Family portrait, Queensland

The Tooth family on their lawn, Queensland, ca. 1890, via State Library of Queensland Commons on flickr.

Chaplin, West Virginia

Back garden and porch of Hungarian-American coal miner’s home, Chaplin, West Virginia, September 1938, by Marion Post Wolcott, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (all three photos).

The miner’s wife and their back gate and fence. (Cropped slightly by me.)

Wolcott was on assignment for the U.S. Farm Security Administration.


Her neighbor — top left, in the straw hat — seems to have had a good flower garden, as well.

The celebration

Probably near Lexington, Virginia, date unknown, by Michael Miley Studiovia Library of Virginia Commons on flickr (both photos).

I think this was a 50th wedding anniversary celebration, and the couple were posing with their eleven children.

Michael Miley was a popular commercial photographer in Lexington, Virginia, who patented a color process in 1902 and may have produced the first color photographic print in the U.S. He died in 1918, so these photos must have been taken by his son Henry or another younger associate.

The same family with spouses and grandchildren. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

The Library of Virginia recently discovered 58 previously unidentified images by the Studio and hopes that someone will be able to help it identify some of the subjects in the pictures.

Huariaca, Peru

Town hall and fountain, possibly near Huariaca, Peru, 1923, by J. Francis Macbride or George Bryan on a botany expedition to South America, via The Field Museum Library Commons on flickr.

I like the light fixture at the top of the fountain.

Key West, Florida

Royal Poinciana (Delonix regia) in bloom, Key West, Florida, ca. 1945, by Joseph Janney Steinmetz, via Florida Memory (State Library and Archives of Florida) Commons on flickr.