Feature - Someone We Would Like to Know

When a photograph is abandoned or lost, some of the story within it goes too; some, not all. A photograph travels through time stuck in the pages of a book or at the bottom of a shoebox, in a wrinkled old wallet or carefully stuck to the black pages of an old album. When it arrives in our time, it is without provenance. While we must guess at facts like the actual date of the photograph or the model of camera or the location, there is often a rich story left in the image itself.

For a few weeks on Fridays, LOST GALLERY will examine a photograph or two, let them tell their own story.

Today let's look at a portrait, an RPPC, that caught a personality.

Not often is this much character captured in a studio photograph, but when it happens, it is superlative. Wouldn’t you have loved to ask her just one question?

Look at that smile. She is about to burst into a laughter that will permeate your being. There is a humor about to envelop the room, an inner beauty that is an adventure, a love that immerses your heart in indelible joy and anticipation.

Look at that pose. She is ready to spring into a dance. Holding still is not in her repertoire. She is full of embraces and faces and affection. She would be comfortable in the garden swing or astride a palomino.

I would be honored to have shared an afternoon tea or a six-pack with her. Oh, the stories she could tell, the laughter she could share, the memories she could make.

I never knew her but I miss her terribly.

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"

Feature - Do You Recognize Her?

When a photograph is abandoned or lost, some of the story within it goes too; some, not all. A photograph travels through time stuck in the pages of a book or at the bottom of a shoebox, in a wrinkled old wallet or carefully stuck to the black pages of an old album. When it arrives in our time, it is without provenance. While we must guess at facts like the actual date of the photograph or the model of camera or the location, there is often a rich story left in the image itself.

For a few weeks on Fridays, LOST GALLERY will examine a photograph or two, let them tell their own story.

These two photographs are dated 1931.

Did you see that?

What do you think it is? Reincarnation? Time Travel?

Or is it really just a 90 year old look-alike?

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"

Feature - The Love Affair

When a photograph is abandoned or lost, some of the story within it goes too; some, not all. A photograph travels through time stuck in the pages of a book or at the bottom of a shoebox, in a wrinkled old wallet or carefully stuck to the black pages of an old album. When it arrives in our time, it is without provenance. While we must guess at facts like the actual date of the photograph or the model of camera or the location, there is often a rich story left in the image itself.

For a few weeks on Fridays, LOST GALLERY will examine a photograph or two, let them tell their own story.

Let's look at two photographs today. There is probably a decade or two difference in their age but these photographs are sisters in many ways.

We call it photogenic: The love affair with the camera. The camera loves her and gets loved back.

We can remember only a few people who really had this gift.

Here is a youngster caught in a snapshot, a candid moment. Even at her young age, she knows when a camera is around; she knows that the candid moment is going to last a long, long time. She knows how to look when the lens turns her way. She knows without knowing how or why.

Something about her tells us that wherever this girl went in life, she was a success and she was in charge.

Shadows of the future.

Someday a man's mind will turn to putty at the sight of her. Someday the world will be at her feet. Someday she may offer the solution to a flaw in society. The future is hers.

Today, she is interested only in the boy behind the camera.

In the dictionary next to “Sultry” there will be a photograph of her. Along with Lana Turner, of course.

So, here they are, seeming far too young to own the confidence they display, poised to take on tomorrow and today too.

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"

The Camera - Our only Time Machine

I found this Cabinet Card in a flea market in Kansas.

After scanning it looked like this.

Then the yellow was drained away and the contrast bumped for a little enhancement. Now it looks like this.

The reverse looks like this. It says
Wm (Bill) and Amanda
Hostetter & Family

From this little bit of evidence, and some time on Ancestry.com, more information came to light.

It appears the picture had to have been posed in 1898 between April and September.

Poor Susa May died that year in September at the young age of 8. The baby Russell Jackson was born in April of that same year.

Many things were discovered about the family and their descendants. Days could be spent linking into the many branches of the family. There were many large families.

William himself was one of nine siblings.

One census reveals that William was a “farmer” and that he could not read or write but Amanda could. According to the 1910 census, twelve years after this photograph, the entire family was living in the home of a younger brother Gilbert Douglas Hostetter (1861-1933), and William was listed as doing “odd jobs”.

The couple had three more children after this photo, two of them not lasting a year. Still, many of the children lived long lives, three of them into their eighties, and Bertha reached 93. Mother Amanda, herself, lived 79 years; William only 70.

In 1910 the life expectancy in the US was 48.4 years for men and 51.8 for women. By 1980 it had reached only 70 and 77.4.

And of course, here, digitally, they will live long and interesting lives.

William's younger brother Albert Picket Hostetter (1864-1962), was married apparently about four times, had about 22 children and moved to Kansas in 1900.

That is probably why I now have this photograph.

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.

The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half
You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you!
This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

BACK TO
THE MAIN INDEX PAGE Or try out the NEW
BACK PAGE INDEX

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
Everyday Ago
Penny Tales
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH sites on the web.
And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS
It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story, What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"