Dancing on Disston Street, Philadelphia, New Year’s Eve, 1951

I picked this snapshot up on a trip to New York a couple of year’s ago. The marking of New Year’s Eve always has a poignancy to it and this 61 year old snapshot exudes a certain pathos. I wonder how the year panned out for Florence, Walt, George, Lil, Cass, Jim, Betty and Cookie?

I love the fact that the two women have similar dresses and hairstyles and are being held by their partners in identical poses. The men are all in white shirts with high-waisted trousers. One man looks as if he is singing along to the music whilst another stares wistfully away from the camera.

2933 Disston Street is in Northwest Philadelphia in an area called Mayfair which had very strong Irish-American connections. A cursory perusal of the listings for the street reveals many Irish and Italian surnames.

I am happy to report that today has had one of the highest number of views since Jacolette started and I’d like to thank all those who have looked at and commented upon my posts in 2012. I look forward to sharing many more photographs in 2013! Happy New Year!

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Surreal Kodak moments: Irish-American tourist snapshots from 1971

I love the colours in these early 70s holiday snapshots which I purchased from an online seller recently. There is something very evocative about this Kodak colour process with its strong red and brown hues. 

The photographs were taken by Irish-American tourists in 1971 and include the slightly surreal image of an A and B pay phone. This pay phone system required the caller to contact an operator and if for some reason the call didn’t go through they could hit the ‘B’ button to return their coins. I wonder if the photograph was taken in an airport and that the green phone is perhaps a courtesy phone? I cannot make out the headlines on the newspaper which might have provided clues as to the time of year. 

I’ve identified the clock tower in the background of this photograph as that on Waterford Quay which was built in 1881. The man is the foreground appears to be enjoying his holiday. 

Upon their return to the United States, the travellers chose to photograph the items they had purchased during their trip to England and Ireland. It provides a great insight into the types of souvenirs which were popular with tourists during the period. I recognise several brands including an Irish Wade pin dish and a leprechaun figure which looks very like those made by Crolly in Donegal. They also bought plenty of linen teacloths and some strange looking records.

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Irish Pavilion, World’s Fair, New York 1964

The commission for the Irish Pavilion at the 1964/65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York was awarded to the Irish architect, Andrew Devane. An article which appeared in The Irish Times on the 12^th June 1963 assured the public that the Irish pavilion would “be unpretentious and neither excessively modernistic nor falsely traditional.” The complex in its entirety is depicted on a 5 penny Irish stamp.

Devane was assisted by the American designer, George Nelson and the wooden canopy is reminiscent of Nelson’s 1946 platform bench. The entrance, with its Liscannor slate façade was a popular spot in which to be photographed. This Irish-American lady was one of the ca. 3.8 million visitors to the Irish section and I love her pale green shift dress. The horizontal shadows create an interesting pattern on the slate wall adding a dappled effect to this 1964 kodacolor print.

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Easter Bonnet, Tipperary, Ireland, ca. 1900

Just a quick Easter post. I always find it hard to date children’s clothes but my guess is that this lavish outfit originates from somewhere between 1890 and 1910. The photograph was sent to an Irish emigrant in Philadelphia along with several postcard views of Clonmel, County Tipperary. The photographer was English-born, Albert Joseph Webster, and I can confirm that his studio was in business between 1901 and 1911. I wonder did Bridie ever get to meet her sister Mary’s child? There are no surnames given within the correspondence, however, one of the postcards mentions that a J. Landy is emigrating to Philadelphia and will call on Bridie. 

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Giant’s Causeway, Atlantic City snapshot

I am off to New York for ten days and on that note I thought I’d post one of my latest snapshot purchases which, although not Irish per se, has a distinctly Irish-American theme. This snapshot was taken on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, New Jersey, and features a stylish 1920s dame sitting on a ridiculously fake model of the Wishing Seat at the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim.  Presumably the sitter had to pay to pose on the seat and it is interesting to note that the Irish landmark was well enough known to have a resonance with the American public. 

I particularly like the cut-off American flag and the groups in the background. These are typical snapshot details which were not necessarily the object of the photographer’s gaze.

The woman’s outfit is quintessential 1920s style and includes most of the trends from the era discussed in a comprehensive post from the fashion history blog Gamour Daze. These include the cloche hat and t-bar shoes and even though her face is obscured by a flaw in the print I think the snapshot as a whole evokes the holiday location and the flapper era. One of my favourite films is The King of Marvin Gardens which was shot in Atlantic City. It is also highly atmospheric but shows the location in the early 1970s when it was long past its peak. 

 

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Words and pictures

Before 1907, if you were sending a postcard to the United States you couldn’t write anything other than the address on the back of the card. As a result of this people wrote their messages around the image and this led to an interesting and quirky intersection of words and pictures. The pattern created by the text against the image is often fascinating. The sender of the first postcard from Howth/Beann Eadair has managed to write a considerable amount of text over the sea and sky! It was sent to California in April 1905. The second card was sent to Boston in 1905 and mentions a trip to the Dublin Horse Show and Donaghadee, near Belfast. 

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Gaelic League postcard, ca. 1910

The image on this Gaelic League postcard was taken by the Irish-American photographer and artist, Anna Frances Levins (d. 1941). It was published by Malcolmson and Hayes, a New York based printing and engraving firm which was founded by Cork-born, Cornelius J. Hayes. 

Levins was an interesting character who was also a portrait painter and the official photographer to the Irish-American Historical Society. She married the landowner and politican, Thomas Henry Grattan Esmonde (1862-1935) and when in Dublin their home was at 84 St. Stephen’s Green. 

Yet again the colouring of the photograph is what really appeals to me. The approximation of 15th century dress is based more upon a romantic notion of the period than on actual historical evidence. It has many similarities with the costumes created by the Dun Emer Guild in Dublin. 

The postcard may have originated from one of the World’s Fairs, however, I have a feeling that it had something to do with the ‘Irish Historic Pageant’ which took place in New York in 1913. It was organised by the Gaelic League‘s Irish and New York branches. The pageant, which was a fundraiser, for the League, celebrated Ireland’s ancient past. 

It was held at the Sixty-Ninth Armory, New York and featured 500 professional and amateur actors in ‘ancient’ Irish costume. It cost $10,000 to put on and was designed by John P. Campbell. For more information on the event see Deborah Sugg Ryan’s article in Ireland’s heritages: critical perspectives on memory and identity edited by Mark McCarthy, Ashgate (2005). 

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Celluloid Photographic Medallion

This unusual object is a celluloid photographic medallion which was made in the United States between ca. 1900 and 1930. It is about 16cms in diameter and is marked “Columbia Medallion Studios, Chicago”.    

The image itself (according to a hand-written scrap attached to the back) is of “Uncle Lar Kavanagh of Leighlinbridge, County Carlow”. The original photograph was probably sent over to an emigrant in America and has been enlarged and encased using a process which was extremely popular in the United States but which doesn’t appear to have been so common in Ireland. The George Eastman House Museum has an extensive range of these celluloid buttons and provide an explanation of how they were made – the process is similar to making a regular button badge.  The following links show the machines used to make them and also a salesman’s case containing sample borders and designs. 

The lush greenery surrounding the cottage creates a hazy image which would doubtless of conjured up thoughts of home for the emigrant who received it. According to the 1901 census there were quite a few Kavanaghs in Leighlinbridge. It can be difficult to date these objects as older photographs were often made into medallions long after they were taken and some were tinted and enhanced before they were encased.

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House of Mirth, Guest blogger

Stacy Waldman from House of Mirth Photos & Ephemera, kindly asked me to be a guest blogger on her excellent site. I decided to write about a fascinating Irish-American album relating to a family from Goresbridge, County Kilkenny, who emigrated to the United States in the early twentieth century. The album is full of great photographs and if you would like to see some of them and read more about it please follow this link to House of Mirth.

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‘Someone somewhere wants your photograph’, Simmons’ Studio, Galway

This well-dressed though dour couple, Mike Kelly and wife, were photographed by the Galway studio, Simmons, in the 1930s or 40s. The studio was run by R.W. Simmons and was located at 6 William Street. Simmons appears to have been quite an entrepreneur. In addition to photography, he also opened Galway’s first roller skating rink in 1910, a cinema in 1917 and was involved is all sorts of schemes including bee-keeping and running Galway’s Radio Society. He was also a member of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society. His work has received some scholarly attention due to the fact that his studio was patronised by Nora Barnacle‘s family. His early photographs of her are some of the few surviving images from the years before she met James Joyce. 

 A perusal of the local newspapers reveals that R.W. Simmons became involved in many court cases including an action taken against him by another Galway photographer relating to the copyright of a photograph of the priest, Father Michael Griffin. Simmons sold photographs of the martyred priest despite the fact that Clement J. Leaper, took the images. Other court appearances included his failure to pay a plumber, illegally laying poison and building without planning permission. 

Whatever the outcome of these cases his business survived until the 1950s and I love the advertisements he placed in the Connaught Tribune over the years. They include the following slogans: ‘Someone somewhere wants your photograph’ ‘The gift that only you can give – your photograph’ and my favourite ‘A bad photograph is too expensive at any price’!  I wonder was this photograph commissioned in response to his notice which suggested sending a photograph to friends abroad for Christmas? This portrait ended up in the United States from where I purchased it earlier this year. It is hard to think that such a sombre image could be the one chosen to send to friends or family abroad.

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