Bay Area boy and baby
By: usermattw
Tags: Oakland, photography, San Francisco, vintage photography
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What it is:
Real photo post card measuring slightly less than 5.5 x 3.5 inches. Unmailed.
What I know about it:
The photographer’s stamp on the back shows it’s from Horwich Bros. Postal Studio, 621 1/2 Broadway, San Francisco, California, and 458 8th St., Oakland, California. The paper manufacturer’s markings (AZO, four triangles pointing up) narrow the date range to 1904-1918, and some city directories I found online indicate it’s from the later part of that date range, since the studio was on Broadway in 1919, but at a different address in 1911.
Comments:
Last weekend I went to two different museums, the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (where I live) and the Oakland Museum of California across the bay in Oakland (where I was cat sitting). I always enjoy the Legion of Honor, and have been fortunate the last few times that my friend Elise takes me with her membership. And I was pleasantly surprised by the Oakland Museum, having never been there before. While there is a lot to see and enjoy at both museums, I had to mention in this blog that I encountered a lot of wonderful vintage photography! The special exhibit at the Legion of Honor focused on the work of Man Ray and Lee Miller, particularly their photography, and how their lives and careers intersected in an intense and tempestuous relationship that influenced the artistic output of both. Fascinating stuff, with room after room of their work. (One novelty was a photo of the two of them, which can be seen here, that was taken in a fairground attraction called a “shooting gallery”. I had heard of shooting galleries where you shoot at targets for a prize, and, of course, we refer to taking pictures as “shooting” photos, but this combined both. You aim the gun, and if you hit the bullseye, it trips a mechanism that snaps your photo! I had never heard of such a thing.) Then to the Oakland Museum. The California Art section features wall after wall of photos by famous photographers who worked in, and were sometimes based in, California, including many in the Bay Area, such as Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Arnold Genthe, Eadweard Muybridge, etc., etc. And the California History section was full of the sorts of anonymous daguerreotypes and other portraits of local notables and ordinary people that I find so fascinating. (There was even an example of two different portraits of the same lady, a daguerreotype photo and a painting, presented side by side, which were fun to compare.) So I obviously don’t own copies of Man Ray or Dorothea Lange photos to post, but in honor of my photo-filled weekend in San Francisco and Oakland, here’s a photo that might have been taken in either city.
Pics of Then 
Rats! Now you have me missing the Bay Area, again! Great link too. About the posted picture, fabulous smile on the older boy!
Well, I’m certainly not trying to make anybody feel bad with my blog! 🙂 But you’re right, I am pretty spoiled with all the cultural opportunities to close around me. I just have to remember to actually avail myself of them. And you’re right, I noticed that boy’s smile, too. It’s quite dazzling.
A two museum weekend sounds like heaven.
Yes, it was very nice.
I assume these two are sibs. But whatever the relationship, the older boy’s smile and relaxed pose make me think he is quite fond of his little brother or sister. We do read things into these photos.
I made those assumptions, too, but you’re right, it’s important to remember they’re just assumptions.