Children in Vintage Photos

A temper tantrum photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A 1906 Bamforth postcard with a photo by Robert McCrum shows a not-so-dulcet duet of unhappy infants.

In this 1907 Bamforth real photo postcard by Robert McCrum, a poor beleaguered husband sits on the floor and performs his household chores while his wife relaxes with a magazine and cigarette in a comfortable chair. One of his kids appears to be crying loudly, and the other one has climbed up on the table in the background to try out dad's tobacco pipe. It's interesting to see that the same wallpaper appears in another Bamforth postcard entitled Try This on Your Piano :

A religious photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A first communion photo of a girl with a superimposed ghostly image of Jesus. The folded cardboard frame that holds the photo is decorated with a printed border and includes the studio name, "Stanley of Hazleton, Pa." (see below for the photo and border ).

For more information, see the borderless version of this photo:

Judging from the Euclid Beach pennant visible on the right-hand side, this real photo postcard of a girl milking a fake cow while two fake bulldogs stand guard was probably a souvenir from Euclid Beach Park , which was an amusement park located along Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio.

A German boy with a "Rheinland" cap and knapsack is ready for his first day of school. He's holding a Schultüte (school cone) that has the words "zum ersten Schulgang" ("for the first day of school") printed on it.

Handwritten caption: "Kathryn Keen & mother." Kathryn's mother, who's standing in the background and appears to be shaking a piece of carpet, is peering over at her daughter as the photographer takes the picture.

A real photo postcard of the "Tressler Orphans' Home Band, Loysville, Pa." For another orphanage music group, see Girls' Saxophone Band, Evangelical Orphanage, Lewisburg, Pa.

An undated red-border Kodachrome slide of kids at a birthday party. The children are wearing feathered headbands in imitation of Native American headdresses , and the doll in the middle of the table appears to be a cake with white and light blue icing (if that's a red candle near the top of the cake, I hope it didn't catch the doll's head on fire!).

A fairground or amusement/theme park photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Or more concisely, a theme park photo for the Theme Park! Santa Claus poses with some of his friends at Santa's Workshop , an amusement park located in North Pole, New York . The group is gathered around an imitation North Pole--the white base of the pole is visible to the left of Santa's boots, and the "North Pole" sign at the top is partially hidden behind Santa's cap. For another Christmas theme park with its own North Pole, see Shivering at the North Pole, Santa's Village, Jefferson, N.H., 1969 .

A real photo postcard addressed on the back to Miss Rose Gill, Oak Street, Tyrone, Pennsylvania, and postmarked August 16, 1947. Message: "Dear Rose, This was taken near Albuquerque, N.M., on Aug. 15, 1947. Kids weren't washed or combed yet, and the rabbits aren't really that big. Love, Mrs. Preacher." For another example of small kids posing with a big bunny, see Giant Jack Rabbit, Ogallala, Nebr.

Markings on the front of the crock: "12. Macomb Pottery Co., manufacturers, Macomb, Ill." An infant poses for a picture in a large 12-gallon stoneware crock. This obviously seems similar in concept to the more common baby-in-a-basin photos. For examples, see my own Baby in a Basin, Photographed by Galen Piper, Bainbridge, Pa. , photo (below) and elinor04's Baba a lavórban [Baby in a Washbasin] photo.

A fashion (in its day) photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A cabinet card photo of a girl wearing a dress with leg-of-mutton or gigot sleeves, which were fashionable and popular in the 1890s when it's likely this photo was taken. The painted backdrop features a hilly landscape with a meandering fence and tall flowering plants that match nicely with the grassy floor covering the girl is standing on and the gate-like wooden prop she's leaning against. As far as I can tell from the hard-to-read stamp on the back of the photo, the photographer's last name was "Aunspach," which suggests that this may have come from the studio of J. S. Aunspach of Pillow, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

A Victorian-era calling card with pasted-on photograph. The typeface is MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan's Spencerian Script with ornamented capitals. Despite the variant spelling of the last name, this card may have belonged to Irwin Guy Waggoner (1882-1975), who lived in Oregon. If so--and if he actually had his photograph taken and cards printed when he was as young as he appears in the photo--then it's likely that this calling card dates to the 1880s or 1890s. This is the only calling card with a child's photo that I've ever seen. For additional examples of photographic calling cards, see my Calling Cards with Photographs album.

An undated real photo postcard.

Handwritten message on the back of this real photo postcard: "This was the name of our camp at Cooks Mill where we was the last ten days of August." These seven campers have enough firepower--a couple of shotguns and a rifle--to "raise hell," as their sign suggests, but it's more likely they used their guns and rods for hunting and fishing (I'm not sure why the one woman is holding a tin horn, though). Their camping trip, which took place during August sometime in the 1900s or 1910s, is documented in these three photos (the one above and two more below). The location--Cooks Mill--was a small settlement in rural Bedford County, Pennsylvania, that was described in 1900 as having one store, a grist mill, and ten dwellings.

Handwritten message on the back of this real photo postcard: "This is the table where we had a many good meal those ten days. The lady at the end was a visitor. She brought 1 gal. of ice cream along." The seven Raise 'ell campers and a visitor are seated around the table where they had "a many good meal" during their stay. Perhaps they're eating the ice cream that the woman at right brought with her. Next to her are two milk cans, which were probably used to store water. The stream that's visible In the background is Wills Creek , which is still a popular fly-fishing destination today. Is that a Buster Brown outfit that the boy is wearing in this photo and the previous one ?

Handwritten message on the back of this real photo postcard: "To yous all. This is a view of our tents. Rhoads and two of the clerks came down one night. Hunter." The seven Raise 'ell campers are sitting in front of their tents. What appears to be a quilt or coverlet is visible in the first open tent, and the man seated in front of that tent is still holding the shotgun he posed with in the first photo . Charles R. Rhoads was a pharmacist in the nearby town of Hyndman , Pa., in the 1900s and 1910s. Could he have been the Rhoads who--along with two of the clerks in his pharmacy--visited the camp? And how ironic is it--considering the guns that are visible in the photos and the hunting that presumably took place during the camping trip--that the writer's name is "Hunter"!