***Need Help Identifying Unknown Photographer 19001920 Glass Plate Negatives (Newport, Maine)

[cmsvfx]

Hey all,


I recently acquired a collection of over 190 glass plate negatives, 5x7 and 8x10 inches in size. The photographs appear to have been taken between 1900 and 1920 and are centered around Newport, Maine, and nearby towns like Smithfield, Skowhegan, and Norridgewock.


The subjects include:

• Rural and farm life
• Portraits (some clearly staged in studios or homes)
• Women’s basketball teams, kids with toys, and casual group photos
• Oxen, tractors, fields, local buildings, campgrounds and more

The kicker: The entire collection belonged to photographer Lida Moser (known for her work from the late 1940s onward). These predate her career by decades, so I believe she acquired them during her early days—maybe for study, archiving, or a planned exhibit. A typed summary included in the box suggests that someone (possibly her) intended to print or present them.


I’m trying to identify the original photographer, and someone once suggested they might be the work of Chansonetta Stanley Emmons, given the timeframe, subject matter, and regional focus. It’s a compelling theory, but nothing confirmed yet.


Would love help from the community here to:

• ID possible photographers working in that area at the time
• Offer thoughts on the style
• Or just enjoy the history in these gems with me
• Discuss more about these works

I’ve attached a few representative images below. Happy to share more if anyone’s interested!


Thanks, look forward to hearing your thoughts!
—Chris

 

[bdial]

You could try contacting Photographic Historical Society of New England. Their website is http://phsne.org/

 

[Harry Callahan]

Hm... are there fingerprints on the picture "family standing on waterfront deck" ?

 

[mshchem]

So is the Wagon with the man sitting on the steps a professional photographer?

Looks like he has sample pictures on display, and maybe a couple print frames exposing POP paper on his shelf???

The window looks like maybe ruby glass for safelight???

 

[mshchem]

Again looking at the man on the steps of the wagon, with a dog not a cat,

Could be the photo prints that I suspect were on display could be in a screened vestibule drying after printing. On the shelf, If those are print frames, in use, could it be that they are accessible by opening the window, inward when working in the wagon????

What would be obvious to a photo person 130 years ago hard to tell today.

 

[Harry Callahan]

I think you`re right, this indeed could be a mobile darkroom. On the other hand the house on the right has a smaller window at the bottom where the glass also is pretty dark. I think that`s because this window is reflecting the dark grass in front of the house. The window of the wagon is in the shade, so its possible that it`s not red glass but only reflecting the surrounding.
Still this could be a mobile darkroom.
But because you drew my attention to the window(s), i found another thing: If you zoom into the picture and look at the lower part of the wagons door, you can see a reflection in the glass. It even looks like a tripod - but the angle the wagons door has to the camera taking this picture cannot reflect the camera.

BUT this means that you could check the other negatives for reflections of the person operating the camera .

Depending on the sharpness of the negatives (should be rather high sharpness on this formats) you could be able to see the person operating the camera. And you musn`t necessarily be able to recognize the face of the person operating, it should suffice to recognize the clothing of the person - as back then women wore skirts and men wore trousers.
A good photographer tries to avoid reflections of himself and his camera in windows etc., but back then with such big negatives it was usual to only make contact prints. On the one hand negatives were big enough for contact prints, on the other hand photographic paper also does cost money. It is cheaper to only make a contact print than an enlargement.
Because of that there may be reflections of the person operating the camera, as you wouldn`t be able to recognize this on a contact print anyway.

 

[cmsvfx]

Alright, folks—I've been soaking in all your insights, and I’ve gotta say, I’m seriously impressed by the detective work here. You’ve got me rethinking everything… except one theory I keep circling back to: what if the photographer behind this collection was a woman?

Here’s why I lean that way:

These 200 or so negatives came from the private collection of Lida Moser, a well-known photographer and women’s rights advocate who was active from the late 1930s until her passing in 2014. In the late '40s, she apprenticed under Berenice Abbott—another powerhouse photographer and women's activist. That connection alone makes me wonder if Lida might have collected work that resonated with her personally or professionally—possibly from another woman artist.

Without outright stating the photographer’s gender, I’ve shared parts of this collection with archivists who handle a lot of Lida’s work. Interestingly, several of them also suggested that the images could’ve been taken by a woman. No confirmation yet, but a name that came up was Chansonetta Stanley Emmons. She was active in New England in the early 1900s, which fits the timeline and the aesthetic of these photos.

So, that’s my working theory—educated guess with a dash of intuition. What do you think?

I'm attaching more photos in hopes that together we can keep the ideas flowing and maybe even crack this mystery wide open. Keep those thoughts and theories coming—this has been such a fun and fascinating ride so far!

Looking forward to hearing what you all think.

 

[Harry Callahan]

Did you read my question about the fingerprints?