Fun Discovery From My Family Archives

[craiginthecorn]

It’s amazing to me how persistent genetics can be, mso489. Also, it’s interesting to me how people can see strong resemblance based upon just a few features. I have photo of another great grandfather from a different branch of my family tree that I had on my wall at my office. Folks who saw it thought it was some sort of faux vintage photo of me. Being an old photo taken with what I believe was an early amateur camera, that image is pretty poor, so the resemblance was probably more about physique, posture, and head shape than facial similarities.
The photo that I shared here was taken by a professional photographer from LaPorte City. I plan to visit there one day. I believe that my relatives and several of their neighbors moved there after a cholera outbreak near their former home near Rockford, IL, where they had settled after many generations in northern Vermont and Shefford, Quebec, near Montreal.
I was too slow buying that Old Dominion cob from smokingpipes. Now they’re out of stock.

 

[kcghost]

That was very cool! Thanks for posting it!

 

[anotherbob]

Looks like it to me! An old-school one with a simple reed stem, like those made by Old Dominion. I'm going to have to order one of those now!

They're great pipes. I have two of them and as that picture proves you can clench them pretty easily. The stem is a lot sturdier then it seems like it should be.

 

[mso489]

I have a book of photos of Riverview Park, which was a whole era in the history of Chicago. I went to various amusement parks and carnivals while growing up, but never Riverview, though the TV ads were routine. By the time I was in high school, it was pretty down trodden and nearly closed. Then finally closed. But for a time, it was the Chicago Coney Island.

 

[UncleRasta]

I spent a few hours yesterday sifting through family photos and mementos. One that delighted me was this photo of my great grandfather, Harry Carlton Cummins working in his art studio in LaPorte City, Iowa in roughly 1888, while smoking a corncob pipe. He was an interesting fellow best known for his work creating circus art for U.S. Tent and Awning in Chicago, which supplied Barnum and Bailey. Folks from Chicago might also remember the facade of the Aladdin's Castle Funhouse at Riverview. That was his work as well.
The paintbrush behind his ear reminds me of Brian Levine, who stashes his pipe cleaners there.

Wonderful photograph. The desk, the pipe, the sepia toning. Well found.

 

[writingraav]

Wonderful photo an wonderful story.