Family Photo

[Coal Creek Griff]

This week my mom came across this photo.  The notes on the back, in my grandmother's handwriting, indicate that the gentleman seated on the left is my great-grandfather, Hank Bales and that the photo was taken in 1886.  Hank homesteaded in the Dove Creek, Colorado area, where he farmed and raised horses.  I think the photo is very cool and I thought I'd let you folks see it.

CC Griff

[St. George]

Good for you!

And bless whomever had the foresight to write down who was who on the back of a photo.

Personally - I think it should be a law...

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Silver Creek Slim]

Great photo.

Slim

[River City John]

Very interesting to see the deep "V" fore and aft notch on the top of the pair of boots Hank is wearing. I considered this a modern cowboy boot feature, since practically all of the tall boots in period photos I've seen so far, to some degree, have had stovepipe tops.

Also, the lapel-less vest he and the standing chap are wearing bucks the fashion trend of the period (although I have seen examples from the period for lapel-less vests before).

Funny how many period photos there are of men all turned out in their finest yet sporting the most abused, feedbag of a hat perched atop their heads. Goes to show many men considered a well broken-in hat as an extension of themselves and not a fashion statement.  (Whereas most women's photos I've seen wearing hats it is obvious that a great deal of thought and deliberate pride was put into the choice.)  

Plus, cloth-covered buttons in the same fabric as the garment was far more prevalent back then than what is reflected in the reproduction clothing being turned out today.  


RCJ  

p.s. -  there could be a whole course offered on the sub-theory that dating/authenticating these 19th century images could be based on identifying the stylistic features of the ubiquitous chair seen in most all of these long-exposure photographs from the era.

[Rube Burrows]

Great photo.

[Delmonico]

John, those type boots show up from time to time in the old photos, not the most common, but like the 2 piece vamp they show up enough to show they were around.  I saw that right away, was wondering how soon anyone else would notice. 

[Coal Creek Griff]

Actually, I had noticed too, although I had the benefit of being able to examine the original with a magnifying glass looking for details...

CC Griff

[Dr. Bob]

RCJ,

I have documented the vest WITHOUT A COLLAR for my Dr. Bob Originals persona.  I found a San Jacento reunion picture from 1872 IIRC that had 8 or 9 veterans  wearing them and brogan as well!  There is a pic of JB Hickock wearing one too! 

[Coal Creek Griff]

I had not noticed the collar-less vests, but I did see the paper (newspaper) in the pocket of the gentleman seated on the right.  I also wonder about the cigars that appear in so many pictures.  My grandmother and mother swear that great-grandpa never smoked, but it seems to be a sign of celebration or something.  He would have been 21 when the picture was taken, so we figure that he was just showing how grown up he was.

I do wonder about the footwear or flared trousers on the man on the right.  Can someone identify what he is wearing?

Griff

[River City John]

The slight belling at the trowser leg is seen also in military trowsers after the mid-70's. My guess is for ease of fitting over boots and high-topped shoes when worn underneath the trowser leg.


RCJ

Since you have looked at the original under magnification, any better description on the fobs on the watch chains? 

[Skeeter Lewis]

And they all seem to be wearing wool work-shirts with attached collars.

Those flared trousers seem to have a slight inverted chevron at the front.

[Delmonico]

Do you have the unsized scan yet in your files, if so sometime send it to me at Nebraskacosie@Yahoo.com  Might be interesting.

[Mogorilla]

As to the Cigars, my grandfather was born 1882 (we think, somewhere thereabouts).  According to my father he had two cigars a day, never lit either, but chewed on them.   Working them eventually like chewing tobacco.   Could be he was terrified of my grandmother who thought smoking was a deadly (kind of prophetic) sin, only one who fought her on it was dad.

[Delmonico]

Thanks for the E-Mail, I'll do some more looking as I have time and play with the picture a bit, but I think this should be clear now, set it back to the original B7W and darkened it a bit, should be a lot closer to original.

[Coal Creek Griff]

Here's a close-up of the watch fobs.

So has the color yellowed over time?  I thought that was an original color.

Secondly, the gent on the right seems to be holding something in his right hand.  Any guesses?

CC Griff

[Old Top]

Del,

Looks like glasses to me

Top

[Django]

This photo has caused some interest on my local forum (UK) called "The Shootist), has anyone checked this site out?
Anyone interested in the authentic or living history of the old west would be made very welcome.

http://shootists.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4609208
Django

[Coal Creek Griff]

I've scanned the photo in higher resolution and I'm able to take an even closer look.  What appeared to be an object in the hand of the man on the right appears to just be his watch chain showing behind his hand.  What I'm wondering now is whether my great-grandather (seated on the left) was wearing gloves.  His right hand especially seems to be ribbed like some kind of cloth gloves.  Delmonico, what do you think?

CC Griff

[Delmonico]

I got the new picture, might be a couple days before I get to work with it on my comptor where I have the programs, looks like I can pull more out though.

As for sepia toned pictures, I hope someone with a bit more knowledge will chime in, but for some reason at least older B&W photos printed on paper will tend to brown and fade with age.  Like this one taken in 1957:



The Butcher and Brady photos are most often in B&W because the glass plate negatives don't seem to do that and the pictures from them we see are from the negatives most times.  Today anyone with a digital picture can change it back to B&W and darken them.  As it was told to me by a late friend of mine and also John Carter of the NSHS, many times the information is there, and we can use it thanks to computors. 

Whatis nice is now with good photo programs we can do what Carter was doing with very expensive computors on our own at home.  A good example is the darkened windows of the sod houses in Butchers photos, with a good photo program many times you can see some to what is inside clear enough to identify it.

I always change a picture that I'm studying back to B&W and play with lighting and exposure, that helps me find details if the information is there, but can't be see.

A good but more modern example is these two photo's one in color and the same one in B&W:





The funnel cloud which is to the right of the sign was also not visible to the naked eye because the sun is at my back.  I ended up chasing another cell when I left work and ignored that one.  Would not have seen it and most likey deleted it had it not almost got a friend when it touched down.  (No he was not chasing, just coming home on his motorcycle.)

I sometimes look for things like trails, un-marked graves and building sites in virgin prairie in satellite photos.  The B&W ones are far better to find them with.

The program I use the most is HP Photosmart that came with our computor, or rather an updated version.  I down-loaded the newwer one after a crash.  It was a free down-load so I think anyone can Google it and download it.  I'm sure there are better ones but I know this one pretty well and get good results. 

A bit of a long post, but it may help someone else who wants to really study photos.

[Delmonico]

Oh, I worked with the photo at the lower resaloution last night some more, don't know if this helps: