I went through a number of photographs on ArtSTOR, but I kept on thinking of this image. Someone had requested a print of it this week at my place of employment, presumably to hang around the house. There are many reasons it interests me. The first is the medium. The print was produced from a glass plate negative which I find interesting from a nostalgic point of view. Every time I see a glass plate negative, my mind produces an image of what polaroids would be like if they spit out glass instead.
The second, and more interesting part, is the history of the photograph. A small collection of glass plates were found in someone's attic then given to a prominent photographer on the island who eventually donated the collection to the museum I work at. The dates get extremely tricky because they could only guess based on the timeline of Chamberlain's career. When I asked who the "Nation's Hero" was, a coworker said their best guess was Grant after trying to inspect the image with a microscope. I personally doubt Grant because his death does not match well with the Chamberlain's career; I prefer McKinley. Unfortunately, the portrait hanging above the podium is the blurriest portion of the photo so we may never know.
It is also interesting to consider a time when remote memorial services would draw such a large crowd. I remember watching the televised funeral for Richard Nixon in my youth, but I can't imagine doing so en masse. The immensity of the church ceiling seems to swallow the sadness of the moment.
Did you say that this is a remote memorial service?
ReplyDeleteWhere did this picture come from? Is it part of a digital collection?
I didn't know how to describe it, and remote probably isn't the word I'm looking for. This was not the primary location of the memorial, but rather one of many that probably took place throughout the country for whichever U.S. President it actually is.
ReplyDeleteNow that I look back at my description, I realize it wasn't entirely clear. This memorial service took place in Oak Bluffs, Mass., at the Tabernacle, a church that was founded during the camp meeting movement of the mid-19th century. Chamberlain, the photographer, was a frequent visitor to the island of Martha's Vineyard and left a large collection of the glass plate photographs that he created on the island with a friend.
It is now part of the holdings at the Martha's Vineyard Museum where I work, and while the entire collection has been digitized, they haven't yet built the infrastructure to make it publicly accessible.
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