Tag Archives: bob lawrence
Maybe we should just turn back…
This sign stack was spotted on Bloomingdale Pike (Kingsport TN).
Young Man With Boots
This is a ferrotype, but more commonly known as a tintype. No tin, just thin iron (it responds crisply to a magnet) coated with a black paint, then overlaid with an emulsion that can be exposed quickly. The image is actually a negative, but, because of the black background, it’s seen as a positive.
This was taken in a studio, with clunky props. The hat is a “gents’ or young mens'” hat that retailed in the late 19th century for around $2.25. The coat is likely wool, with velvet trim. He’s wearing a vest and a tie over a clean white shirt. The boots are worn and rather grubby. The emulsions of this period were sensitive to the red spectrum, so I think this hands aren’t dirty so much as slightly reddish around the nails. If this was taken in winter, which the coat and boots seem to indicate, this hands may have just been recovering from the cold.
Notice that he gives the impression of being quite self-possessed. Interesting expression.
Baby Pissed
According to the back of this old real photo postcard, this is Joyce Alma Carrier, aged 4 months. I’ve trimmed the picture, so you can’t see that she’s been plunked down in a chair covered with a blanket and forced to pose for a candid. This young lady is definitely, certainly, absolutely not happy.
I found this at a flea market. Got it for $1. Made me laugh.
The postcard is an AZO, with a square at each corner (this is on the back, the place you place the stamp), which puts it in use between 1926 and 1940.
Coke ovens
Coke ovens, in this configuration and in the beehive configuration, used to be thick on the ground around this area of Wise County. We’re near Pine Branch and these are a few of the 60 remaining derelict coke ovens…there used to be over 300 here, with railroad access, from around 1920 to about 1980. They were used to burn coal in the absence of oxygen to produce coke, which burns cleanly at high temperature. Catnip, as they say, for steel makers.
Uncle Bob's Pix 