Beatrice Tonnesen | Category Archives: Lois

Posted on 2 November, 2012 by Lois Leave a comment |

Handwritten Notes Found on Photos by Tonnesen Sisters

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Two new additions to my Tonnesen collection, both original photos copyrighted by the Tonnesen sisters, feature notations that appear to be the handwriting of Beatrice Tonnesen. I’m showing the photographic images and the notations found on the back of each in the slideshow at right. You can compare the handwriting for yourself, by clicking on the link to “Beatrice Tonnesen’s Restored Scrapbook” near the bottom left of this page, and browsing through the many pages that contain dates and other information written by BT herself.

The first photo shown at right is titled “Have A Taste.” I purchased it from Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs of New Haven, CT. Mr. Wahren states that it is a “gelatin-silver print … perhaps with platinum admixture.” The word “print” in this context refers to a photo made from the original negative. The photos marked “Tonnesen Sisters” originated early in Beatrice Tonnesen’s career, before she used “T-numbers” – a capital “T” followed by a number – to identify her works chronologically. The few numbers I’ve found on other photos by Tonnesen Sisters have not appeared to be chronological. So I am unsure as to what the “114” found on “Have a Taste,” which was copyrighted in 1902, represents. The images marked “Tonnesen Sisters” were produced between approximately 1896 and 1903.

The second image showing the beautiful young girl holding bunnies in her apron, is a hand-colored photo. Brush strokes can be seen in some areas, and the lines on her blouse appear to have been added with a silver-tinged paint. There is no publisher listed, and it does not appear to ever have been part of a published calendar. So, believing it possible that it might have come directly from Tonnesen, I removed it from its frame and discovered the numbers “93” and “4” handwritten on the back. I could be wrong, but these look like Tonnesen’s handwriting to me. She is known to have been in the habit of making several photos for her own use from each negative at its time of creation. My guess would be that the “4” designates this as “Number 4” among those photos.

It’s exciting to find these little glimpses into the long-ago creation of these works of art! A good winter-time project for me might be to remove a few more of my treasures from their frames and see what hidden bits of information I might find.

Posted on 2 November, 2012 by Lois Leave a comment |

The “Other” Photo Illustrator – Tonnesen’s Contemporary, L. Goddard

Nora Hudson Goddard Wolfenden, aka “L Goddard”. (Click for larger version)

[Update: 12/6/2012: The portrait at right is of Leonora Woolfenden. It belonged to the late Betty Lou Salisbury, daughter of Woolfenden’s first cousin, Lucy Bate Rowe Salisbury, whose granddaughter, Elissa Ball Hamlin, found it this week among the family heirlooms. She photographed it and emailed the image to her cousin, Jeff Salisbury, who forwarded it to me. At some point, Betty Lou Salisbury added important identifying information to the back of the portrait. What she wrote further confirms that the woman who began life as Nora Hudson became Leonora Woolfenden, known both for her work at the James Arthur Studio in Detroit and as the woman behind the acclaimed illustration art pseudonym “L. Goddard.” Salisbury’s message, so helpful to today’s collectors, states: “Nora Hudson Goddard Wolfenden; Chosen one of the ten most Beautiful Women in the world – Photographic Convention- Paris 1910 (I think). James Arthur – Photographer – Detroit and ‘friend’.” Many thanks to Elissa Ball Hamlin and Jeff Salisbury for providing this image and its accompanying information!
-Ed.]

The prints signed L. Goddard are probably the best known examples of the technique of photo illustration produced during the Golden Age of Illustration, about 1900-1940. In fact, it was because I was familiar with L. Goddard’s art, reportedly a collaboration between Detroit-based photographer Leonora Woolfenden (1877 – 1955) and Chicago-based artist Rudolph Ingerle (1879 – 1950), that I first began to wonder if some works by artist R. Atkinson Fox (1860 – 1935) might have resulted from a similar collaboration with photographer Beatrice Tonnesen.

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Of course, since then, we’ve learned that, not only did Fox sometimes paint from Tonnesen’s photos, Tonnesen, herself, sometimes painted from them. And so, over the years, I’ve found myself wondering to what extent the same was true of Woolfenden. An advertising blurb found on one 1920’s calendar does indicate that she sometimes painted from her photographs, but it is unclear as to which works she painted or what signature she used. Collectors have been frustrated by a lack of information about how and where she worked, as well as about her personal life. Though Rudolph Ingerle’s life and career as a Chicago- based landscape artist was well-documented, little was known about Woolfenden, except that she worked with the James Arthur Studio in Detroit for decades, becoming instrumental in its continued success following the death of James Arthur in 1912.

Awhile ago, I spied a Tonnesen model in a print by Goddard and it re-awakened my curiosity about Leonora Woolfenden. Did the model commute between Detroit and Chicago, I wondered? Did Woolfenden? So, over the past year, I’ve been trying to track Woolfenden on Ancestry.com and other online archives. To make a very long search into a (relatively) short story, here are the highlights of what I found: (Note the many variations on her first and last names which complicate matters!)

In the 1900 US Census, Lenore Goddard , born November 4, 1877, can be found living with her widowed mother, Mary Jane, age 46, and her brother Walter, age 11, in Detroit. Lenore listed her occupation as “artist.” A 1901 city directory indicates her employer was “James Arthur.” (The spelling of “Lenore” is my best guess after viewing the original record. It might also say “Lenor” or “Lenora.”)

The 1910 US Census finds Lenora married to George R. Wolfenden and living in Detroit. She lists her occupation as “artist” employed by “photographer,” and states she was born in England.
Continue reading →

Posted on 2 October, 2012 by Lois Leave a comment |

Prints Reveal Tonnesen’s Photo Illustration Technique

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With the arrival of the Golden Age of Illustration, the period between roughly 1900 and 1940 when calendar art was at its height of popularity, calendar publishers and the artists they employed scrambled to meet public demand. The technique of photo illustration, blending a photographic subject with a painted background, was used by prominent artists to help them turn out the most desirable images of popular subjects of the day. Photos of beautiful maidens, charming family groups, and exotically-costumed strangers could be blended and finished by the artist’s paintbrush. As both artist and photographer, Beatrice Tonnesen was uniquely poised for success in the field. Not only did she sell her raw photographic images to publishers and artists for their use, she sometimes painted from her own photographs to create the finished product herself.

Recently, I acquired a lovely scene of a young woman in a rural, outdoor setting, titled “Listening to the Birds.” I suspected it came from a photo by Tonnesen because I recognized the woman as a Tonnesen model, circa 1900. But something else looked familiar. It remained a mystery until, packing up my collection for a long-distance move, I spotted the rural scene I’d seen in “Listening to the Birds.” But the print was an indoor scene. And the outdoor rural setting I had recognized was shown as a mural on a parlor wall, in a family-themed print titled “A Difficult Step.” So, somehow, this piece of interior home decor in one image became an entire outdoor setting in another. I’m no photographic expert, so I have no idea how this was accomplished. But I think it’s an amazingly clever device, by an amazingly clever artist. Also of note: It appears that the musician in the “Difficult Step” is the same young woman shown in “Listening to the Birds,” and I think she’s wearing the same dress. The slideshow at right shows both prints.

Posted on 24 June, 2012 by Lois Leave a comment |

New Finds Provide Better Look at Tonnesen’s Indian Maiden

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Back in 2009, an original photo by Beatrice Tonnesen was discovered at the Winneconne Historical Society in Winneconne, WI. The photo showed a beautiful dark-haired woman dressed as an Indian maiden. I recognized the image as one titled “Dawn of Woman” and attributed to illustrator Homer Nelson in a book about vintage calendar illustration. The find at Winnecone proved that Nelson had painted from a photo by Tonnesen. Unfortunately, I did not have Nelson’s print in my collection, so the only way to show the image on this blog was to post the small black and white picture that was shown in the book.

Then, in 2010, I found three photos of a Chicago beauty queen, Mary Simmonds (1895 – 1976), as shown in 1921 in The Chicago Tribune in an online archive. The images were not the best, but they were good enough to cause me to speculate that Simmonds had modeled for the Tonnesen photo that became Nelson’s “Dawn of Woman.” So, I posted them.

And that was that, until recently, when I found and purchased a 1925 calendar with an original color print of “Dawn of Woman.” Then, a few weeks later, while cleaning my hobby room, I discovered that I had an original issue of a 1921 Chicago Tribune showing two very clear images of the same photos of Mary Simmonds! I had bought a stack of 1920’s papers years ago, and I guess I never really looked through them! I’ve now scanned both the original calendar and the original newspaper photos and am thrilled to be able to share them in the slideshow at right.

Seeing these originals has made me even more inclined to believe that Mary Simmonds portrayed this Indian maiden. I also believe she was the model for another beautiful Indian maiden print titled “Whispering Waters,” signed by Beatrice Tonnesen and shown in Album 1 of the Tonnesen Catalogue on this blog. Census information shows that Simmonds married James O’Grady in November of 1921 and remained in Chicago, raising eight sons. This gives me hope that there are some O’grady relatives out there somewhere, with some photos by Tonnesen as mementoes of their ancestor’s career!

For more on “Dawn of Woman,” including an image of Tonnesen’s original black and white photo, and on Mary Simmonds, see our two previous posts: June 8, 2009 “Homer Nelson Print Features Tonnesen’s Indian Maiden,” and June 26, 2010 “Indian Maiden May Have Been Chicago Beauty Queen.”

Posted on 15 May, 2012 by Lois Leave a comment |

’20’s Era “Supermodels” Starred in Tonnesen’s Photos

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It is well documented that Beatrice Tonnesen often featured amateur models in her photographs. As one of the country’s most successful female photographers, she garnered considerable press coverage, and it’s sprinkled with colorful stories of how she sprinted down streets, and on and off streetcars in pursuit of potential models who caught her eye. But she also used professional models in her work. In a May, 2010 post titled “Did Tonnesen Photograph a Ziegfeld Girl?” I identified three prominent professional models who seem to have posed for Tonnesen. The Ziegfeld girl mentioned in the title referred to Chicago-born Eva Grady (1899-1934), also known as Eva Brady. The other two, also Chicago natives, were Mae Burns (1896-1987) and Adelyne Slavik (1897?-1984), both of whom sometimes toured with Grady in runway style shows that were popular throughout the midwest. These shows typically featured twenty or more beautiful models, but Burns, Slavik and Grady were headliners.

Since writing that post, I’ve found additional images and information that further confirms the three as nationally celebrated beauties of their time. Today, I believe, they would qualify as “supermodels.” For example, I recently found an article in the Atlanta Constitution Magazine Section of September 11, 1921 in which Florenz Ziegfeld himself proclaimed Eva Brady one of the ten most beautiful women in the world. The article, titled “Has American Beauty Declined?” cited “Eva Brady, the beautiful Brunette from Chicago who was an artist’s model before she entered the beauty chorus,” as a prime reason to conclude that it had not.

The slideshow, above right, features print items attesting to the celebrity of her fellow beauties Adelyne Slavik and Mae Burns, paired with artwork by Beatrice Tonnesen believed to feature the three women. From left to right:

1. This item in The Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1919, reported that artist’s model Adelyne Slavik accused a prominent phonograph maker of paying her only $3 for an image used in ads in newspapers, billboards and theater programs. She filed suit against the firm for $20,000 – the amount she figured her picture in an ad was worth.

1. This is the ad that prompted Adelyne Slavik’s lawsuit, shown in a 1918 program for Broadway’s Cort Theater.

1. Mae Burns was so popular that a fox-trot was named for her! This copy of the sheet music is held by the Lily Library of Indiana State University.

1. Print titled “Reflections” believed to feature Eva Grady, found on a 1922 calendar, copyrighted by Brown & Bigelow in 1920. The Oshkosh Public Museum owns the original photo by Tonnesen.

1. Print titled “Mother’s Jewels” believed to feature Adelyne Slavik. The props and costumes can be confirmed as belonging to Tonnesen. The family of Virginia Waller (1913-2006), the child model greeting the baby, has an original photo.

1. Untitled print showing woman believed to be Mae Burns, wearing a distinctive dress from Tonnesen’s wardrobe. This appeared on an undated clothing advertisement.

To see other images thought to feature these professional models, see Albums 4, 9 and 15 in the Beatrice Tonnesen Catalogue. Move your cursor over the images to see captions containing information about them, including the names of persons believed to have modeled for each image.

Posted on 27 March, 2012 by Lois Leave a comment |

BT Photos Used in McCormick-International Harvester Ads

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Recently, Lee Grady, Archivist for the McCormick-International Harvester Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society wrote us with information concerning some glass negatives, or glass plates in the historical society's collection. From roughly 1900 through 1930, the company produced a series of calendars and posters promoting a wide range of farm implements. He had discovered that two of the negatives were marked “Tonnesen Sisters” and, though the company often shot its own photos for advertising purposes, there were others that were unmarked and unidentified.

The collection contains about 500,000 photo-based images, about 12,000 of which are in the form of glass plate negatives. So it was impossible to look at everything. But Grady selected about a dozen Tonnesen “maybes” and sent them to us. As of now, after examining the clothing and the props, we have identified only one more, for a total of three, but we will keep searching!

The slideshow at right displays the images of Tonnesen's work found in the McCormick-International Harvester Archive, Wisconsin Historical Society (All rights reserved). Here is what we know about each of these images:

“Pigs in Clover” by the Tonnesen Sisters. The model, often seen in Tonnesen's work ca. 1900, wears a dress that seems to have been one of Tonnesen's favorites. It appears in “The Hay Seed,” shown elsewhere on this blog, probably the most popular of her early photos.
An original photo from this glass negative is owned by the Oshkosh Public Museum. The Tonnesen Sisters signature appears in the hay at bottom left. On the back is written: “International Harvester Calendar Design $75. Dorothy”. The name “Dorothy” is one of several noted on the backs of various photos during that time. I think it may refer to the person who handled the details of the transaction. It appears that IHC bought the negative for $75!
This is the finished, colored 1902 poster that started as the photo described above.
I am virtually certain this image was created by the Tonnesen Sisters, based on the fact that the child is wearing the same shirt and overalls, and probably the same hat, as the child in Image #2. I also think that this child and the child in #2 are one and the same.

These, and thousands of other images, including company and family photos, as well as vintage artwork can be viewed, and in most cases purchased, at Wisconsin Historical Society.