but unfortunately,  the reason for the pictured handshake is lost in history. The ladies are wearing plain dresses but nice hats. Both women are wearing fingerless gloves. The woman on the right is wearing a belt that may have been the prototype of the automobile seat belts of today. J. F. Barton is humorously mentioned in the Denison Review (1902) as a first class photographer who is “kept busy printing smiles” on his customers.

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Published in: on January 6, 2014 at 12:01 pm  Comments (2)  
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BEAUTIFUL SISTERS IN GENEVA, NEW YORK

Two beautiful young woman pose for their portrait. Lillian and Ella look so much like sisters that it is possible that they may have been twins. The photographers name and location were excised by a previous owner of this cabinet card who trimmed it to fit into an album or frame. Fortunately the reverse of the photograph reveals that the photographer of the image was named Vail.  Research provides further information. John P  Vail (1836-?) was the photographer and he operated out of Geneva, New York. Vail’s father was a farmer and Vail stayed on the family farm until age twenty. In 1859 he went to Penn Yan and learned the art of photography. From 1860 until 1871 he ran a photography business in Palmyra, New York. He then moved to Geneva where he owned a nursery for four years and in 1876 opened a photographic gallery there.

Published in: on June 9, 2011 at 12:01 am  Comments (1)  
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