Here is the first image which I scanned this morning. I picked this up at a roadside antique store a zillion years ago in the hills of Virginia not far from the West Virginia border. I'm not sure why I chose this image. I think it may have belonged to a larger group of images that entered my collection that day.
I'm guessing it to have been taken anywhere from between 1885 and 1900 based upon the fact that the boy is wearing a rather scaled down version of the "Little Lord Fauntleroy Suit". They were wildly popular in the States and England between 1885 and the turn of the century. This looks a bit more subdued than most, but that could because the boy appears to anywhere from 10 to 14. He would look really ridiculous if his hair was fashioned with the long sausage curls that the younger boys wore with this look.
The back of the image identifies the photographer as Richter & Co. of the North Corner of 8th and Passyunk in Philadelphia. When I purchased this photo from the mountains of Virginia, I was living in Washington, DC. Never in a million years would I have thought that one day I would be blogging about the image from my home just outside of the same city where the photo was taken some 120 years or so ago. I find that thought very intriguing.
Though I take the train into Philadelphia much more frequently now than ever before, I still don't know my way around the city very well. I may ask my friend Jerry about the address, and if it's an area worth walking around in, I may go check it out. Perhaps I'll bring the photo along in my pocket just to go full circle. Who knows, maybe a time portal will open up right there on the corner of 8th and Passyunk! If so, I'll push Jerry through and he can tell me what it was like when he and I run into each other again in about 50 years. If he's not too upset.
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