I don’t know why, but I thought I had posted this glass negative shot by John B. Capewell already. With 200 negatives comprising the Capewell Glass Negative Collection, I guess it was inevitable that I was going to get some of them mixed up.
This is doubtless one of Capewell’s relatives that he was posing and capturing on emulsion for posterity. Sadly, I don’t know who this lady was, but it’s similar to a number of shots he has taken posing his subjects in the same or similar lodgepole chair.
This particular negative is in wonderful shape and offered up an image that looks like it was shot yesterday. I wish all of the negatives were as nice and clear as this. I’m hoping that some sharp-eyed reader out there recognizes an ancestor.
I think the reason for the comically stricken expression on the woman’s face was due to the negative’s lengthy exposure. The photographer probably admonished her to stay still or else the shot would be spoiled. It looks like she took it a little too seriously.
I’m also wondering why she has her right arm crooked behind her back. Maybe part of the crude chair was poking her.
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: General Grant on Kelly Drive
