All photos are from the authors collection
Photo collecting is like another form of archaeology, in that some photos have their own type of cuneiform etched into them by the Photographic Artists who created them. If we are lucky, some of these artifacts have the names of the subjects in the photo written on the back. If we're really lucky, additional information could also appears on the back of the photo if another person, such as a relative took some due diligence to record more data on the photo. Though in most cases the antique photos are as blank as the face of the sphinx in Egypt, and all we are left with is the faces of the person(s), who sat for the picture. But luckily many cabinet cards bare the names, logos and artworks of the photographers and the companies who employed them embossed on the front of each photo, and many of them are from the early days of the frontier (1860's-1890s) Photographers. Author, Carl Mautz, captured the names and the essence of the frontier "Shadow Catchers" in his book, "Biographies of Western Photographers". One of the Photographers listed was Charles M. Flanders, who was active in Corydon Iowa from 1889-1892. This towns name conjures up images of outlaws because eighteen years prior in 1871, the famed outlaw Jesse James had robbed the Ocobock Bank in Corydon, as I looked at the pictures, I wonder if any of the people in the in the photos below were old enough to remember when that happened? But alas... We may never know.
CM Flanders:
Name appears in the book "Biographies of Western Photographer", by Carl Mautz (Pg# 225)
Flanders, Charles M.
Flanders had a studio in Glenwood, Mills County, in the 1890s. NSA reports a single view seen of a group of women posed by piano in studio. Burgess lists Humeston (1887–1892), Corydon (1889–1892), and Glenwood (1895–1897)
ref IOWA STEREOGRAPHS
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