Daguerreotypes are highly reflective, they have a mirror like quality. You can usually only view the photograph from an angle. Below you can see the reflection of the antique key I was holding. Notice how her image appears as a ghostly negative.

In the early 1900's photograph postcards were extremely popular. Think of them, as the selfies of the day. A lot of them were never mailed or postmarked. Most ended up in scrapbooks. I prefer collecting the postmarked cards, as it gives a more accurate time period, but sometimes a photograph is just too pretty to pass up. The postcard below is of a lady from the mid 1900's. It was never mailed, so there's no information about who she was, but her outfit and hat are gorgeous!


     

I hope you're enjoying this series as much as I am. I've always been interested in history. I'm constantly reading, researching different subjects. Lately my newest hobby has been collecting old postcards, letters, photographs, etc. Mainly from the mid 1800's to mid 1900's.

This postcard from 1912 was the very first in my collection. I was instantly drawn to her photograph. Her hat, her dress. She's so striking and pretty. Her outfit reminds me of something you would have seen on the Titanic.

In the early 1900's photograph postcards were incredibly popular. Think of them, as the selfies of the day! A lot of them were never mailed or postmarked. I prefer collecting the postmarked cards, as it gives a more accurate time period and more information of the sender and addressee.

The postcard says: Dear Mrs. Harvey, How are you all? Well, I hope. Am having a vacation now. Am at Galva Iowa, but shall go back to work soon. Think of you all real often. Best regards to Jimmy & Bob. Are they in New York yet? I like this country fine, am having a dandy time. This is a poor (world illegible- picture?), but I thought I would send one any-way. Wish I might hear from you sometime. Tell Mr. H hello for me. Love & best wishes, Mary E. Pike, Ida Grove, Iowa.


I decided to do some sleuthing with the information I had. A combination of Google, findagrave.com, etc. I was able to locate Mary E. Pike, who became Mrs. Mary Ellen Schrader in 1915. She sadly passed away due to an illness in 1969 at the age of 76. I was able to locate newspaper clippings of her obituaries here & here.

Mary Ellen Pike was born in 1892 in New Hampshire. Her mother passed away when she was 8 years old, and she was sent to live with family in Iowa, though she later lived with an aunt & uncle and attended school in New Hampshire. She later moved back to Iowa and married. I can only guess that the Mrs. Harvey she was sending the postcard to would have been family or a friend in New Hampshire.

If anyone has any more information about Mary E. Pike (Schrader), would love to hear from you below in the comments!

This was one of my favorite finds recently. An antique tintype photograph dated around 1865-1870's.

Some facts: A tintype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel. There is no actual "tin" in a tintype photograph. It's a blackened iron sheet. They can be identified using a magnet. (My husband and I tried this, it works! The magnet will stick to the glass due to the metal in the photograph. Pretty neat!) 

Unfortunately we will never her know her name or where she lived, as there's no identifying information on the photograph. She looks quite young to me, possibly 15-20 years old. I'm guessing she is young, because of the giant ribbon in the back of her hair.

My guess for the year is sometime around late 1860's to mid 1870's because of the dress style she is wearing. It appears to be a two piece button dress, but it doesn't seem to have a bustle in the back. The skirt/sleeves seem too narrow to be from the early 1860's civil war era. My guess is somewhere around mid 1870's. (This style dress seems similar). Her dress could be mourning style.

I'm curious about the pin she is wearing. It appears to be a ribbon with a dangling chain. It could be something known as a cockade, which was wore worn around that period. If anyone has experience on 19th century fashion, please feel free to comment below! I would appreciate it!




You can see below how the photograph is chipping off of the metal plate underneath due to age. There is no actual "tin" in a tintype photograph. It's actually a blackened iron sheet underneath.

The case is called a 'union case'. It's made out of thermoplastic, an early plastic. Thermoplastic is quite fragile. The hinges and part of the frame are broken on mine, but the design is still pretty. Early tintype photographs were housed in these union cases, while later they were housed in paper sleeves. It's entirely possible the case isn't original to the photograph, but we'll never know.

Hello! I know it's been quite awhile since I last posted. I wanted to start a historical series here on the blog. I've always loved history, and one of my newest hobbies has been collecting vintage and historical items. Photos, Postcards, Vintage Advertising, Coins, Tins, Clocks, Books, etc.

The vintage postcards are fascinating, because if there's enough information you can actually research and locate the person. I prefer collecting postcards with visible postmarks of their age, mostly from the early 1900's.

I've started looking for early Philadelphia items lately, (being my hometown). The thing that caught my eye on this postcard was who it was addressed to.... F.B. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you'll know my husband's name is F.B. (which is his father's initials, but his legal name is F.B.) so I couldn't pass up getting this postcard addressed to a Dr. F.B. Davison, postmarked 1910 sent from a friend named Natalie who was visiting Philadelphia.

Back in March of this year we were looking to adopt some new pet rats. From a Craigslist ad we ended up adopting what we thought were 4 male rats... unfortunately, I should have trusted to sex them myself to make sure of their gender, but I was trusting & did not. 

When we got home we found out we had actually ended up with 2 girls and 2 boys. Two of the rats were around 4 months old (Leela & Earl), and the other two were around 3 weeks old (Chai & Lulu). The older ones had been housed together, & I was worried the female might be pregnant.... well, a week later on March 24th, 2017; Leela gave birth to 9 babies! 

Click below to continue reading!