Sunday, May 20, 2012

Visalia.  Circa 1895.  Portrait of teens by C.A. Myers, photographer
This is a cabinet card photograph by C. A. Myers (Charles Albert Myers), Visalia CA (circa 1890-1895).  This appears to be an image of six teenagers in costumes.   Hard to tell what the subject matter at hand was...  e.g. Several of the girls seem to be dressed like maids wearing black armbands, the young man is wearing a coat & top-hat with a sash across his chest.  And there is a banner in the background with an unusual symbol on it.
Perhaps they were putting on a play. (?)

In 1893, a fire apparently started in C. A. Myers' photo-lab which destroyed his studio and did a considerable amount of damage to the large "Holt Block" building.   An article linked here talks about that fire, and the possibility of spontaneous combustion of certain photographic materials.  Note that on the same page as this article it mentions that H.C.Tandy's Hanford photo gallery  was also destroyed by a  fire around the same time. (See my 9/4/12 post of Tandy pictures).
(Added 1/28/17):  C. A. Myers maybe the same photographer ("Charles A. Myers")  who owned Myers Studio on O'Farrell Street in San Francisco, during the 1910's & 1920's.    e.g.  According to voting and census records, both the Visalia and Bay Area photographer "Charles A. Myers" were born in Iowa around 1868.   This San Francisco studio did a lot of lobby display photographs for theatrical groups.


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Below are two photo postcards showing the cast of the cantata  Esther, the Beautiful Queen .
Visalia CA, 1915.


Visalia in 1915.   Esther, The Beautiful Queen: a cantata or short oratorio.
The reference to "1st  M. E. - Visalia Cailf.", might mean that this program was performed at the Visalia First Methodist Episcopal Church.



Visalia First Methodist Episcopal Church.  In 1915.   Cast of cantata
On the back of this postcard is written:  "Left to Right:  Mr. Parsons,  Mrs. Payne,  Mrs Snow,  Mr. Masters.   Queen Esther Cantata.  1915".  The cantata referred to here is probably the one composed by William B. Bradbury with Chauncey M. Cady and R. W. Seager: i.e.  Esther, The Beautiful Queen: a cantata or short oratorio.


(Added 5/9/18)  I recently found another photo postcard of this church play.
On the back of it is written: "Mr & Mrs Payne as Haman & Zerish, & baby, in Queen Esther Cantata.  1915.   1st M.E. Church - Visalia."

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Visalia.  circa 1900.  I.O.O.F.  Odd Fellows.  Robinson & Churchman.

Photo by "Robinson & Churchman, Holt Block. Visalia, Cal.". (circa 1900).
I believe the men in this picture are members of the  I.O.O.F. (The Odd Fellows) in their ceremonial dress.   



3 comments:

  1. Fabulous photographs! You may perhaps already know that Richard Watson Seager, the man who reshaped "Esther" into the form in which it became popular, and wrote the libretto, moved out to California in the early 1900's to live with his son Frank Seager in Porterville; he died in 1913 but his son remained in the area at least through 1920. So it's quite possible that RW Seager was himself involved in these productions! I am seeking a photograph of either Seager, should one turn up -- in the meantime, thanks for sharing this fascinating local history!

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    1. I didn't know that R.W. Seager lived in Porterville for a while.
      Thank you very much for this information.

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  2. I have a large photo of a bunch of guys on horseback with possibly a buffalo soldier at the Grant tree. It has a plaque on the frame that says HC Tibbitts, who is a well known photographer. If you would like to take a look please contact me at subtwenty@hushmail.com.. I've been trying to identify it but have had no luck (tibbitts photographs are mostly in libraries and museums out of public view)

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