Tag: vintage photography

Edward Hopper sketched Columbia likely in Gloucester in 1923, and the Britannia

Posted on by Catherine

Edward Hopper’s sketch of the fast schooner Columbia was completed in Gloucester in 1923 or later: Columbia was built in Essex and launched in 1923. The Hopper drawing annotated ‘Britania’ is a misspelling. The Prince of Wales (future King Edward) commissioned the racing yacht (a cutter) Britannia in 1892. The racer was retooled several times.

Hopper traveled in the UK and Gloucester. It’s likely he saw Columbia in person in 1923 or on later Gloucester visits. If not he saw both boats reproduced in print and in the news. Gorgeous yacht and race photography was popular and circulated widely especially as marine photography advanced.

For Britannia, see British photographers, Alfred Beken and his son, Frank, who settled and worked in Cowes on the Isle of Wight from 1888 on.

For the fishing schooner Columbia see Boston photojournalist, Leslie Jones, collection Boston Public Library.

After 1923, news in the the 1920s: Britannia was racing regularly and Columbia and her crew disappeared in 1927.

Continue here for more Hopper boats in Gloucester.

Columbia in vintage photography

Incomparable American photographer and boat fanatic–as much as Hopper–Boston based photojournalist, Leslie Jones

Image: Leslie Jones. Columbia and Henry Ford. Gloucester. (collection Boston Public Library)

Britannia in vintage photography

Image: Frank Beken. various photographs of Britannia.
Image: Alfred John West. Britannia, 1894. Compare wind and sails with Hopper’s vantage.
Edward Hopper Britannia

Images: Edward Hopper, Columbia, 1923. Whitney Museum. (Choppy and clouds- possibly sketched while here in Gloucester); Edward Hopper, Britania (sic), date unknown conjectured juvenalia, however he sketched yachts and boats from his youth on. Whoever annotated the sketch misspelled the boat. [Collection Whitney Museum of American Art]

Image: 1851. Fitz Henry Lane. The Yacht “America” Winning the International Race. Peabody Essex Museum.

Image: 2023. Columbia in Gloucester Harbor: (will add in soon)

A replica of Columbia launched in 2014 is a showstopper at the Schooner Festival in Gloucester, MA. see easternshipbuilding.com

Early 20th century Labor Day Parade in Boston | multiple open air buses for women of the Telephone Operators Union

Posted on by Catherine

marvelous photojournalist, Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library collection (date of this Labor Day photo featuring female telephone operators is unknown-circa 1917-34. Any guesses? Amazing despite WWI and the Spanish Flu epidemic that they would need to strike–and won–in 1919.)

Long Beach Rodeo, circa 1950

Posted on by Sharon

Long Beach Rodeo, circa 1950 Alice M. Curtis/©Fredrik D. Bodin

What’s going on here in front of the Long Beach Hotel? Remembering another rodeo photo I have, taken at the Plum Cove baseball field, I figured it out (maybe). Horses, cowboys and cowgirls in western outfits, and two different locations: this was probably a publicity event for the circus. People came to watch the horses race down the beach. The spectators tell us the time period: A policeman in vintage uniform, girls and boys checking each other out, and the cool kid in the white t-shirt (I can just see a pack of Marlboros rolled up in his sleeve). If anyone remembers the Long Beach rodeo or has any pictures, I’d love to hear from you.

Printed from the original 6×7 centimeter film negative in my darkroom.

Fred Bodin

Bodin Historic Photo

info@BodinHistoricPhoto.com

82 Main Street

Gloucester, MA 01930

978-283-2524

Ketchopulos Market, Rockport, 1931

Posted on by Sharon
Ketchopulos Market, Rockport, 1931 Alice M. Curtis/ ©Bodin Historic Photo
Working with this photograph has been a lot of fun for me because I’ve met so many people who have fond memories of “Ketchop’s,” as they refer to it. They recall the quality cuts of meat, produce, and particularly the beautiful lantanas hanging from the columns. Notice the Laurel and Hardy movie poster, showing at Town Hall, leaning against the tree on the left. One local woman, a Ketchopulos, pointed out to her friend while in the gallery: “There I am as a little girl!” The Ketchopulos Market closed in the early 1970’s, but the building remains on Broadway.
Printed from the original 5×7 inch film negative in my darkroom.
Fred Bodin
Bodin Historic Photo
82 Main Street
Gloucester, MA 01930

Granite Schooner, Lanes Cove

Posted on by Sharon
Granite Schooner Flora Condon, Lanes Cove, 1909 John I. Coggeshall/©Bodin Historic Photo
The three masted schooner Flora Condon loading Cape Ann granite in Lanes Cove. Granite blocks were wheeled on a gallymander along a ramp and then lowered with block and tackle into the ship’s hold. The schooner was 123 feet long, and was built in 1872 in Belfast, Maine.  She was lost off Cape Cod in December of 1911. John Ingersoll Coggeshall  (1856 – 1927) was an accomplished sea-landscape painter and photographer, for whom Coggeshall Road in Lanesville is named.

Printed from the original 8×10 inch glass negative in my darkroom.
Fred Bodin
Bodin Historic Photo
82 Main Street
Gloucester, MA 01930