Returning ThatSpark of Recognition:

Megan Atchley

My Photograph Reunification Project

1. Introduction......................................................3

Table of Contents

This ebook was created for CCM011, Heritage and Visual Culture: Identities, Technologies, and Location course in order to complete CW2: Interpretive Creave Media & Critical Review (Project Pathway) as part of the MA Heritage Studies Programme at the University of East

London in December 2012.

Unless noted with caption and link to wikicommons, photographs are in my personal

collection.

Word Count: 2,300

21

2. That Spark of Recognition........................6

3. Photography & Identity...............................7

4. A Brief History: Types & Methods..........9

5. Case Study: Edwin & Janet Hall..............11

6. Bibliography...................................................15

Introduction: Reuniting Family & PhotographyMy grandfather died on February 14, 1958, when my father was six. After his death my paternal grandmother remarried, and she died of alzheimers when I was four, barely registering memories of my life at the time. From her we inherited a metal box with a woodgrain pattern full of photos of similar men in similar clothes with no indication of who these men were beside family.

Atchley Family, C. 2006 (Back: Roger and Joyce (Phillips)

Atchley. Front: Megan Atchley.)

My father could not identify most of them. The memory of a six year old applied to photos decades later could not help point out his father from the his father’s many brothers. We were not close to the rest of the family and for the first twenty-four years of my life I could not say I knew what my grandfather looked like. This was put in painful relief by my surviving mater-nal grandfather, due to his divorce of my maternal grandmother for another woman, barely acknowledged I existed. Grandparent days at school were always lonely and painful. I could not even bring my paternal grandfather

even in the form of a photograph. I knew very little of him: I knew he hunted as we still have one of his hunting licenses. I knew he died of heart problems, from the details in his obituary and death certificate. From my father’s recollection, he drove a school bus and had a country store in an area his family had lived in since the 1890s. But I felt I did not know him, I could not imagine him if I did not have that visual. In the spring of 2011, I gave a presentation to the Jefferson County Genealogical Society about English Genealogy and Records. As a result, my name and contact information was publicized via various media outlets and the society’s email. About a month after my presenta-tion, I received an email from a member who had not been able to attend the meeting. She asked about my ancestry as her maiden name was the same as mine. I quickly responded with locations and the names of my father and grandfather and a very interesting thing happened. Roy Everett Atchley (1904-1958) was her grandfather too. What’s more, she held in her position photographs of the man and was willing to share them. I recieved them on my 25th

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Introduction

Three photos featuring my paternal grandfather that I received in April 2011.birthday and they were more valuable than anything else I received that year. Here was my history, in photographic form. Here was a strong resemblance between my father and his. He was more than a tombstone, a death certificate, or an obituary. He was my grandfather. A little over a year later it had me thinking. Too many times family heirlooms are inherited by one particular branch of the family through one child and their descendants, leaving the rest of the family bereft of their history. It had long saddened me to see photos be-ing sold at antique shops. Who were these people? Why weren’t they with family and named? Did one branch of the family not appreciate what they had and sold them, because the care-taker of the photos had died and the information with them?

I decided to stop being depressed about it and start being proactive towards the problem. Not all of the identities of these people were locked from us forever. Some of them were labeled, with names and in very luck cases dates. Photography studios anchored the photographs to specific geographic areas. So I conceived of my photo reunification project. The increasing amount of records available online could help me find these people again and give context to their names. And from that I could return them to those branches of the family that never had them but had always wanted them. To me this is a service to all the people that felt as I did. I wish to return meaning to these photos and allow them to come home to those that will appreciate them the most.

-Megan Atchley, 22 October 2012

That Spark of Recognition

-Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida

Humans use photography to capture moments, to freeze time both as objective observation and memorialisation of the subjects being photographed. Photographs of people transcend that person’s lifetime and remain to be remembered. The difference between the general viewer of a photograph and one who finds personal meaning in it can be explained by Roland Barthes’ stadium and punctum. There is a general interest in photography for everyone, a more ob-jective observation of the visual that Barthes calls stadium, an “application to a thing, taste for someone, a kind of general, enthusiastic commitment, of course, but without special acuity.” Portrait photography’s studium is the facial expressions, clothing styles, and general composition of the photo that the average viewer observes the photograph in a general sense,

For punctum is also: sting, speck, cut, little hole---and also a cast of the dice. A photograph’s punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me).

usually without a great depth of attachment beyond the minimal interest the photo may generate. The meaning of the studium is available to any viewer who might wish to view the photograph and the surface meaning easily received. The punctum however pierces this general interest, creating a private meaning to the photo that is particular to the viewer. A portrait photograph that is revealed to be a relation suddenly pierces the related viewer’s stadium, participating in a spark of recognition of the person photographed as being a part of the viewer. The photo is no longer merely liked, it is loved and viewed through a more intimate gaze. It is a very specifically tailored meaning to certain viewers that cannot be reproduced for the general audience. In the photograph Barthes’ explores in Camera Lucida, that of his mother in the winter garden, Barthes finds a meaning so personal to him, his own

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his own punctum, he refuses to share the photograph in the book. In the case of the consulting family detective photograph reunification project, the aim is to return the familial gaze and thepunctum for the person seekingtheir relatives and family history in a visual way through family photographs. Even when the photograph is so old that the subject is not recognized by current family, the gaze becomes educational as well as puncturing as a face is now put to a name on the family tree. Suddenly there is added context and meaning to the name and face on the photograph. The person or persons photographed are now inscribed with a familial meaning, far beyond the general meaning of the stadium. We find a sense of the viewer’s identity when they view the photograph of a relative long gone which results in a sense of connection between what went before and the familial viewer of the photograph. In the moment of viewing the photograph of a known relative that a spark of recognition comes forth and provides meaning. It is that spark, that intense feeling of meaning

and context that the reunification project wishes to return to the por-trait photographs collected.

19th Century Photography: Popularity and Identity. Photography’s invention coincided with an emerging middle class that took to it as a means to express their visual identity. These photographs could provide a visual record of individuals in various levels of society in a way paintings never could due to the expense and difficulty of producing individual paintings. By 1840, exposure of these photographs had gone down to 10 seconds, making creating the photograph a much easier and quicker process. Due to the growing desire of individuals during the Victorian age to collect, the masses took to photography as a perfect medium of recording the visual countenance of both loved ones and the great people of the day, both alive and in the case of post-mortem photography, the dead. Photography preserved the person’s likeness forever, long after they passed away. In the growing

That Spark of Recognition Photography and Identityculture of mourning, this was seen as a valuable way to preserve the deceased’s memory for those mourning their passing. The invention of the carte de visite by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri made it even easier to collect photographs but it wasn’t until Queen Victoria had her photograph taken that collecting truly became popular. Millions of cartes de visite were sold between 1861 and 1867. The popularity of portrait photography had reached the Royal Houses of Europe and collections of the great and good were available for the masses to purchase, the beginning of the cult of celebrity that continues today at an even more furious pace. The book Men of Mark and new galleries showing celebrity portraits allowed people to recognize authors and great men, often to the annoyance of the said famous who were then stopped in the street after being recognized. The photographic image had become a commodity to be mass produced and traded.

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Daguerreotype: 1839-1850sInventor: Louis Daguerre (1787-1851)Process: Printed on Metal PlatesIdentifying Elements: Metal photo in a case, each photo was unique as it proved expensive to duplicate and the subsequent prints weren’t of good quality.

Wendell Phillips C. 1841

Source/Link: Wikimedia, Boston

Public Library

Ambrotype: 1850-1870s

Process: Printed on GlassIdentifying Elements: Wet collodion process, negative im-age with black background makes positive image, usually in moulded cases.

Thomas Garrett C. 1850

Source/Link: Wikimedia, Boston

Public Library

Inventor: James Ambrose Cutting (1814-1867)

...It is not merely the likeness which is precious in such cases-but the association, and the sense of nearness invovled in the thing, the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed for ever!...I would rather have such a me-morial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist’s work ever produced...

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1843

“Do you know anything about that wonderful invention of the day, called the Daguerreotype?”

Tintype: 1855-1920sProcess: Printed on iron plates.Identifying Elements: Thin metallic plates, often pasted onto paper frames.George Pepper

C. 1861Source/Link:

Wikimedia, Maine Memory

Inventor: Professor Hamilton Smith

Carte de Visite: 1860-1900sProcess: Printed on treated paper from glass plates.Identifying Elements: Wet collodion process, 2.5in. x 4in. cards.

Inventor: André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (1819-1889)

Richard J. LaneC. 1860s

Source/Link: Wikimedia, National

Portrait Gallery

Snapshots from Film: 1888John L. Phillips

Family

Eastman Kodak came out with a roll film camera in 1888, in-creasing photography’s scope and popularity. Photography became a hobby for the amateur and less formal portraits captured without the formality of the professional studio photographer.

A Brief History of Photography Types and Methods: 1839-1920s

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Case Study:

Purchased: Portobello Road MarketPurchase Date: October 2012Photographer: Medrington Photograph Studio at 29 Bold Street, LiverpoolPersons Photographed: Edwin and Janet Hall

Case Study: Edwin and Janet Hall Dating the Photograph The first thing that must be done in order to date the photo is to research the photography studio to see when the studio was in operation. This can be accomplished through the following processes:

1. City Directories2. City Histories3. Local Newspapers4. Google Search for the Studio In this case, a non-profit website researched

the photography studio: amounderness.co.uk. Medrington Photographybegan operating at 128 Bold Street in Liverpool in 1879 before moving to 33 Bold Street a couple years later. It wasn’t until sometime between 1882 and 1886 that the photographers m oved to 29 Bold Street, thus dating the photograph to be taken after 1882. It became Medrington’s in 1890 when a brother of the founder joined the studio. Thus the photograph had to be taken sometime between 1882-1890.

The Back:

The Front: Using Jane Shrimpton’s “How to Get the Most from Family Pictures,” we can look at the fashions in the photograph to confirm our earlier range of dates. The man’s narrow lapels indicate later 1880s and the woman’s gathered skirt in the front indicates the same. As she’s sitting down with her hands in front of her it is harder to pinpoint dates based on sillhouette, though it is clear that she’s wearing a fairly rigid and long corset.

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Subjects of the Photograph: Edwin & Janet Hall

Researching the Photograph

Step One: A marriage, birth, and death index is available for the United Kingdom for free. Searching with the parameters Hall, Edwin married Janet, 1882-1890, marriages reveals the following indexed entry:

Marriages Sep 1886 HALL Edwin Alfred IBARR Janet Emily W. Derby Volume 8b Page 876

This reveals that the couple photographed were married during the September Quarter of 1886 in Lancashire. This agrees with the fact that the photograph was taken in Liverpool.

The date the photograph could have possibly occurred is now narrowed between Septebmer 1886 and 1890.

Step Two: Census Records Since the couple married in 1886, the next census they would appear in together would be the 1891 Census, which will also give us their birthdates and address. It reveals that Edwin was born in and Janet was born in :

Household Members: Name AgeEdwin A Hall 26Janette E Hall 23Edwin A Hall 2

To find their parents, the 1871 Census needs to be consulted. Even though their parents are not photo-graphed, it provides more context for people searching for the photo-graphs I’ve collected for my reunifi-cation project. Thus it is revealed that Edwin is the son of Jeffrey and Lucy Hall and that Janet is the daughter of Joseph and Sarah Barr.

Finally, another search for deaths in the BMD index for both Edwin and Janet allows for increased ability for their names to be searched in google by possible descendents.

Which all leads up to a blogpost in which I write up my findings:

www.freebmd.org.uk

Researching the PhotographFound: C. 1886 Photograph Taken in Liverpool England (HALL, BARR)

Purchased: Portobello Road MarketPhotographer: Medrington, 29 Bold Street, Liver-pool

The photograph is of a man, standing and a wom-an, seated. On the back the names “Edwin & Janet Hall” are written.

Edwin A. Hall (1865-1905) was the son of Jeffrey Hall and Lucy (Watkins) Hall. His wife, Janet Em-ily (Barr) Hall (1868-1934) was the daughter of Joseph Barr and Sarah (Casson) Barr. Edwin and Janet were married in the September Quarter of 1886. They had one child, a son, Edwin A. Hall in Liverpool in 1889.

Blogpost: http://www.ancestry.com/

Blogpost Link: Found: C. 1886 Photograph Taken in Liverpool England (HALL, BARR)

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Case Study: BibliographyAncestry.com (2012) Available at: http://www.ancestry.com/ (Accessed: 1 December 2012).

Medringtons of Liverpool (2001) Available at: http://www.amounderness.co.uk/charles_edward_medrington,_photogra-pher,_liverpool.html (Accessed: 26 November 2012).

Bajac, Quentin. (2002) The Invention of Photography: The First Fifty Years. Translated by Ruth Taylor. London: Thames & Hudson.

Barthes, Roland. (1993) Camera Lucida. London: Vintage.Daniels, Patrick. (1978) Early Photography. London: Academy Edi-tions.

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl (1998-2012) (Ac-cessed: 15 November 2012).

‘Garrett, Thomas.’ (2007)Wikimedia Commons. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Garrett_am-brotype_c1850.jpg (Accessed: 22 November 2012).

Hamilton, Peter and Hargreaves, Roger. (2001) The Beautiful and the Damned: The Creation of Identity in Nineteenth Century Pho-tography. Aldershot: Lund Humphries.

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Hirsch, Marianne. (2012) Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univer-sity Press.

‘Lane, Richard James.’ (2011)Wikimedia Commons. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_James_Lane_by_Elliott_%26_Fry,_albumen_carte-de-visite,_1860s.jpg (Accessed: 22 November 2012).

Langford, Martha. (2008) Suspended Conversations: The After-life of Memory in Photographic Albums. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

‘Pepper, George.’ (2010)Wikimedia Commons. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Pepper_Civ-il_War_tintype_1861.jpg (Accessed: 22 November 2012).

‘Phillips, Wendell.’ (2010)Wikimedia Commons. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wendell_Phillips_da-guerreotype_by_Richard_Beard_1841.jpg (Accessed: 22 No-vember 2012).

Bibliography