This attractively colored CDV of little Ada May Josselyn was taken in the mid-1860s at the studio of famous photographer William Shew. A little research reveals that Ada grew up to be a spinster school teacher.

The Photograph

Ada May Josselyn ca 1864

The photograph is a typical carte-de-visite from the early or mid-1860s, with square corners, white cardstock, a double line around the front edge in violet (gilt is more common), and a simple three line photographer’s imprint on back.

Little Ada is posed seated on a cloth-draped table, with a plain dark background. She wears an off-the-shoulder dress of lightweight wool cloth called delaine, with short sleeves and three lines of dark horizontal trim near the hem, complemented by two similar trim lines at on the sleeves. The bodice is gathered into a flat sash at the waist. She has on black square toed slipper style shoes held with a strap at the ankle, over white short(?) socks. The left sock looks long, but that is probably just over-exposed so the top edge is not visible, and the colorist has left the leg and sock white, while the other leg was colorized.

The colorization, other than the sock-discrepancy mentioned, is finely done, with green for the table cloth, purple for Ada’s dress, and flesh color on her face, arms and one leg. A thin necklace has been highlighted in gilt.

The Subject

Genealogical research reveals that Ada May was born May 18, 1862. She looks to be about 1-1/2 or 2 years old here, so we can suppose the photograph was taken about 1864, which is consistent with the style. There is no tax stamp on the card, which may suggest that it was taken before August 1st of 1864, but that is suggestive rather than firm evidence, since the stamps sometimes came off without a trace, or were not placed on every card.

The California deaths index shows she died 3 September 1940 in San Francisco, and her mother’s maiden name was Lacey. It does not list her father’s full name. The 1900 and subsequent censuses show her living in the household of her cousin Albert E Lacey, with no occupation. Census listings consistently show her father was born in Massachusetts and her mother in Canada.

The 1889 San Francisco city directory, and Ada’s 1912 voters registration both list her as a school teacher. The directory even lists the school — Bartlett Primary School.

We find her listed in the 1880 census, aged 17, living with her mother 35 year old Maria Josselyn, and a 13 year old brother, William Josselyn. I could not find the family in the 1870 census, and so did not find the father’s full name.

The Photographer

William Shew was born in 1820 on a farm near Watertown, Jefferson county, New York. He and his brothers learned the daguerreotype process from Samuel F B Morse in 1840 or 1841, just a year or two after the technique was first made public.

After building a successful business as a daguerreotypist and case maker in Boston, Shew sold his interests there and sailed for California, arriving in March, 1851. Shew opened a photographic business in San Francisco, where he remained until after the turn of the 20th century and his death in 1903.

This CDV has the address 423 Montgomery Street on the back. He seems to have used that address between 1861 and 1869, though his earlier address is also on Montgomery Street, so it is possible the street was renumbered, rather than his studio moved, in 1861. His later 1860s imprints have additional addresses in the same block, along with 423, such as the 1867 imprint that shows: Nos. 417, 421, 423 & 425 Montgomery St.

This carte-de-visite purports to show Isaac Harper, and is conveniently dated for us, with a Civil War era tax stamp, canceled with the photographer’s initials (N & J) and the date June 11, 1866. Was there any such person, and if so what can learn about him?

Isaac Norton in Kewanee IL 1866

Looking at the photograph, everything is completely consistent with the supposed 1866 date. This is important, as some photograph dealers on sites like eBay have taken to adding spurious tax-stamps to improve the saleability of their cards. No doubt those unscrupulous characters are also adding false identifying information. That seems unlikely in this case since this CDV has been in my possession over 25 years, and so was purchased back when these cards were little valued (I think I paid 20 cents for it). If you were purchasing a card like this today, it might sell for a couple dollars, or it might fetch $20 or $30 if it caught the attention of descendants of the subject or photographers, whose special interest may cause them to get caught up in the bidding frenzy.

Finding Isaac Harper

As it happens, we had no trouble finding evidence on the life of Isaac Harper. Based on census data we know he was born in England in 1810 or 1811, so he was about 55 years old when this photo was taken. The 1850 census shows him living in Ridgefield (Huron county) Ohio, with four children – 17 year old Isabell, 15 year old John, 4 year old Mary and four month old Linda. All four children were born in Ohio, and Isaac’s occupation was Brewer.

With a baby in the house, but no wife listed, it was easy to assume that the wife probably died very recently when the census was taken. Luckily for us, the 1850 census include mortality rolls, listing names of every person who died in the preceding 12 months. Sure enough, there we found Maria Harper listed, also in Ridgefield, who died in childbirth in April 1850 at the age of 36.

On 7 Apr 1853 Isaac married again, to Adaline Sutton, born ca 1825 in Peru (Huron county) Ohio, the daughter of Levi Reed Sutton (7 Sep 1794 – 3 Sep 1872) and Catherine Kile (11 Dec 1791 – 1879), according to an online genealogy — I haven’t confirmed these details, but they are consistent with the records I did examine.

Census and Tax Records Tell the Story

The 1860 census shows Isaac and Adeline living in Woodstock (McHenry county) Illinois, with John, Mary and Lydia (Linda) mentioned above, plus a new child Alice, age 6. Isabell probably was married and in her own home by then, as she would be 27 years old. Both Isaac and his son John are listed as grocers, apparently John the more successful since he is listed with $400 in real estate and $500 in personal property, while Isaac has only $100 in personal property.

In the 1870 census we find Isaac and Adeline living in Kewanee (Henry county) Illinois, where our photograph was taken. Isaac’s fortunes have improved, he is shown as a merchant with $1500 in real estate, and $1500 personal property. Another child, six year-old Charles, has been added to the family, the first of the children born in Illinois. Only Linda, Alice and Charles are still at home, though Linda’s name is given as ‘Lynden’.

The 1880 census shows us Adeline was widowed, and only Linda and Charles still live at home, along with five boarders — clearly it was a large home, so Isaac had not squandered his prosperity. By 1900 Adeline was living with Charles and his family in Marshall, Iowa.

A Tale of Two Photographers

Turning to the photographers who took this image, we see it is neatly imprinted ‘Norton & Johnson, Photographers, Kewanee, Ill’ inside a decorative cartouche on the back of the card — very typical for mid-1860s.

Norton is almost certainly N B Norton, whom Craig lists as a daguerreian in Kewanee in 1860. He must have arrived there after the census was taken, however, since I went through each page of the census for Kewanee and found only one photographer listed, daguerreian J E Snow.

I did find N B Norton listed in the Civil War tax records, however. To support the Civil War effort, income taxes were levied on all Americans earning over $600 per year, and most businesses had to buy annual licenses. I found N B Norton paid for photographer licenses in 1862, 1863 and 1864. Each of those years he was operating alone. I don’t know why he was not listed in 1865, the last year for which records are available (some areas have 1866 records, but not the district Kenwanee is in). Maybe he and Johnson were already partners then, and they used Johnson’s name when paying for the license, rather than the partnership name. The 1870 census shows photographer M B Norton, age 38, born New York, living in a boarding house.

The Johnson part of the photographic team is a bit harder to pin down, since there are so many photographers of that name around. There were S E Johnson and W G Johnson listed in Henry county, both in Geneseo. Only one Johnson, however, was listed in Kewanee, so he is most likely the partner in this case: Andrew Johnson, born ca 1835 in Sweden. He is listed as a farm hand in the 1860 census. About 1862 he married Anna Erickson, and their first child (Emma) was born the following year. The next year, 1864, we find in the tax records that Andrew paid for a photographer’s license, and again in 1865. Oddly, Andrew Johnson is listed as ‘Domestic Servant’ in the 1870 census — as were many other young men listed on the same page. It is unusual for a servant to be listed with any real estate, but Andrew is shown with $1000 worth. The 1880 census again lists him as a photographer.

Most likely, then, M B Norton established himself as a photographer in Kewanee late in 1860. Andrew Johnson started operating there late in 1863 or early in 1864. No doubt they found the town too small to support two photographers. Norton may have tried elsewhere in 1865, but in the end they decided to join forces and worked a studio in partnership by 1866, when this card was produced. Both were still living in Kewanee in 1870, though Johnson is not listed as a photographer — that could be an error, or he may have been working two jobs, each part time. In any case, the partnership probably dissolved some time in the 1870s, as Johnson is listed as a photographer there in 1880, but Norton is not.

Dick Cornwell of Rochester NY

Oftentimes, the problem with trying to identify a particular subject is that you will find too many possible matches. Or you may find none at all. In one sense, this example suites both situations.

This image is inscribed ‘Dick Cornwell, Feb 1862. Rochester, NY’ and bears the photographer’s imprint Powelson, 58 State Street & 302 Main Street, Buffalo, NY.

We have no reason to doubt the 1862 date, as the image is a small vignette, and the card has the double gilt or brown lines around the border typical of that era. Also, the photographer is Powelson — that would be Benjamin F Powelson, who was in business in Buffalo from 1848 to the 1860s, and also had a gallery in Rochester after 1861.

So, our first question is why does someone from Rochester have their picture taken in Buffalo? There are many possible reasons why he may have, but with this photographer, there is also the possibility that he didn’t — the same photographer had a studio in Rochester, he may have used the Buffalo imprinted cards because he ran out (or had not yet ordered) cards imprinted for Rochester. Our research shows the Rochester studio was opened in 1861 — if it was late in the year they may not have received their printed cardstock by February 1862.

It would also help our case if we could determine how old the gentleman is. To me, he looks about 18 to 22 years old, though I have no accurate means of gauging ages. There is just a hint of receding hairline, or that could be a false-impression caused by the lock of hair dipping onto his high forehead. Or perhaps he is the sort who will go prematurely bald.

The next obvious step is to search the census records for a Dick or Richard Cornwell living in Rochester NY in the 1860 census, which is the nearest we have to the actual date. He should be about 16 to 20 years old at the time of the census.

We find just five Cornwell’s in Rochester that year: Peter and Mary with their 16 year old son Francis M; 70 year old Phebe Cornwell living in the Osborn household; and 29 year old Eliza Cornwell, a domestic in the Appleby family. Nothing even close to our target. He may have moved there after 1860, or the fact that the surname occurs in town means he may have been visiting relatives.

Given his apparent age, Mr Cornwell may have been in Rochester to attend the University of Rochester, which was established in 1850. Unfortunately, that university does not provide public access to it’s alumni list — obviously recent records need some limits to protect privacy, but why records over 100 years old are ‘protected’ is beyond my ken.

So we return to the census records, and see if we can find any Richard Cornwell’s of the appropriate age in other places. This is where we run into the problem of too many possible matches. If we limit the search to Richard Cornwell’s born between 1840 and 1843, we find three possibilities in New York state, none of them anywhere near Rochester.

Curiously, if we expand the search to other states, there are no other Richard Cornwell’s listed in that age range. If we use his nickname, there is only one Dick Cornwell aged 16 to 20 — 18 years old and living in Port Huron, Michigan, working as a clerk for the grocer Theodore Tucker.

So we have four candidates for the subject of this photographer, without any really good reason to choose one over the others. And there is always the chance that he is not among these choices, since a large fraction of census records have names that are recorded wrong or indexed wrong.

If this were found among photos belonging to a particular family, we would have additional clues to search for — but once an image gets assigned to the junk-heap of eBay, such valuable provenance is lost.