Photogram, Photograph

1895

The gradual adoption of "photogram" to signify a picture made by light has been proceeding for many years, and, though it has recently received a spurt in England, the attempt is not new. In December, 1866, the use of the word was strongly advocated by the Rev. A. C. Kimber.

Some years later the word was given in a supplement to Webster's Dictionary, and more recently the American New International Dictionary gives it as a standard word. Some two years ago The Canadian Photographic Journal commenced to consistently use the word "photogram," and a year ago an English journal called The Photogram made a point of using it.

One of the most important firms of photographic book publishers also use it in all their publications. Several photographers and photographic material dealers in England use it either occasionally or regularly, and such journals as The Sketch, The Optician and others use it occasionally as an alternative for the older form "photograph." — Notes and Queries.

Which One Is The American?

1920 (Click the picture for larger version)

In the above picture is shown a mother and two sons. The mother and one of her sons have just come over from the old country and have been in this country but a few days. The other son has lived here for five years. Can you tell which one of the sons is an American and which is not? It ought not to require more than one guess!

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 2.

Comment: This is an odd item. I think the point of this item is American pride. With immigration being such a big thing in our history, the fact that we "clean up" well would be something to be proud of.

A Good Knight

1901

"Don't you think that if I had lived the days of old I would have made a good knight?" asked the young man who had been talking ancient history from 8 to 11 p. m.

"I don't care so much what you would have made then," wearily observed the young lady, "but you might see what kind of a good night you can make right now." — Baltimore American.


Caricatures and Photos

Most of the dandies of the Georgian period took as great a pleasure in seeing themselves caricatured as our generation does in seeing their photograph in the shop windows.


Sugartime

The refining of sugar was invented in Antwerp in the sixteenth century.

Blade and Ledger Agents

(Click picture for bigger.)

1916

Photos of Bessie Logue, Iowa; Laverna Young, Indiana; Andrew Mausine, Indiana; Embree Thompson, Texas; Will Thompson, New Jersey; Charles Clapper, Indiana.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 11.

Daring Woman Hunts Jungle Beasts With Both Movie Camera and Rifle

(Click graphic for a much bigger view.)

1920

BY ELLEN MARIE BAYARD.

"I'll tell you a secret," said Lady MacKenzie to me in her charming, well modulated tones, with just the slightest trace of an English accent, as I was admitted to her superbly furnished apartments in a Broadway hotel at New York City, as the special representative of The Saturday Blade to interview her. "But you'll promise that you'll keep this a secret?"

I promised that I wouldn't tell a soul — excepting the readers of The Saturday Blade.

"It's this," Lady MacKenzie replied. "Just a few days ago I was visiting one of my friends in New York, telling her of a thrilling experience with a tiger in Africa. Just at the most dramatic point of the story, a mouse ran across the room in my direction, and — "

"And you, of course, ignored — " I hastened to interrupt, feeling certain that I was showing the keenness of my powers of anticipation.

Lady MacKenzie smiled at me, that charming, friendly smile of hers.

"Far from it! I picked up my skirts and mounted a chair, just as my hostess did, or any other woman would have done."

Is Wholly Feminine.

This incident, more than any other mentioned during the short interview, seemed to be most indicative of Lady MacKenzie's character. Here was a woman who could shoot a charging elephant in the fetid jungles of Africa without a tremor of an eyelash, but who mounted a chair to escape a mouse in a luxurious New York apartment. This Englishwoman had penetrated further into the dank wilds of Africa than any other living white woman, and as a nimrod had to her credit a long list of such harmless little pets as bull elephants, tigers, leopards and lions — to say nothing of snakes as large thru as the trunk of a tree. Yet she balked at a mouse!

The answer is easy. Lady MacKenzie is wholly feminine. Tho inured to the hardships of the jungles, she dresses in dainty laces while in civilization. In the undramatic environment of a New York hotel, it is hard to believe that this charming, attractive Englishwoman has earned the admiration of the world by her contempt for danger and hardship in tropical jungles.

But it is so. Lady MacKenzie has made two long trips into darkest Africa. She is off now on her third explorative tour and hopes this time to penetrate further and learn more than on either of her previous trips.

War Interrupted Last Tour.

Her exploration of the Tana River, one of the most treacherous streams in the world, winding thru 2,000 miles of dense thicket and papyrus swamp, was interrupted by the war. Her camp at the junction of the Tana and Theka Rivers was taken over by the British as a military base.

Lady MacKenzie's tours are not for purposes of sport. She photographs specimens of wild animals for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History.

And with all its hardship and danger, she finds big game hunting an attractive life. She loves adventure and "real life," the life in the open and the thrill of the hunt. And why not? Have men in these days a monopoly on those things? Not that Lady MacKenzie knows of! She likes the ponderous silence of the inky jungles, the sense of stealthy peril ever slinking near, the sharpened instinct of self-survival. She just wonders how people can settle down to a dull, quiet life while Africa is still on the map.

Lion Didn't Like Camera.

"Tell me how you photograph 'em," I pleaded.

"I took a second too long to take a lion's picture once, and he charged me," Lady MacKenzie answered.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? I know that it did to me, as I sat in a soft divan in the New York hotel. But how it really happened in Africa, as I found by questioning the modest English woman further, was this way:

Instead of setting her camera to take a picture by pulling a wire from a convenient retreat in the rear, Lady MacKenzie got right into the thick of things, with her moving picture camera out in front of her.

The lion, of course, didn't like it. Lions often don't.

"G-r-r-r-r! G-r-r!"

Lady MacKenzie kept on turning the crank of the machine as the lion stepped in front of the lens. The animal's tail began switching furiously. Lady MacKenzie coolly adjusted her camera to get a better view. Then the inevitable happened.

Barely Saves Own Life.

The lion leaped. His tawny body describing an angry arc in the air, he met the target directly. Lady MacKenzie's, leap for safety was too late, and the shaggy shoulder of the huge brute dashed her to the ground.

But that was his majesty's last second on earth — for Lady MacKenzie always had her rifle ready and knew how to use it. There was a muffled report and the king of beasts fell with a bullet thru his brain.

"That was a narrow escape," sighs Lady MacKenzie, in recollection of the moment, "but not nearly so exciting as to be caught in a stampede of wild beasts in the heart of the jungle."

It was this way, as I learned in the next few moments. The modern Diana came upon an immense herd of buffalo one day, and was intent upon obtaining an "action picture." To get the desired action she shot the leader of the herd with her rifle. The rest of the animals stampeded.

On they came, a mighty, bellowing avalanche of hoofs and horns. There were hundreds of them, bolting directly for Lady MacKenzie and her party.

Quick as a flash milady threw herself flat on the ground and waited. At any moment she expected to be trampled to death beneath the beating hoofs. With the thought came a fleeting picture of being buried by black savages in the wilds far from home and civilization.

Then the unexpected happened — an intervention of Providence, Lady MacKenzie calls it. For some unexplainable reason the herd parted just in front of where she lay and passed around her on the right and left, leaving her unharmed, but killing several of the native guides.

"But outside of the danger, is there much else of romance in the jungle life?" I asked.

"Too much — sometimes, I'm afraid," replied Lady MacKenzie, with a whimsical smile.

African Chieftain Proposes.

Then she told how an African chieftain became enamored of her when he saw her powder her face one morning. He was curious, and when Lady MacKenzie gave him some powder he applied it to his face, and then got her mirror to see if he had achieved the desired result.

By this time he had lost his heart to milady, and immediately proposed, tho he had several score of native wives. He offered to give members of the party ten sleek cows for the Englishwoman's hand in marriage. It required all kinds of tact and diplomacy to turn down the offer without incurring the anger of the chieftain and his powerful tribe of savages.

The Masals are the most interesting of African tribes, says the huntress, but are fast dying out. They are deliberately practicing race suicide to wipe out their own race rather than endure the encroachments of the hated white man. They are a race of polygamists and have no religion.

Africa Is Little Known.

"The world probably knows less about Africa than any other country in the world," says Lady MacKenzie. "And there is so much to know. I predict that Americans will before very long get into Africa in larger numbers. Then we may expect to find out all about it. For the American has a faculty for developing the commercial resources of a new country — of any country. And there are such wonderful resources in Africa — only the surface has been scratched."

But, altho Lady MacKenzie was too modest to say so, I might add that she had contributed a mighty share toward enlightening the world about Africa. She has brought home valuable records containing the native speech of unknown African tribes and thousands of feet of moving pictures on which are forever recorded the habits of the wild jungle animals and the life and customs of the jungle peoples. She has returned with tons of educational trophies. And she's not thru yet!

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 14.

Comment: This article and Lady MacKenzie are offensive at several levels. To me, the worst has to be when she wanted an "action picture" of the buffalo, so she shot the leader of the herd and made the rest stampede. Then she was in great danger, but, thanks to Providence, she was left unharmed, but the incident killed several of the native guides! That's terrible all the way through. And check out the photo essay, as they hunted animals with "a camera."

Color-Film Lotion Is Found

1919

Russian Invents Emulsion Designed to Improve Photography.

LONDON, England. — A secret emulsion, invented by a Russian, which, it is asserted, will make color photography possible for everybody, is about to be introduced into this country. The problem of making the process capable of snapshot as well as time work is claimed to have been overcome and the exposure can be as rapid as with the ordinary emulsion, thus fitting the invention for moving picture work also.

Special cameras and plates will be on the market shortly and the cost of a colored film is expected to he only 15 to 20 per cent higher than the ordinary black and white type.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Sweetheart's Eye in Fob

1905

Latest Fad of Fashionables in London and Paris

Women are not alone in taking up fads. The young men of Paris and London are rushing to death the watch fobs and scarf pins ornamented with their sweethearts' eyes. The eye is removed from a photograph, set in gold, under glass, and set into the bit of jewelry.

New Camera Takes Tall Buildings at Close Range

1915

Aid to Photographic Art

With a new camera, invented and patented by an Elgin, Ill., man, a tall building may be photographed from the ground showing the upper portions as plainly as the lower. Such a building will be the exact size at the top as at the base of the picture. Formerly such a thing was considered impossible and photographers have been hunting some invention for the past twenty years to overcome the fault.

The inventor has many pictures of tall buildings taken from a distance of only a few feet which prove his invention worthy. The invention is simple and requires only the turning of the lens to the proper angle, which is determined by the height of the building and the distance which the camera stands from it.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 9.

Well-Chosen Gifts

1900

Berlin papers state that the family of Prince Bismarck found a serious difficulty after his death in disposing of the presents sent to him during the last few years of his life by his enthusiastic admirers. The gifts were numbered by the thousand and embraced the most incongruous articles, from a live rhinoceros to a coffin.

All men, says an old proverb, give gifts; but few men give pleasure with their gifts.

Why should a man or woman, striving to express affection for a friend, cumber him with a nuisance? Usually because, in choosing a gift, we are apt to consult our own tastes rather than those of our friend.

After William Penn died, the Indians in his province sent to his widow, Hannah, a cloak of the most costly furs. "To protect her," was their message, " while travelling alone without her guide for the rest of her way through the thorny wilderness."

Here were all the qualities of a perfect gift: a fine meaning embodied in an article of value and of service to the person to whom it was given.

A poor widow to whom Queen Victoria had granted a pension wished to express her gratitude and loyalty. But what could she give that the empress of one-fourth of the world would value?

She was an expert amateur photographer, and it occurred to her to take pictures of all the places visited by the queen when she was a young wife with Prince Albert.

The little volume was finished, simply bound and sent to Windsor Castle, and the queen is said to keep it among her chief treasures.

In the meaning, not the cost, of a gift lies its value. — Youth's Companion.

Color Photography at Last

1914

British Experts Who Should Know Are Satisfied That the Process Has Been Discovered

What appears to be an almost perfect process of color photography is at length announced. It gives results by which oil paintings are reproduced with startling fidelity. The process has been shown to the British Royal Photographic society and the Royal society.

Five years ago Aaron Hamburger of London began to experiment for the production of photographs in natural colors. After many failures he discovered a process which he now calls the "polychromide system," and which is already beginning to revolutionize photography and all business affecting colored reproductions.

In the opinion of Sir William Crookes, who spent a day examining every detail of the process, the discovery is the "greatest achievement in photography." Sir William Crookes, Sir Archibald Geikle, and the council of the Royal society are being photographed by Mr. Hamburger.

The autochromes of the famous brothers Lumiere were under the disadvantage of being incapable of reproduction. Mr. Hamburger narrated how desperately he had tried every means to reproduce them. Failing, he invented a new camera with special screens, which divided a beam of light into three colors, and the effect of the screens is that no color save those desired find their way to the plate.

By the air of three sensitive gelatino-silver developing papers, which are printed under the red, yellow and blue printing negatives, the final photograph in colors is obtained, and the canvas effect of an oil painting is then easily produced.

Photographing on the Wane — Or Maybe Not

1910

Photographing on the Wane

It Is Reported That Amateurs Are Showing Decreased Interest in Societies and at Exhibitions

Complaints are rife of decreased interest in photographic societies and in photographic exhibitions. There are certainly fewer of the latter than there were six or eight years ago, and societies, if not actually less numerous, are on the whole weaker both in numbers and in enthusiasm.

In the United States their numbers have decreased 50 or 60 per cent, at least. It is easy to deduce from this a decay of interest in photography and a lessening of the number of amateur photographers, and, indeed, this easy operation has been performed.

Simple deductions on complex questions should always be regarded with suspicion, and in this case suspicion develops into incredulity when it is found that side by side with the degeneration of the photographic society an increased and ever-increasing business is being done in plates, films and papers.

The Early Day of Modeling: Pretty Girls in Demand

1903

Pretty Girls in Demand

They Can Make Good Money Posing For Advertisements

"Pretty girls were never in such demand as they are today," said an advertising agent, "We need them to pose for photographs for almost every article that we advertise.

"We have found, you see, that nothing catches and holds the eye of the public like a good, clear photograph of a pretty girl. Hence, in I don't know how many thousands of advertisements you behold a charming young woman smiling at you.

"Are you advertising a camera? Then you must have a pretty girl taking pictures. Are you advertising a shoe? You photograph a pretty girl tripping daintily across a muddy street on a rainy day. Are you advertising a corset? Then you must have a pretty girl to wear it, and you are careful here to see that her arms and neck are beautiful. In fine, whatever you are advertising, the picture of a pretty girl will help more than anything else to bring you trade.

"Do you know that there is a firm in the West whose sole business is the photographing of young women, for advertising purposes? In this firm's stock are young women riding bicycles, playing pianos, skating, driving, combing their hair, bathing, doing a thousand things. Whatever you desire in their line they will send you almost immediately on receipt of your order.

"I tell you, in these days a pretty girl has no need to be short of money. If doesn't mind exhibiting her face and figure in advertising photographs she can get all the work at posing that she wants to do." — Philadelphia Record.