Marblehead Ma And Vicinity - Summer Of 1899 Photo Album Photo Albums

7" x 10.75" photo album with 185 photos of various sizes, glued to the page. Written on the inside cover is "Clara A. Vierqutz, June 1899-Aug., 1899. Vierqutz was an avid observer, preoccupied by architecture, history, and water. The majority of the 185 photographs were made over one summer in Marblehead, Massachusetts. At the time, in 1899, many of the buildings photographed were already historic, erected anywhere from one hundred to more than two hundred years prior. Notable historic sites of Marblehead, Massachusetts include: houses, churches, town halls, and a bomb shelter first fortified in 1634. To name a few: The Tucker House (which at the time was the oldest house in town, built in 1640), St. Michael's Episcopal Church (built in 1714 and continues to stand in its original place. It was listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1973), Abott Hall (which welcomed the public in various pursuit, formerly as a public library, and now operates as the Marblehead Town Hall), Marblehead Old Town Hall built in 1727 (often referred to as the "Marblehead's Cradle of Liberty" for the many pre-revolutionary war meetings held there continues to house town offices on the second floor while the first floor hosts the Marblehead Police Museum), Fort Sewall (formerly known as Gale's Head Fort), and the Marblehead Powder House (built in 1755, functioned as storage for muskets and ammunition during the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, as well as the War of 1812), etc. A healthy amount of the places preserved in these photographs stand today with little intervention. Though beside the enduring architecture are photographs of deserted homes and evidence of altered landscapes. What remains true of this coastal place is a deep fondness for water, and a heeding of the Massachusetts Bay. Clara photographed 75 foot surf, breakers, "churn", and placid reflections. From a rowboat, she photographed anchored sailboats and wharfed houseboats. Moored to the shore, she photographed the S.S. Norseman sinking, an event in which 108 people were successfully and safely brought to shore. Midway through the album, portraits of people crop up. These photographs are often either overexposed or fading with age. While nearly all prints are with caption, many of the portraits in the middle section are without. A couple of photographs near the back of the album are of a man (her lover?) standing beside a medium format camera mounted onto of a tripod. Where are his photographs of her? Other places photographed and mentioned herein Marblehead: Peach Point, Castle Rock, Old Burying Hill, the Universalist Church, the Congregational Church, Crocker Park, Franklin Park, Front St., etc. A trip to Boston exposed the film to Trinity Church, the Boston Public Library, Harvard College campus, the Ellicot Arch. In Plymouth, we recognize the Plymouth Rock and the First Meeting House. The House of Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts is retained here. And, in Maine: Hotel Velvet on Old Orchard Beach which burned down in 1907. There are two pieces of ephemera which are not photographs: a rendering of Hosea by John Singer Sargent, from the catalogue of the Boston Public Library and a handwritten page of information regarding Old Burying Hill. In the note there are transposed inscriptions of several gravestones, all of which belong to persons not previously mentioned in the album. One reads: "If real worth demands a tears/ Stop reader pay thy tribute here;/ The youth that lies beneath this stone/ Equall'd by few excell'd by none." The last page is detached and some of the photos are faded, otherwise the album is in very good condition.