Friday, April 1, 2011

Photo Number 495

This is a Cabinet Card that I purchased in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota at the Antique Mall.
maudy Muigus Cab card DL
Maudy Muigus ?  ( Mandy Mingus) ..I wonder what your life was like.
Maudy Muigus cab card back
I will guess that this photo was taken sometime after 1891. Roshon was the photographer, his main Gallery was in Lebanon, PA  He must have been quite successful to have three galleries.  Iggy can probably tell us how close these three towns are.

This is one of the only cabinet cards that I have seen that says that the negative will be retained for ten years.
Thanks for stopping by, do come again:)

9 comments:

  1. It is about 70 difficult miles over the mountains or 90 easy miles along the Susquehanna River via the state capital of Harrisburg, from Lebanon to Sunbury.

    Moorestown, NJ is across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, PA and is about 100 miles from Lebanon, PA - which is also in the middle of the "Lancaster - Lebanon" Amish area.

    All of these towns had frequent, and fairly directly, railroad service by 1880.

    I've never heard the surname of "Muigus" around here.

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  2. I didn't make any headway with trying to figure out what Maudy's last name might have been - for I am nearly certain it's badly spelled.

    I did learn that John W. Roshon (b. abt 1862 in Harrisburg, PA) or his father, Christian S. Roshon (b. abt 1840 in PA), may be the photographer, had they both had long and prolific careers. The main bulk of John's work dates between 1888-1904. He was often in Harrisburg, the state capital of Pennsylvania which is about 25 miles or so west of Lebanon.

    John was a popular portrait photographer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He lived in the Harrisburg area for the majority of his lifetime.

    Christian owned his own portrait studio in Harrisburg and other central Pennsylvania locations from 1860 to 1900.

    At the age of thirty six, John owned and operated the Commonwealth Gallery in Harrisburg. Today, many of his portraits continue to hang in local churches and the state's public buildings.

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  3. I am pretty certain the last name is Mingus. I did find a Maude Mingus and an Amanda (I think the photo might say Mandy)but the timeframes are not workable, also a Mary & Mabel that are a little closer fits to age. It is hard to be certain if this is a married or maiden name. There are many Mingus' listed as living or being born in Pennsylvania. Perhaps Iggy has some more local search abilities? For now, that is the best I can do. ~Abra

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  4. Yes, I agree, FSoF, most Victorian card mounts boast that negatives will be retained, but this is the first that state a definitie period of time. Considering that the negatives were all glass in those days, with four, nine or more negatives to a plate, and certainly hundreds (perhaps even thousands in some cases) of sittings each year, it was quite a commitment to make.

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  5. @ Brett, I found a reference to a photographer's shop burning down and the loss of over 30,000 negatives. The photog in question had only been in business a few years and I figured out he did nearly 9000 sittings a year! He must have shuttled the customers in and out at light speed!

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  6. I should have said "the first I've seen" - I'm sure there were others. 9,000 sittings a year would not be out of the question, but the possibility also exists that he purchased negatives from a previous studio. Also, of course, there could have been 4 or 6 views per plate, and number of negatives does not necessarily equal number of sittings.

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  7. I was wondering if I may use your photos,that are related to my family, on my Ancestry.com site. Christian Roshon was a distant cousin of my husband, James. Thank you, Lisa Hathaway, jwhlkh@aol.com

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  8. Hi Lisa, Yes you may use the photo and the back of the photos also. Thanks for asking. Connie

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  9. 2019 update, for what its worth. It would seem her father was Preston Muigus, her mother Ida. She was married to a man name Fritz, then remarried to Lerois Lord in 1937.

    https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/61381/TH-1951-21478-547-94?pid=903630302&treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=ams31&_phstart=successSource

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Hi, Thanks for the comments, your input on these old photos is appreciated! English only please! All comments will be moderated! Connie