Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Are Your Family Photos From a Studio or a Home Camera?


N.B. "Bonie" Pierce (1880-1964) and Julia Moody Pierce (1886-1965) of Wilmer, Alabama, seem to have frequently taken their children to Mobile for formal portrait photos. Clearly they valued having photos of their family and had the money to pay for studio photographs.

Julia and her son Cecil Alvy Pierce (1907-1975) appear in this series of portraits.

Note the photographer's imprint on the front of the card: Boyle, The Kodak Man, 155 Dauphin St., Mobile, Ala.

Photography was only for professionals or the very rich until George Eastman started a company called Kodak in the 1880s. In 1889, he introduced the first Kodak camera with the slogan, “You push the button and we do the rest,” and began the era of amateur home photography.

Yet not until the 1940s did home photography really become affordable for most families.

What type of photos are in your family collection?

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