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Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
Vintage photos of:
New York circa 1915. "Eleanor Davies -- Marion Gibney -- Emalena Sizer -- Caryl Hackstaff -- Elizabeth Kirlin -- Laura Parsons -- Sophie Young -- Elise Rice (Mrs. Winfield Linn)." 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size.
These young ladies didn't rate the "Pretty Girls" tag? It's not their fault they're so moldy.
[Good point. Fixed! - Dave]
By way of comparison, the LOC negatives include three individual head shots from this same group portrait, in much better condition than the overall view: The Misses Kirlin and Parsons, and Mrs. Linn.
Despite the mold lines (because of the mold lines? No.), this is by far the most beautiful group of women ever on Shorpy, by today's standards. I'm not out on a limb here. I'm in on a limb. Way in.
Does anyone know why the mold lines follow facial features in some cases? That is strange and spooky.
[Mold feeds on photographic emulsion, an organic gelatin compound. The best feeding ground is where the emulsion is thickest, which on a photographic negative are the densest, darkest areas, such as faces. - tterrace]
yet they mold just like commoners.
These young society women are dressed in their costumes as the Fairy Queen's courtiers in an elaborate amateur musical comedy, "Old King Cole," a "melange of sprightly nonsense" performed in the Plaza Hotel ballroom on April 15, 1915, and organized by Miss Spence's School Society for the benefit of a class of tubercular crippled children. The play, followed by dinner and dancing, was repeated on the evenings of April 16 and 17. A detailed description of the production and its participants was reported in the New York Times.
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