Those Cincinnati Beauties from 1848!

By now, I'm sure you've all been made aware of the amazing riverfront daguerreotypes that have recently been scanned and made available by the University of Rochester! As a native Cincinnatian, I was enraptured by their beauty. As a historian, I was enraptured by their depth and detail. All around, these photos have suddenly earned a more important place historically, as well they should. Taken in 1848 by Charles Fontayne and William Porter, these are one of the earliest photographic images of an urban locale. The well-known panorama taken in a series of 8 dag plates has always been an important part of photographic and American history, but with this project, the information contained within the images has been amplified.



Amazingly, the scans have been accomplished at such a high resolution that in comparison, a digital camera would have to take a similar photograph at 140,000 mega pixels. After a detailed quadrant scan, new details have emerged at this 30X magnification: wording, people, carriages, shadows of motion, time. There have been several articles about these beautiful images within the past few days and I'll list those direct links at the bottom of the post. However, just a couple of points to ponder:

1. The exact date of when these images were produced had been a mystery until some Cincinnati researchers in 1947 examined the steamboat records to find the precise date that every one of these steamboats were docked at the riverfront - September 24th, 1848. They even studied the shadows to give a guess as to the time - which turned out to be stunningly accurate once these new scans were examined to see the time on the clock. That is some serious research dedication, but it goes to show you that while technology is fantastic, nothing can beat good old fashioned research in many instances.

2. If you've ever visited this fair city, be sure to take a look at all the photos as they scan down the length of the river. To see the seven hills in such an early state of development is quite priceless! How about those beautiful homes up on top of the hills? C'est vraiment magnifique!

Here is a sampling of the photos:

To read more from the original sources:
Wired Magazine:1848 Daguerreotypes Bring Middle America's Past to Life

NPR:Once In a Lifetime River Tour Starts Here! Unfortunately, Everybody’s Dead

University of Rochester and George Eastman House present the Cincinnati Waterfront Dataset

The official technical report on how this scanning was accomplished can also be found in pdf at this link.

The Atlantic:The First Photograph of a Human

Celebrate Family History Month with Your Ancestor Doppelganger!

The most curious thing happened to me recently while carefully going through one of our family’s antique photo albums. For possibly the hundredth time, I came across a photo of my great great grandmother as a young woman, and as I studied her closely, I suddenly had the feeling as if I were looking into a mirror. For the first time I noticed that our mouths were identical, her eyes were also of similar size and protrusion. I looked at her hands….yep, those were mine too. The shape of her head was not dissimilar. I could not see her nose as clearly as I liked, but it was apparent that the proportion was correct enough to be my nose as well. Not to brag, but my family had always remarked at my perfectly shaped little nose and never could figure out where it came from. Believe me, our family line of noses runs the gamut of pointy to large, to roman, etc. My nose was definitely not like anyone in the most recent generations – not parents or grandparents – not even siblings or cousins. The place she and I depart is our weight. She had a tremendously tiny waist which I am completely jealous of, but in thinking about it further, this too is a similarity. Even when heavy, my weight was always distributed in the extremities….with my waist being the last place to increase in size.

With this discovery, I was immediately reminded of the celebrity doppelganger rage that has been sweeping the country. It was clear, that after studying all of our old family photos, she is the ancestor I resemble the most. She was clearly my ancestor doppelganger! But then I marveled at how lucky I was. Not everyone has a clear photo of their great great grandmother as a young woman from the 1870s. Let’s face it, seeing yourself mirrored in the face of a very old person’s photo can be nigh on impossible. Yet, some people may have ancestors alive today who are their clear ancestor doppelgangers. Then there is the inside doppelganger. Sometimes we may resemble one person on the outside, but someone entirely different on the inside. That is where this event is a little different!

In honor of Family History Month, Pastology invites you to take a closer look at your ancestors in relation to your own image or personality. Once you find the person that you most closely resemble, join in the fun! You may blog about your ancestor doppelganger and post a link to our Facebook fan or event page, or for a portion of the month of October, change out your Facebook profile picture with a picture of the ancestor you have chosen to represent you. Full instructions will be given on the events page in Facebook, and on our Doppelganger tab at the top of our homepage and blog, but for those of you who do not belong to Facebook, and would rather just blog about your selection, feel free to do so, but please be so kind as to include a link back to this post in your entry so we can get as many participants as possible. The more people that join in this event, the more fun is likely to be had! If you want to share your blog post, just send Pastology an email with the link to your ancestor doppelganger post and we’ll include it in a post update that features some of the best submissions!
Let's honor our ancestors by celebrating the heritage our existence continues!