The glass negatives for today’s post are another couple of shots that John B. Capewell made while he was in the Pine Barrens. These photographs were with the other shots from the SAWDUST PILE box that I’ve published in recent weeks. I assume they were all shot in the same place and around the same time that the Emilio Carranza monument went up in 1931.
There isn’t much in the way of landmarks in these shots to determine an exact location. Capewell was impressed enough with the vast acres of pine trees that he took a number of glass negatives for posterity.
This may be another shot from atop the huge Sawdust Pile I posted recently.
About The Capewell Glass Negative Collection
The Capewell Glass Negative Collection is a series of about 200 5-inch by 7-inch glass negatives shot early in the 20th Century by John Batt Capewell (1878-1951) of Westville, New Jersey. John passed the negatives down to his son Henry who left them in his wife’s possession upon his passing. Henry’s widow didn’t know what to do with them and didn’t particularly want them so she offered them to my Dad who couldn’t turn down anything. Ultimately I wound up with them and thought I would one day have photographic prints struck from them. That didn’t happen, but I came up with the digital workaround of placing the negatives on a lightbox and rephotographing them with a digital camera. The “processing” was then done on a computer with image editing software. They came out better than I thought they would so I thought I would show them off to the world on this site. Many of these pictures have not been seen in a century, and I’m proud to be presenting them today.
At first, I did not know who the people were in the photographs. I have a box of ephemera that accompanied the negatives and snagged a few clues from that as far as the Capewell name. I did some research on the internet and had a few false starts and wrong turns, but the readers of these posts have provided a remarkable amount of research and detail. I’m amazed at what people have turned up sifting through public records and such!
This story continues to evolve. Every Thursday, I will post a Capewell picture or two. If you recognize a person or place in one of the shots or just want to drop a line, feel free to comment!
Last: Another View from the Pine Barrens
