William Henry Goyne Family, 1918, Tillamook, Oregon

William Henry Goyne Family, 1918, Tillamook, Oregon, originally uploaded by confections.

The elderly couple in this photo, William Henry Goyne and Nancy Eade Stevens Goyne, are the great-grandparents of a good friend of mine. I had been working on a family tree for her on ancestry.com.

I was contacted by a member who recently found this photograph tucked into a Charlie Brown/Peanuts book she had bought for her children at a thrift store. She contacted me and shared a digital file; she is sending the original to me as well, and I will pass it on to my friend.

Vernacular photo: Mrs. Frederick Bartlett Conway (Sarah Crocker)

Vernacular photo: Mrs. Frederick Bartlett Conway (Sarah Crocker) , originally uploaded by confections.

When I first spotted this cabinet card at a local antique store, I knew I had found a treasure. It was taken by Gurney Studios of New York City and is a striking study of Sarah Crocker (Mrs. Frederick Bartlett Conway), American actress and theater manager of the mid-nineteenth century.



Sarah Crocker was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in approximately 1833; she died in Brooklyn, New York, in April 1875.

Couple at an Amusement Park (Vernacular Photo)

Couple at an Amusement Park (Vernacular Photo), originally uploaded by confections.

I found this photo at one of my favorite antique haunts and happily added it to my growing collection of vernacular photos.

It reminds me of the "good old days" and stories that my mother and grandmother told me about visiting our local amusement park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Kennywood Park, which was recently sold to a Spanish company, but that's another story....).

I especially love that hat on the woman's knee; it is so emblematic of a warm summer afternoon with its wide brim and riot of silk flowers. It inspires me to embellish one of mine with wild abandon!