Wanted: Dead or Identified
Jan 27th, 2009 | By Leonard Legends & Legacies | Category: History's Mysteries, Missing PersonsAwright, ladies and genealogists, this month’s mystery photo comes to us from our good buddy Sean and involves the man pictured to your immediate left. Specifically, who is he? (Mouse-over to enlarge.)
Do you know this man?
If your first impression was… “OMG, it’s Charlie Chaplin!”… yeah, me too. It’s not.
All we know is that it’s a re-print, possibly from a cabinet card, and that it was found with a stash of pictures of Leonards who lived in Ohio. But members of the extended family lived in Pennsylvania and one of those (McClellan Leonard) was a photographer for a few years at the turn of the century. Many of his photos bore an embossed logo for his studio. This one does not.
You know the drill. If he looks familiar, go scour your photo albums, shoe boxes, and bottom dresser drawers for an identical or similar photograph that might have his name etched on the back. The back of this one says (helpfully) “Do you know who this is?” In much fainter, presumably older script is the word “Squeegee,” which we assume is the photographer’s note to himself as he was processing said photo. But, if you heard stories about “Great Uncle Squeegee,” by all means, let us know.
If you know anyone who knows anyone who knows anything about period costumes and studio props, that might help us narrow down the year. (I’m guessing 1890-1900, but I’m no expert.) Then we subtract his apparent age (50-ish?) and we might be a little closer to his birth date and (fingers crossed) identity.
Cheers!
Rick
I have been following a group in Facebook, which also has a web site by the same name, Ancestorville. The gal who runs it deals a lot with old photos and trying to identify mystery people in them. The group often works together to solve the mystery when she can’t do it on her own. Check it out and ask if she can help with this, if nothing else, it will give the photo more exposure to others who may not be related but like to help figure these sort of things out.
https://www.facebook.com/Ancestorville
http://ancestorville.com