When I was originally sorting through these glass negatives, I was struck by this young man’s resemblance to actor Elijah Wood. If you’re not familiar with Wood, he is best known for playing the character Frodo in the Lord of the Rings movies. Apparently he travels time while not playing in fantasy epics.
Elijah Wood’s doppelgänger was probably one of John Capewell’s nephews. The fellow in the middle of this group looks to be John’s brother, and my guess is that this is his family.
This is another one of Capewell’s odd double exposures. I wonder if he did it purposely as an experiment or if it was accidental. If it was planned, I’m not sure what effect he was trying to achieve.
Here’s a detail shot of the woman on the right side of the negative. You can see the “ghost” of an older woman to her left.
Judging from the lady’s Gibson Girl hair style and the manner of clothing that everyone is wearing, this photograph was probably taken very early in the 20th Century.
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!
Last: Two Ladies in the Yard
