Historic Hood River
Light Leak
Notes
This image isn’t in great shape, but it still has a good story.
First, the subject matter: Laraway’s Glenwood Iowa jewelry store also sold Crown Pianos. He contrived this “Cart Before the Horse” contraption as an advertisement of that fact. This was taken during an county Apple Fair held annually in Glenwood.
Second, this image tells us a little about photography in its earlier days. It looks to me like this negative has suffered a “light leak”. The pre-sensitized glass plates were placed in light-tight enclosures before being placed in the camera. The photographer would then slide out one side of the enclosure so the plate was open to the camera shutter. Releasing the shutter would expose the plate, then the photographer would slide the cover back on the plate holder so it could be removed from the camera and taken to a dark room to develop. As you can imagine it was easy to make mistakes along the way. A slip could allow light to hit the plate from some place other than the camera lens. In this case a flood of light could have damaged the plate because the plate holder cover wasn’t fully inserted back in its slot after the plate was exposed in the camera.
Arlen L Sheldrake
so there is a horse pushing? amazing historic capture. yes, so much for the "good old days" in photography..
L.E.
When I first opened the photo I thought it was an advertisement for Canadian Whiskey.
Since Laraway had experienced Apple Fairs back in Iowa, I thought he may have been a proponent of HR apple fairs. But it appears that apple fairs were up and running before he arrived in the area.
ArthurB
Yes, the horse has a rigid harness so he pushes the cart forward. I’ll bet they weren’t very happy with this whole thing.
kmb
The photo in image #2430 is a much clearer picture of this event, showing a better picture of the horse involved. In the comments to the earlier photo, Arthur you had speculated the piano store might be next to Laraway’s jewelry store. In this image, you are stating that Laraway’s jewelry store sold Crown Pianos. Was there additional research involved that allowed you to come to this conclusion?
ArthurB
Yes, kmb, you might even be able to make out the label on the sign that says "W.F. Laraway Jewelry"
Stever
Why it looks like the Circus came to town… flying trapeze and all !! Whoop Whoop !
…….. " Step right up Ladies & Gentlemen, Girls & Boys !! " ……