This looks to be one of John Capewell’s sons – possibly John, Jr. – on what I’m guessing is the day of his Baptism.
If you are a regular reader of this site, you’ll notice the lodgepole chair and the same setting as the post from last week. My guess that this may have been Capewell’s backyard in Westville, New Jersey. Of course, it wasn’t officially Westville at the time of this photograph. If that really is John, Jr, this picture may date from around 1906 or so.
This is another one of the negatives in the collection that is in relatively good shape for it’s age and offered up a terrifically clear image. I wish they were all as clear as this one.
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: Another Lady in the Lodgepole Chair
