Since this series began I haven’t been going in any particular order as far as posting these images. The negatives weren’t presented to me in any particular order. When I decided to shoot these, I opened a box; shot it’s contents and moved on to the next one. It was a mish-mash, and I moved from one box to the next until there was nothing left. As far as selecting what is going to be posted, I peruse what I have left and pick what piques my interest.
I passed over this week’s picture several times thinking I’ve already run it, but as it turns out, I ran something similar. The earlier post had a photo that was probably an alternate take of what I’m posting today.
Everybody is roughly in the same position as the shot I posted earlier. The fellow on the left is wearing a derby and John, on the right, has his pipe in his mouth. Once again, John Capewell’s right hand is a blur as he actuates the camera’s shutter with a length of string. He did a pretty good job of hiding the string this time around.
John’s mother-in-law stands above him.
Standing in this detail section is Henry O. Capewell; his mother, Ella, is in the middle, and to the right is John, Jr. I’m really curious about the young girl on the left. We’ve seen her before, but I’m not sure who she was. Possibly a niece. She seemed to be really tight with the Capewells.
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 Week: Ella’s Kith and Kin
I believe the guy on the left with the derby is my great great grandfather Stephen A Cohee. he was the light house keeper of Pooles island in maryland. and His second wife Agnes Evans Carnes Cohee. which would have been John Capwells aunt. and the little girl is either aunt Alice Cohee or aunt Gladys Cohee if you want to colaberate some of the connections please contact me.
now we believe the little girl is Ella Regina Evans born around 1901. Ella Capewell’s Niece. Ella Capewell’s brother was David Oliver Evans.
Terrific information. Thank you!
Agnes Evans Carnes was Ella s aunt not John Capewell s just too clarify since I wrote incorrectly in 2015