The Case of the Cased Image...or...Mystery Man, Am I right? You be the judge!

 Who would have ever guessed that old photographs could be dated so precisely? Oh, yes, I get that fashion plays a role. Just look at the photo of me and my great-grandmother in a previous posting and you will see those stripes and wild colors. Clearly the 1970’s!

But take a look at this photo in its original case. For most people, it’s just really old…who knows exactly when? (And who cares?) It turns out that there are so many clues to dating one and I had absolutely no idea! 

Why do we need to date a photo, anyway? Well, if you have no clue who the person is in the photo, one of the first steps is dating a photo and the age of the person to figure out who it might be.

Background

My husband and I are beneficiaries of all things family history, especially photographs! Which means that I have all sorts of fun and interesting things to learn about passed down through the generations. This week, I thought I would revisit some old photographs to see if I could identify who they are. (Most are identified, thank you to Bertha DeBoer Breyfogle and Elizabeth Leach Tubbs!) 

But these old cased image photographs are difficult to write names on! So, I have 4 cased images that look like the photographs above (of course with different people in them!). I love the challenge and definitely learning something new.

My sister gave me the book Family Photo Detective: Learn how to find genealogy clues in old photos and solve family photo mysteries (2013) by Maureen A. Taylor Family Tree Books: Cincinnati, Ohio for Christmas and it’s the PERFECT jumping off point. I highly recommend it!

Steps toward identification:

The Photo Detective (Maureen Taylor) provides a great outline for dating a photo. The first thing to do is to identify the type of photograph. And pre-1900, there were four main types: daguerreotype, ambrotype, tintype, and cabinet cards.

 

The example to the above is a cabinet card of an unknown family member, someone wrote on the back “He is an Orcutt”--but I haven’t figured out who, yet. You’ve likely seen a cabinet card before. I’m not going to talk about the cabinet cards, but did you know that if you lay 6 regular (20#) sheets of paper in a stack, if the cabinet card is the same thickness or thinner than the stack, then it was created between 1858-1869? Cool, huh. There’s lots of other identifiers like that. 

But back to cased images. Photographers in the United States, beginning in 1840*, used the miniature cases for daguerreotypes (which are identified by their mirror-like reflection). These cases were also used for ambrotype and tintype photographs. 

What type of photograph is it?

My photograph is daguerreotype (1839-1860, most popular 1842-1858). In person, I can clearly see the mirror reflection that goes along with this type of photo. It’s not obvious in this photo of it, but you could instantaneously see what I mean if you held it yourself.

Who could it be?

Based on just this information, I can narrow it enough to begin thinking about who it is. This photo and case was inherited from the Tubbs-Leach side of the family. If it is a family member in my direct lineage, which I believe to be so, then we are looking at the great-great-great-grandfather generation (based on age/timing). I started with 8 possible candidates. We can discount several (William Croft, Rodman Stoddard, Timothy Randall, and George Bedell) because they were not the right age, already deceased, or we already have an identified photograph and it is clearly not the same man.

We are left with four possibilities:

1. George W. Tubbs (1802-1854)

2. Harvey Orcutt (1802-1858)

3. Henry Leach’s father (no idea)

4. George Dolan Bailey (1805-1849)

We need more information, so on to the next step.

Describe the case.

• The outside measurements of the case are 3.25” x 3.625”, which is close to what they call a “Sixth Plate”. It is the largest of the cases I have and is consistent with the cases made for daguerreotypes. 

• The case is made from wood covered in an embossed leather with a hook-and-eye clap (as opposed to a thermoplastic case which began in 1854). These are consistent with 1840s.

• The velvet cushion is a burnt orange color. Unfortunately, there are no photographer’s or maker’s marks on either the velvet or the brass mat.

•  The exterior case design of flowers is consistent with the 1840’s focus on nature motifs.

• The mat is what is called nonpareil which began being used in the mid 1840s.

• From the mat and case, it appears to be between 1845-1850.

• Existence of the “preserver”--the thin metal piece over the mat means it was after 1847. So, the date is 1847-1850!!

  
  
  

Men’s fashion.

• His clothing seems to be consistent with the 1840s:

• Extra-long, narrow sleeves of coat

• Tailored white cotton shirt with small collar turned up under a tie

• Necktie is tied in a horizontal bowknot, dark colored

• Hair & Beard: hair is ear-length, parte high at one side; clean shaven but fringe beards (he doesn’t have a beard so that is one thing not consistent)

Age of the Man

• This man appears to be in his 30’s or 40’s.

It still seems it could be any of these 4 men, given their ages and the timing of the photo in the case (1847-1850). 

Further knowledge

It turns out that a cased image of a photograph that opened like a book was pretty much a United States thing, and Henry Leach’s father, whoever he is (to my knowledge and research) never came to the US, so I think we can safely say it isn’t him.

Also, it turns out that I have two more “unidentified” photos that are dated into the 1850’s and appear to be this same man, so I think I can safely discount George Dolan Bailey, who died in 1849.

(Oh, and you should NEVER do what I did to the photo on the left and take the cases apart!! The cases are meant to preserve and protect the photos. This one on the left is an ambrotype, we can tell because of the black coating that is flecking off the back!)

We are down to 2: George W. Tubbs or Harvey Orcutt.

Last Clue: Family Resemblances

Fortunately I have photos for the sons of both George W. Tubbs and Harvey Orcutt. Samuel Obed Tubbs is on the left and Chauncey Gould Orcutt is on the right.

 

It’s also really hard to tell in these photos and a little more evident in the photos in real life, that the color of the eyes…they are Tubbs eyes. Jim is skeptical that I can see anything about the eyes, but I’m pretty convinced that our mystery man (above) is the father of the man to the left (Samuel Obed Tubbs), so I think I have identified 2 of my 4 cases and they are George W. Tubbs (1802-1854). 

Have I solved the case of the cased image? Do you agree???