Figure 1 – Broadway Photograph by Napoleon Sarony c. 1870 of actress Grace Rawlinson. In the public domain in the United States because of its age.

There is a story that was going around the internet about four years ago that photographer, Napoleon Sarony, photographed the world’s first time traveler. The story goes that time travel was (is?) (will be?) invented in 2025. That’s one of the difficulties with time travel. It defies all natural conventions of verb conjugation. I will refer the interested reader to the so-called “Hopi Time Controversy.” Returning to the story, it is said that in 2025 a women named Alexandria Alexis traveled to 1898 in New York City. According to supposed contemporary accounts, that in 1898, she appeared as if out of nowhere and took New York society by storm. Her claim to being from the future was variously received. Some thought her insane; others were skeptical. All was a moot point since on New Year’s Eve 1899 she disappeared without a trace.

Figure 1 is meant to be a portrait of her taken by of all portraitists Napoleon Sarony. And it is there, for readers of yesterday’s blog, that it all unravels.  We see the address and immediately realize that Sarony had long since left the premises of 680 Broadway by 1898. In fact, he had died two years earlier. Although that is not an insurmountable obstacle when it comes to time travel. The portrait was taken between 1866 and 1871. It is one of Sarony’s celebrity “Broadway” photographs and is, in fact, as the caption indicates, of English actress Grace Rawlinson.

In fairness, the story of Alexis Alexander is similar to the famous “War of the Worlds” hysteria. It was originally posted on Facebook by “The Victorian Academy of Magick,” as an advertisement of sorts for and upcoming “steampunk” novel.

I have done some research on Miss Rawlinson, and there is in fact precious little to be found. I do suspect that with some due diligence there is much more out there. But the paucity of information makes you wonder. It certainly explains the fleeting nature of celebrity and the need to keep yourself, then and now, constantly in the “lime light.” Otherwise people soon forget you.

So we are left with only the usual time travel afforded by old photographs. Miss (if she was from the Victorian era) or Ms. (if she is from 2025) Rawlinson’s beauty has outlived her – a gift of immortality given her by Mr. Sarony.

The debunking of this story is a bit disappointing. But it is a fallacy of time travel that it conveys immortality. To become like Billy Pilgrim “unstuck in time” is really only to travel back and forth revisiting moments of your own life. There is perhaps a satisfaction in seeing the past and knowing the future. But once you know everything, there is nothing new to be done. The “normal” person experiences and moves irrevocably forward through life’s adventure. The time traveler has seen it all before, even his own death, and treats it all with a yawn.

Figure 1 – Napoleon Sarony portrait of a young girl, c1870.

I recently acquired the Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896) portrait of Figure 1. There are some very charming features of this picture, the white dress and tights, the bow in the girl’s hair, and her delicate features. The high-button shoes are wonderful as is the large white sash. But best of all is the expression on the child’s face and the way she looks wistfully or angrily away and down. Is that a pout? Perhaps it was a matter of ennui. Was the initial excitement of a day with her mother on bustling Broadway faded by the reality of having to sit for Mr. Sarony. Was there perhaps a promised treat if she behaved “appropriately?” This is the wonder and magic of such photographs. We don’t really know the story, but that doesn’t stop our imagination from filling in the gaps and creating a plausible theory.

Many of these antique albumen prints suffer from their age. There are fixer stains usually brownish yellow dirt and water spots that need to be removed digitally, And this image took a lot of work. Fortunately the majority of the problems were in the borders and on the girl’s dress; so could be removed without causing loss to the image. Old albumens are meant to have a slightly violet or reddish brown tone and this one ran to the magenta. I first removed the stains in color, where I could be guided by the color itself. Then I converted first to black and wife for dodging and burning and second Finally I switched back to RGB and added the tone. I chose a tone that is true to what the artist sought, true to the antiquity of the image, as opposed to what I myself like.

The photograph is pretty easy to date. On the back Sarony Studios is listed as being at 680 Broadway. It opened in 1866 and then moved to 37 Union Square in 1871. So the portrait was taken between 1866 and 1871.

I return to the image and notice the wrinkles in the young lady’s tights. Above all there is a sense of mischief about her. She is very reminiscent of Alice from Alice in Wonderland, or of Alice Liddell herself, and if she swallowed a bitter pill on that particular day then we have to remember what Alice herself taught us,

“If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’ it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.”

  Lewis Carroll

Figure 1 – Dante and Virgil encounter Satan in L’Inferno, 1911. From the Wikipedia and in the public domain in the United States because of its age.

As a continuation of our discussion of the early use of double exposures as “special effects,” I’d like to consider the early full length Italian silent film L’Inferno, 1911,  loosely adapted from Dante Alighieri‘s The Divine Comedy. While some sources credit L’Inferno as being the first full length film that distinction appears to belong to the 1906 Australian film The Story of the Kelly Gang. Perhaps the more revealing distinction for L’Inferno lies in the fact that many still credit it as being the greatest adaption to the big screen of Dante’s magnum opus.  Here is a link to the full 1:10 film.

The film’s depictions of Hell closely followed the classic engravings of Gustave Doré. It was directed by Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De Liguoro, and starred Salvatore Papa, Arturo Pirovano, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Augusto Milla.

The film employed dramatic multiexposure effects to chronicle the journey of the author led by the poet Virgil through the levels of hell, where different classes of sins are appropriately punished. Figure 1 shows Dante and Virgil in a double exposure in the presence of the devil himself, and Figure 2 is a video clip showing tormenting demons.

Many people, today sigh when they see that a film is in black and white, let alone without sound. There is the great press to “destroy” these films by inappropriate colorization. For me they are very special, and I enjoy watching them, always amazed at their ability to tell wonderful stories. If you think about it, what could be a better medium for L’inferno than the cool, dark silent movie theater, with the film in other worldly black and white, and underscored with dramatic music. We truly gasp mesmerized until we are finally permitted to ascend again to see the stars.

Figure 2 – Tormenting demons from L’Inferno 1911. In the prublic in the United States because of its age.

Figure 1 – The first exposure table for daguereotypists 1844, from the George Eastman house.

How many of us have had the experience of sitting in the dentist’s chair while the dentist injects Novacaine into your gum trying desperately not to swallow while the needle is inside your flesh. Those seconds seem like forever. With this background I have looked ever so sympathetically at old daguereotypes imagining the sitters enduring what I assumed where seconds of exposure. Well apparently not, and for me the facts are even more profound. I came across the table of Figure 1 this morning of “the first exposure table.” It is from the George Eastman House and has its origin in tables first published by C. F. Albanus in 1844 – a practical guide for daguereotypists.

Under the absolute best conditions you had to sit absolutely still for six or seven minutes and in the worst, grueling, case scenario as much as an hour! These early sitters were truly courageous.

Figure 1 – William Morrison (1857-1927) portrait of Isabelle Coe as Niobe (circa 1892) from the Wikipedia and in the public domain in the US because of its age.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about Henry Van der Weyde double exposure portrait of Richard Mansfield as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I’d like to share today the contemporary portrait by William McKenzie Morrison (1857-1927) of actress Isabelle Coe as Niobe in the farce by that name. Here too, the double exposure  serves dramatic effect, but one that requires explanation.

Niobe is the mythical  Queen of Thebes who boasts to the goddess Leto about her fourteen beautiful children, seven daughters and seven sons. Leto has only two children, Atemis and Apollo. In her anger Leto has Artemis kill the seven daughters of Niobe and Apollo the seven sons. Niobe flees to  Mount Sipylus, where she herself is turned to stone, but continues to weep unceasingly.

In the farce, a Victorian-era art collector purchases a statue of Niobe, or so he thinks. The statue is, in fact,  the petrified Queen herself, who returns to life after being accidentally jolted with household electricity. Frankenstein again! So here in the photograph Morrison portrays Coe as both Niobe’s statue and reanimated form. Note that the “living form” is just slightly bigger than the “statue form.” As a result even though the “living form” is behind it emanates as a form emergent. That little trick is what I think make the image work.

The story of Niobe explains the quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: