Photo and Glass Negative "On the Farm. Pure and Strait." [Sic]

Item Details

Photo and Glass Negative "On the Farm. Pure and Strait." [Sic]

Lot includes 6.5 x 8.5 glass plate negative plus 6 x 8.5-inch print mounted on 7.25 x 10-inch original board. Negative has silvering and quite a few fingerprints (not ours--we always wear gloves) on the emulsion side. Verso could use a cleaning, many small specs.  Print is missing one corner of board not affecting print. Sepia tone. Identified on verso, "Henry W. Phillips, father of Truxton N. "On the Farm. Pure and strait." [Sic]". Also has backstamp, "T.N. Phillips. View Artist. Farmington, ILL."  Good condition.

Image of older man with grandchild on lap squirting milk straight into a cat's mouth. Both the image and negative have a scalloped circular outline--possibly a photo of a photo? Regardless, a candid, later 19th century image from rural Illinois.

Truxton N. Phillips was born in Oswego County, New York, but spend most of his life in Farmington, Illinois, where he made his living as a carriage-maker, but also did photography work on the side. He appears on the NSA U.S. Stereo Photographers list (where his first name is erroneously given as "Theron") as active in the 1880s and 1890s, with the note "views rare but often unusual."