“No. 40. White Mountain Views. Tip Top House. F. B. Gage, Photo. Published by E. Anthony, N. Y.” 1859.
“Tip-Top House, Mount Washington, Sept, 1959. We were up early and proceeded to pack our chemicals, camera, and fixtures in two compact bundles, to be taken along with us. At nine o’clock we were mounted on Canadian ponies, each having a bundle weighing about twenty-five pounds before us in the saddle, where we held it during the journey up the mountain. Then, with a company of thirty-four others, we struck off into the bridle path. Nine miles of such horseback riding as that was no very pleasurable job while encumbered with glass ware, as we were. Up, up, through woods and clouds, winding around and climbing the rocks, on the verge of chasms and ravines, we held our way for four hours, until we arrived at the summit. The day was beautifully warm, the mountain was enveloped in clouds as we ascended, and occasionally we got glimpses of the glorious valleys below, as the clouds for a few moments opened and closed again. There was no vegetation for the last four miles; the only thing to be seen was the granite rock in fragments of all sizes, from the pebble stone up to those weighing thousands of tons! How is it possible for horses to climb over these rocks, hurled together in the wildest disorder, is more than I can comprehend; yet they do it, and seldom injure themselves or their riders.
Arrived at the Tip-Top House, we proceeded to occupy apartments previously engaged there. After dinner we took out the camera to take a view of the rude stone-house and its granite surroundings. A plate was sensitized and exposed with an unsatisfactory result; another, and then another followed with the same result. We were thunderstruck and completely puzzled, that our bath and collodion — the same which worked so splendidly only the day before – should now refuse to produce even an indifferent negative. But even the skies would not develop, by any device, and there was a want of intensity that betokened trouble ahead…. On the next morning our bath was again in working order, but a terrific storm had set in, so that we could not use it. During the latter part of the night we had been enveloped in a thunder-cloud, the lightning playing beneath us and the thunder rumbling at our feet. The cloud continued to envelop us all day, the atmosphere hourly growing colder. The next morning the moisture in the cloud had congealed on the rocks of the summit until they were white with ice.…Thus for three days the storm raged unabated. On the evening of the third day, just at sunset, the cloud disappeared, and our eyes beheld the great panorama of mountain, lake, and river. The ice on the summit, in many places, was fully eighteen inches thick, glaring white and desolate-looking in the sun, while the valleys below were smiling in their summer greenness. The next morning the sun rose clear, and the air was calm and still. Ninety miles away we saw the ocean with the naked eye. Myriads of vessels could be seen with the glass dotting its surface. Mountains upon mountains extended upon the other hand, villages, lakes, and rivers, the whole range of the Green Mountains, making a circumference of more than six hundred miles. There was just enough cloud and just enough sunlight to make it one of the most glorious visions that eyes ever beheld. Our host of the Tip-Top House assured us that it was the finest view of the season, and we felt well repaid for our imprisonment. We were early at work, but found it too icy to take views with comfort until nearly noon, when the party of travellers from the Glen House had arrived. We secured a capital negative of that party around the Tip-Top House. The party from the Crawford House arriving soon after, we secured two other negatives equally good. The ice had melted just enough to produce a fine effect in the pictures, and we thought it a fortunate addition…. Having secured all the negatives that we could, we packed up our apparatus and descended the mountain. When we reached the Crawford House—where we now are—we found ourselves very tired….” Gage, F. B. “Photography on Wheels. No. 2 (Concluded.)” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL (Dec. 15, 1859): 241-243.
FRANKLIN BENJAMIN GAGE. (1824–1874) (IN PROGRESS)
Franklin Benjamin Gage is one of those unusual individuals who pop up throughout photographic history and help keep the field interesting – for me at least.
Gage, son of Royal Gage and Anna Tyler Gage, was born in East St. Johnsbury on July 29, 1824. He grew up, lived, and worked through the 1850s through 1870s, in the town of St. Johnsbury in Northeastern Vermont, far away from the power centers of New York or Boston or Philadelphia. Yet during his lifetime he gained a reputation as an acknowledged expert on photographic processes, and — as described in his obituary — “…Mr. Gage enjoyed a good reputation as an artist, and was one of the most industrious experimentalists in the business. To him the fraternity owes much of the progress that has been made in the various photographic processes….” “…He was a man of more than ordinary genius, and somewhat eccentric withal, was always inventing and trying new processes. It is said he “hardly ever finished two sets of pictures by the same process.”…”
Another editor’s description of Gage during one of his rare trips to New York City helps account for the “somewhat eccentric withal” comment. “Imagine a man of about thirty-five years of age or thereabouts, dressed in a suit of coarse New England black cloth, with a low-crowned black felt hat, light complexion, blue eyes, a whitey-brown beard like that formerly worn by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, reaching down to his waist, a rather closely trimmed mustache, long hair, hands stained all over with nitrate of silver solution and black as the ace of spades, Heavy cow-hide boots with soles an inch thick, and you have some idea of the personel of Mr. Gage. In his manner he is quite reserved, talks very little, and that in the genuine dialect of a Vermont Yankee, occupying himself at the same time with combing his flowing beard with his fingers, in the same manner as you have seen a man running his digits through the mane of a horse…” Gage apparently was very fond of his beard, which was kept unusually long even for rural Vermont; as he mentioned it more than once in his various writings, and even identifying some of his early poems by signing them “By the Man with the Flowing Beard.”
At this point we do not know a great deal about Gage’s early life or career. Its stated that Gage learned daguerreotyping when he was about twenty-two years old, which would have been about 1848, and in 1850 he sailed from New York City to Savannah, Georgia for some unknown purpose, (Perhaps he was working as a travelling daguerreotypist, or assisting in a studio there?) and in 1852 he started a photograph business in St. Johnsbury, where he continued until his death twenty-four years later. There is a note in 1862 that Gage was related (A cousin) to a “distinguished literary lady in Boston.” That’s about all that’s known at Gage’s early life at this time. Some of these dates do not coincide with those in his published obituary, which have some inaccuracies. In 1866 Gates states he had had his first gallery for fourteen years, which would mean that he opened it in 1852. Advertising in the local paper also starts in 1852. Other inconsistencies are also present in later materials published on Gates. Further research could clear up some of the questions.
Before Gates opened his studio apparently anyone wishing to obtain a daguerreotype portrait in St. Johnsbury had to travel to Boston, (Several of the Boston galleries –Plumbe, Chase, Southworth & Hawes, J. A. Whipple and others advertised in the St. Johnsbury newspaper throughout the 1840’s and early 1850’s.) or wait for the W. D. McPherson’s travelling Daguerreotype Saloon to pull into town. In fact both the Boston galleries of J. A. Whipple and Masury & Silsbee had advertisements on the same page of the Sept. 25, 1852 issue of the Caledonian newspaper where Gage published his first advertisement for his new studio.
Once Gage established his gallery, between portrait settings and photographic trips to make landscape views for stereographs, he experimented endlessly to improve the varied photographic processes of his era; and beginning in the latter 1850s, he submitted the results of his experiments in clear, well-written articles to the photographic journals of his day; thus sharing the fruits of his discoveries with the profession at large. This generosity, if not completely unusual, was at least not the common practice in a competitive business whose practitioners tended to hoard its professional secrets to themselves.
Between May 1857 and mid-1860 Humphrey’s published more than forty of Gage’s articles. Then Gage apparently stopped submitting articles to Humphrey’s in 1860, and the reasons for this are not clear. But the editor of Humphrey’s Journal was an active supporter of the various attempts to have James A. Cutting’s patent overturned. To oversimplify this complex issue, Cutting had patented a part of the process critical to anyone making ambrotypes, – and, as ambrotypes were the hot new photographic process at the time, according to Cutting (And for a while at least, the Law.) nearly every commercial photographer in the country making portraits were supposed to pay a fee to Mr. Cutting for the privilege. Many felt that Cutting patented something that was already common practice and so many considered the patent unjust and possibly illegal; and it was considered to be hamstringing professional photographers around the country. Gage, who had paid for right to use of Cutting’s patent in Vermont, and to be the regional agent for Cutting, wrote letters to Humphrey’s supporting the patent. Beyond the fiscal issue, Gage might also have been supporting the idea of firm patents, as he had taken several patents out himself. In any case, the flurry of articles around this contentious issue were the last that Gage published in Humphrey’s. (On the other hand, Humphrey sold his Journal to Joseph H. Ladd in 1859, who would take over it’s editorship until 1862, when he hired John Towler as the new editor, a move that brought a new credibility to the journal. It is possible that Ladd, and then Towler simply went to other individuals for their articles. Certainly a wave of new, well-educated amateur photographers began writing for Humphrey’s in the early 1860s.) Gage did not publish any articles again until several new photographic journals, such as Philadelphia Photographer and Anthony’s Photographic Bulletin, began to publish in the late 1860s and early 1870s, and thus offer Gage new venues for his articles. But by then Gage was very ill, and only able to publish a few articles in these later journals.
Gage married Lauretta H. Huntley, also from East St. Johnsbury, in 1853 and between 1856 and 1867 they had three daughters –Beatrice, Genevieve, and Jesse, and a son, Elbert Ellsworth. (The daughter’s names may reflect Gage’s literary interests.) Gage wrote poetry, some of it puckishly humorous doggerel, some more serious and infused with that preoccupation with death and the afterlife which was such a staple of the literature of the period – and with Gage’s later poetry. Gage would write and publish poems advertising the virtues of his gallery and the value of obtaining portraits from him. (Marcus A. Root, the well-known photographer and author from Philadelphia and New York also loved to publish his poems in his advertisements in the New York newspapers; and there was even a brief fashion for advertising poetry that forced Brady, Gurney, and the other big Broadway galleries to hire writers to compose jingles or poems for their advertisements.) But the local St. Johnsbury newspaper also published Gage’s other poems, and later, short stories, as literature. In 1874 the Youth’s Companion magazine, published in Boston, published seven of Gage’s short stories, and published four more posthumously.
Gage seems to have been active in his local community. His exhibition of photographs were considered a highlight at the Caledonia County Fair each year, and the occasional “exhibitions” that he held in his gallery attracted viewers. The newspaper published his poems and short stories, and promoted his occasional poetry readings. He was a freemason, and in the 1870s elected an officer in the local Templar organization. This, along with his writings, indicates that he was religious, and probably involved in the social and cultural world of his church. He was active in the local Temperance Society. There are indications that Gage supported anti-slavery policies before the Civil War, and that he supported the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln during the war. During the 1860’s Gage’s support of the war strengthened as it progressed and as the toll of wounded and dead soldiers from Vermont brought home the realities of that distant conflict. He acquired and sold cartes-de-visite of Abraham Lincoln and of “The Little Drummer Boy,” Willie Johnson, (A 14 year old Vermont volunteer who received the second Medal of Honor ever awarded.) and portraits of other Vermont military figures. He photographed and distributed prints of a sarcastic cartoon published in Harper’s Weekly pillorying a controversial attempt to “compromise with the South.” He held at least one poetry reading and donated the proceeds to the war charities, and in 1864 he donated $20, (a respectable sum for the time and place) to the local Ladies Soldiers Aid Society. These seem like small acts, but indicate both the mood of a culture and the cast of an individual temperament. Occasionally, usually around Christmas, he would run an advertisement offering to trade pictures for firewood – an act both practical and generous – making it possible for cash-poor farmers to obtain portraits of their families.
By 1856 Gage advertised that his was the largest photographic establishment in the state of Vermont; at first offering daguerreotypes and then adding all the modern processes and styles as they became available – ambrotypes, mezzotypes, ebonytypes, cartes-de-visite, cabinet portraits, and so on, as well as displaying and selling his stereo views. Like many galleries at the time he occasionally sold stereos or cartes-de-visite by other photographers in addition to his own. In 1857 Gage entered a brief business partnership with F. Rowell, and the team of Gage & Rowell made cheap ambrotype portraits in the studio; but then, under contract with Edward Anthony, they began taking stereo views in Vermont and in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The partnership was dissolved in February 1858 and Rowell, the junior partner, set up his own studio in Lebanon, NH. Gage quickly stopped making the cut-priced ambrotypes and tried to reestablish reasonably fair higher prices for his portraits. This policy, much debated in the photographic community, was seen to be a mark of professional responsibility. Gage proudly specialized in “life sized” portraits, which were hand-colored – again considered the mark of the more-skilled portrait studios. Gage never took another partner, but throughout the latter 1860’s, and suffering from illness, he advertised several times (apparently fruitlessly) for an apprentice or an assistant, or, finally, even for a clerk to help in the gallery.
With a score or more technical articles already published in the professional journals, in 1859 Gage published a sixty page manual, Theoretical and practical photography on glass and paper: with positive rules for obtaining intense negatives with certainty, which was well regarded and frequently used in America.
“Fairbanks Scales Factory. St. Johnsbury.” ca. 1868.
So how, in rural Vermont, did Gage learn the skills to become an expert practical chemist and experimental scientist? In the 1830s Thaddeus Fairbanks, a resident of St. Johnsbury, invented the platform weighing scale and then built a factory which manufactured and sold these scales. By mid century the town had become a prosperous center of manufacturing, and as it was located on the new railroad that linked Boston to Montreal, sales went world-wide. In 1842 the Fairbanks family had returned some of its wealth to the town by establishing the St. Johnsbury Academy, an excellent private school which then and still now provides a free education to any St. Johnsbury resident. It is quite possible that Gage obtained a fine education from the Academy, and that may be where he learned the rudiments of chemistry and the methodology to practice chemical experiments. Even if Gage didn’t attend the Academy, St. Johnsbury was a wealthy town, with an educated, skilled, and informed citizenry, and Gage would have had many opportunities to learn what he needed in that climate.
“St. Johnsbury.” ca. 1868.
St Johnsbury was also a gateway town into the White Hills region of New England, which had become a summer tourist destination for wealthy and educated city dwellers from Boston and New York and along the eastern seaboard. So there was always a layering of more open and cultured ways of thinking about the world available to the inhabitants of St. Johnsbury than was normally available in a rural community. In 1871 the Fairbanks family also founded the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, an early response to the public library movement then developing in the United States. The Athenaeum opened with 9,000 volumes, and, two years later a small but significant art gallery was added, which housed works of art by American painters of the Hudson River School and others. So St. Johnsbury Vt. was a prosperous and active center and supported a level of cultural institutions and activity that was far larger than could be found in the average American community at the time.
“Library. St. Johnsbury.” ca. 1871.
Gage began to make stereo views of the White Hills scenery during the second half of the 1850s, on a contract with Edward Anthony, a publisher and distributer of this newly fashionable form of visual entertainment and education. These views put him amoung the earliest of the fast-developing profession of American stereo views makers. (As late as June 1860, the editor of Humphrey’s Journal could state: “We wish operators generally would take more interest in the making of stereoscopic pictures. There is hardly a locality in the country that does not afford scenes of interest for the operator, and of which he could not take pictures that would command a ready and remunerating sale.”) A careful and detailed history of the development of landscape photography in the Eastern United States has yet to be written; but if and when it is, certainly the role of the E. & H. T. Anthony Company will play a large role in that development, and just as certain, the very early work of Franklin Benjamin Gage will have a featured position in that history as well.
Fortunately, Gage published several informative narratives of some of his travelling experiences in Humphrey’s Journal, and a predominant feature of these stories is the often extraordinary efforts that he had to take in order to overcome the difficulties encountered while photographing outdoors with the complicated and refractory wet-collodion process, so that he could bring the stereo project to a successful conclusion. His essays are intelligent and informed, laced with occasional notes of humor, and they provide valuable insights into the shifts and shufflings, the actions and activities that a small-time professional photographer performed to survive while working during the period of enormous and rapid change in mid-century America. However he did not narrate one event that occurred at the beginning of his first photographic trip; where, through a series of ridiculous misunderstandings or even through malice, a hotel owner sent Gage’s bags full of photographic chemicals back by the railroad to St. Johnsbury as Gage was out scouting locations. But this incident indicates that the practice of outdoor photography or stereo view making was still very uncommon at the time, as Gage had identified himself and his activities to the hotel owner, who apparently still misunderstood what he was doing.
During large parts of 1859 and early 1860 Gage closed his portrait studio as he photographed landscape views in the White Mountains and elsewhere. At one point, after a long absence, he announced reopening the gallery in June and then six weeks later in July, wryly advertising “F. B. Gage has been seized with a fit of covetousness and is about to start for the Gold Regions, leaving the St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery closed for further notice…” This notice, slyly reflecting upon the craze of the California Gold Rush of 1849, is actually referring to a supposed gold strike in Plymouth, Vt., to which Gage went to take stereo views. (Several of these views are in the photograph collections of the New York Public Library.).
In 1865 an enigmatic note in the Philadelphia Photographer magazine mentioned that Gage had stopped taking stereo views during the Civil War. “A letter from F. B. Gage of St. Johnsbury, VT, including stereos of eighteen landscapes taken five years ago, before “the rebellion drove me out of view taking into portraiture.” I have no idea why he would stop taking views in Vermont during the Civil War, unless the war damaged some segments of the stereo view market as interest shifted to the part of the country where the war was being fought. If the note implies that Gage lost his income from views, this in turn implies that some of his pre-war income had come from tourists buying views at his gallery and that the war severely impacted tourism in the Northeast. Or, what might seem even more unlikely, he felt that his unusual photographic wagon and apparatus would make others think he was a spy of some kind. One other, more practical reason he may have stopped for a while was his continued debilitating illnesses and the physical difficulties involved in photographing outdoors with the wet-collodion process.
Gage held a brief monopoly in the stereo market in his community – when he began in 1858 or 59 there are several indications that editors had to explain exactly what stereos actually were to their readers, and Gage could offer showings of his and other’s views in his gallery as an inducement to attract interest and customers. But as the craze for stereos swept the country that monopoly or priority very quickly eroded and Gage was soon facing increasing competition. The first competition was not from other photographers, but came from the local Goods Emporium, C. C. Child’s which was the equivalent of the Big Box Store in his day, which sold everything from eyeglasses and watches, books and toys, to china and silverware. C. C. Childs was soon importing and selling stereo views. The store even acquired a permanent table-top stereo viewer that held dozens of stereos on a rotating wire frame that the viewer cranked around to see the next card, which it installed as a permanent attraction to attract customers. The store could undercut Gage on price and offer a wider variety of stereos from other photographers than Gage could inventory on his more limited budget. This same pattern of wholesalers driving out individual stereo photographers and eventually depressing the market happened throughout the country through the 1860s. Another consequence of this flooding the market was that the “special” nature or novelty attraction of Gage’s views –and of his professional accomplishments– was inadvertently diminished as well.
“19. St. Johnsbury, Vt. Looking S. W.” ca. 1871.
Then, after the unexplained break in taking views during the war, a break which lasted for almost a decade, Gage resumed view making in the late 1860s. But now he was facing much more competition from fellow photographers, who had began to move into territory first explored by Gage. Formidable competition arrived in the 1870s, as Benjamin Kilburn, from Littleton, NH, began making views in the neighborhood of St. Johnsbury. In 1870 D. A. Clifford, a long-time veteran photographer, actually moved from the East Coast into a studio above the Caledonian offices, where he was offering views of Mount Washington, one site of Gage’s early triumphs. Many other local photographers had colonized Gage’s former territory as well. In one of Gage’s early narratives he convincingly describes the almost untouched wildness of the Flume Pool in New Hampshire. During the next two decades very stereo view maker who could get to this noted attraction, from John P. Soule to the Kilburn Brothers, photographed it; and one local photographer named H. S. Fifield, from nearby New Hampton, NH, even set up a portable studio there for three months of each year to photograph tourists at the site and to sell his views. By 1875 other local photographers, such as J. N. Webster, of Barton, were offering “Vermont Views” as well.
In 1866 Gage expanded his gallery. “After fourteen years’ successful practice in my old gallery, I have just moved into a new one. I occupy one entire floor, forty-two by seventy-two feet. My skylight-room is twenty-eight feet square. I can operate on three sides of the light, east, south, and west, and I get a fine light at all hours, rain or shine.” And Gage again began experimenting there incessantly with processes as he continued to refine and expand his technical skills. Incidentally, during a severe thunderstorm in July 1868 Gage’s sky-light room was struck by a bolt of lightning, scattering bricks from a chimney, knocking down the stove pipes, tearing up the floor, throwing large splinters through the ceiling, etc., before running through the sink’s plumbing pipes to the ground in the basement. Gage had literally been standing by the sink at the exact spot of the strike a minute before the bolt hit, but had crossed the room to close a window and thus escaped being hurt or killed.
In the 1860s Gage took out a series of patents. In 1867 he obtained two United States patents – No. 66,581 “Process for making positive and negatives photographs in the Camera, on July 9, 1867 and No. 72, 627 “Improvements in photographic cameras,” on Dec. 24, 1867 and filed an intent to patent in Great Britain that same year. Then in July, 1869, he patented a process for using diffused light in the camera for the purpose of giving detail “…so as to render visible slight gradations of shade, both in the light and dark parts of the picture, and to unite softness and strength,” in the United States, Great Britain, and France. Unfortunately, nothing really developed out of these patents to Gage’s benefit.
Gage begun to take stereo “views about town” again in 1868, and by 1869 he was using a dry plate process to do so– which should have simplified his practice a great deal from the old wet-collodian system. In 1870 he made a view of Black River Falls in Springfield, VT, the site of the “original manufactory of the United States Piano Co.,” which had a large shop on Broadway in New York City. The Piano Co. then ordered 1800 copies, “which they will use this year to advertise their pianos.” I suspect this commission was a godsend for Gage.
There are indications that Gage suffered from bouts of ill health throughout his entire life, but it never seemed to keep him from pursuing his practice to the fullest extent of his abilities. However, in December 1870, “owing to increasing ill health” he offered to sell his gallery immediately. But there doesn’t seem to have been any takers and he kept the gallery running for another four years, until his death on the 23d of August, 1874.
The next year a George H. Hastings, advertising that he had spent the winter training in a gallery in Boston, set up a gallery “…in the old quarters, formerly occupied by F. B. Gage….”
FRANKLIN BENJAMIN GAGE. (1824–1874) (BIBLIOGRAPHY IN PROGRESS)
ON-LINE RESOURCES
Stereoview cards by F. B. Gage are in several public collections: the New York Public Library, the Bailey-Howe Library at the University of Vermont, the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, (not available on-line) and the St. Johnsbury History and Heritage Center, St. Johnsbury, Vt. (Not available on-line.)
The NYPL items are excellently catalogued and presented on line.
“NYPL Digital Gallery. Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views. > United States. > States > Vermont. > Hills and Dales of New England / F. B. Gage.” www.digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cmf?parent_id=626268
[23 stereo views with the Anthony series title “Hills and Dales of New England” on printed labels attached to the verso of stereocards. This seems to me to be a later series issued by Anthony in the late 1860s – 1870s, which may have included some of Gage’s earlier images as well as later photographs which he took after the war. However, this series should not be confused with Anthony’s previously issued “White Mountain Views.” series of Gage’s photographs taken in 1859.
Some stereos in several public collections in Vermont are also available on-line, through the University of Vermont’s “Landscape Change Program” website, posted by the Geology Department at the University of Vermont. This site is focused on the subject matter of the photographic views rather than their photographic history; and the images are cataloged in a more fragmentary and incomplete manner. Several stereos by Gage are identified, but others by Gage in their collections are not properly identified. Nevertheless, one finds here that Gage made several stereoviews depicting the 3rd Regiment and Company G of the Vermont forces of the Union Army troops leaving for the war from St. Johnsbury on July 20th 1861.
Internet searches may also bring forth additional Gage items. An internet search presented a charming c-d-v portrait of a mother and daughter, and another site produced an excellent group portrait of a family, each image displaying Gage’s excellent mastery of his craft of photographic portraiture. These references, however, are often both fleeting and fugitive. Slightly more stable internet references are:
“Gage, Franklin B.” Craig’s Daguerreian Registry: The Acknowledged Resource on American Photographers 1839 — 1860. www.craigcamera.com/dag/ [Birth and death dates, brief biography.]
Pearl, Peggy. “F. B. Gage, Dec. 21, 2011,” St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center Newsletter www.sthhistory.org/wordpress/?page_id=77
“Stereoviews of Franklin B. Gage. White Mountain Scenery” www.familystacks.com/custom/views/fam/S12g.htm [2 views on-line: “View up Eastern Avenue, St. Johnsbury, Vt, 1871. and “Picnic at St. Johnsbury, July 4th, 1859.” No. 45. F. H. Gage, Photo. Published by E. Anthony, New-York.”]
An image of the “First U. S. Piano Co. Factory, Springfield, Vt., 1868,” of which Gage made 1800 prints for advertising, is available at www.antiquepianoshop.com.
Commercial dealers in stereoviews have offered F. B. Gage cards for sale online. For example, at this time, (May 1, 2013) Jeffrey Kraus Antique Photographics, www.antiquephotographic.com has a half dozen or so Gage stereoviews for sale on his website. Other sites, David L. Spahr, www.stereoviews.com also lists three or four and www.worldstereoviews.com lists at least one Gage holding as well.
[I would like to thank Peggy Pearl at the St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center for her swift and courteous response to some of my questions.]
BOOKS
Gage, F. B. Theoretical and practical photography on glass and paper: with positive rules for obtaining intense negatives with certainty, by F.B. Gage. New York, S. D. Humphrey, 1859. 60 p.19 cm. [“Preface. This work was written more especially for the use of Amateurs, or beginners in the Photographic Art; yet it is hoped, and confidently expected, that much matter will be found in its pages which will prove useful and valuable, not only to the Neophyte, but also to those who have reached the advanced stages of Photographic Science — whether it be the professional man, or the savan who pursues the beautiful Art of “Sun-penciling,” con amore. The theory of light-Iodizing here advanced, is different from anything heretofore published, and will be found, in practice, to give better results-it is confidently asserted-than any hitherto placed before the public.
Every part touched upon, is intended to be made as plain and easily comprehended as possible, that the inexperienced may succeed, by its aid, in producing satisfactory proofs; and should the experimenter achieve but a tithe of the success which has attended the working of this Process in the bands of its originator, the result cannot prove otherwise than gratifying to both parties-to the Experimenter, in the superiority of his products over old modes of operating-and to the Author, in having contributed his mite toward ·rendering smooth and easy the rugged path of Photographic Science; and by extending encouragement to others, increase the number of its followers, in the hope of ultimately, at no distant day, achieving that triumph of perfection, which the manifold and constantly-developing beauties of the Art warrant all in looking forward to. This should prove the incentive and aim of every true lover of Aesthetic Beauty, The Author May 1, 1859.”]
“Photography,” on p. 488-489 in: The Town of St. Johnsbury, Vt., a Review of One Hundred Twenty-five Years to the Anniversary Pageant 1912, by Edward T. Fairbanks. St. Johnsbury: The Cowles Press, 1914. 592 pp.
[“Photography The old-time Daguerreotype Car, painted white, sky-lighted, drawn by four horses, used to appear periodically on our streets prior to 1850, and all the sun-pictures of that period were taken under its glass dome; there are still a few surviving specimens of 1849 that were printed in the Brooks car from Boston, which was moored a little way below the old burial ground.
The pioneer daguerreotypist who obtained a residence was F. B. Gage whose St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery was opened 1851 in the Emerson Hall building then standing on the Athenaeum site. He was ingenious, painstaking and skilful as an artist, with a touch of eccentricity and droll humor; he styled himself The-Old-Daguerreen, The-Man-with-the-long-flowing-Beard, creator of Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Statutypes, Colorotypes; he took first premiums at the County Fairs and diversified the columns of the Caledonian with his whimsical verse. The lines here given were entitled
& So Forth & So On
By The Flowing Beard
How swiftly the moments of life hurry on,
Nor slow forth nor slow on,
But swift as the tide of a swift rushing river
They flow forth & flow on
& so forth & so on.
Then O, as you row down the River of Life,
As you row forth & row on,
Have your likeness preserved in a case or a frame
To show forth and show on
& so forth & so on.
And e’en though the weather be cloudy or fair
Or snow forth & snow on,
And e’en though the tempest should rise in its wrath
& blow forth & blow on,
We’ll take you a picture you won’t be ashamed
When you go forth & go on
To show forth & show on
& so forth & so on.
The Gage gallery in Brown’s block at the time of his death, was purchased by Geo. H. Hastings and has descended thro successive owners to W. H. Jenks, the present proprietor. Long time photographers on Eastern Avenue were T. C. Haynes and C. H. Clark. A photographic artist of eminence was D. A. Clifford over the Post Office block, who died in 1889. For 47 years he had kept himself master of every known process of his art. Among 167 exhibitors, English and American, at the Lambert exposition in New York 1878, the first prize for large carbon work was awarded D. A. Clifford of St. Johnsbury, Vt., and two of his pictures were kept by Mr. Lambert as specimens of American photography to be exhibited in England. Clifford was for several years, until his death, vice-president of the American Photographers Association; for his enthusiasm in the art he was called among the members the old war horse from Vermont; it was agreed that his landscape pictures were adding much to the popular fame of Green Mountain scenery, chiefly of this immediate vicinity.”]
“The-Man – With- The-Long-Flowing-Beard” on p. [n. p.] in: Stone, Arthur Fairbanks. Old Time Stories of St. Johnsbury Vermont St. Johnsbury, VT: Caledonian Record, 1938. (85th Anniversary of Passurnpsic Savings Bank St. Johnsbury, Vermont)
[“This isn’t a story about an Indian warrior, but a sketch of our pioneer photographer, F. B. Gage, artist, poet and philosopher. It was only a dozen years after the French Academy of Sciences had startled the world with the announcement of the discovery of photography by Daguerre and Neipee [sic Niepce] that Mr. Gage opened in 1851 the “St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery.” For nearly a score of years he was the only photographer in town, though itinerant tin type producers appeared at our county fairs in their travelling road wagons. While many in this early period of the development of the art were thrilled to get a “Photo by Brady” our own townsfolk were just as pleased to have a “Photo by Gage”, and these early pictures are highly prized in many homes today. Like Barnum he believed in advertising, and this somewhat eccentric individual always included one of his whimsical poems in his Caledonian ads. Often using as his title the one that heads this story he referred to himself at other times as “Old Daguerreen” or “Creator of Daguerreotypes. Ambrotvpes, Statutypes and Colortypes.”
“For twenty-five cents
Is all the expense
Of an Ambrotype made of your face,
And for double that sum
If you presently come,
‘Twill be made and put in a case.”
His gallery was first located in the Emerson Hall block which stood in the fifties where •the Athenaeurn is now located. In the last of h is successful career he occupied the third story of the Brown Block which is now the home of the Jenks studio. Evidently he became dissatisfied with the credit system for he adopted in May 1856, the cash basis, with this advertisement on that date:
“Men of wealth, and men of fashion,
Men that sometimes get in passion;
Men that put all sorts of trash on
And, in fact,
Any one that brings the cash on”
It was at this time, too, that he announced “that having lately enlarged my Gallery and fitted up my reception room in a magnificent manner: the ladies will now find it pleasant to call and look at the pictures. I would remind them that
Queer old maids that are cross and fretty,
And young girls intensely pretty,
Wearing curls extremely jetty,
Will be very sure to get a
Capital Ambrotype at Gage’s.”
In a few years Mr. Gage added landscape views to his growing trade and was the first in this vicinity, and perhaps in Vermont, to produce pictures of the Vermont mountains and lakes and the White Mountain scenery along the “wild Ammonoosuc.” Like the famous Kilbourne Littleton artist [sic Kilburn Brothers, Littleton, NH) many of these views were two on a card for the use of the stereoscope, which was such a well known parlor ornament of those days. On one occasion he hired a hall and exhibited some 300 pictures with some explanations to an interested audience of both young and old. One of his most highly prized portraits is that of Willie Johnson, the 14-year-old drummer boy, who was presented with the Medal of Honor by Secretary of War Stanton for keeping his drum in the retreat of the Union soldiers at Harrison Landing, when all the other musicians in their panicky flight threw their instruments away. So now
“Have you heard what all the rage is;
‘Tis the Ambrotypes at F. B. Gage’s.
Pictures called by all the sages
The greatest wonder of modern ages.”]
“Businesses: Photographers,” on p. 85 in Pearl, Peggy. A Brief History of St. Johnsbury. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2009. [Mentioned as the first photographer in St. Johnsbury, with a brief biography and a poem.
“For twenty-five cents
Is all the expense
Of an Ambrotype made of your face,
And for double that sum
If you presently come,
‘Twill be made and put in a case.”]
Gage is listed in the Vermont Vital Records Index, (Which states he died of blood poisoning, on Aug. 24, 1874 in St. Johnsbury.)
He was listed in the annual Walton’s Vermont Register and Farmer’s Almanack for at least the years 1855, (listed as a daguerrian artist), 1865, 1867, 1869-1873, (listed as a “Photographist,”). [These were the years accesible to me, it is probable that he was also listed in this business almanac for many of the other years during this period.]
Gage is also listed as a “portrait and landscape painter” in Groce and Wallace. New York Historical Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860.
PERIODICALS
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,
ORGANIZATIONS. USA. PHOTOGRAPHICAL SECTION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 1867.
“Proceedings of the Photographical Section.” ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, FOR THE YEAR 1867-68. (1868): 1025-1035. [November 11, 1867. Mr. H. J. Newton in the chair; O. G. Mason, Secretary. Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Mr. Hull laid before the Section a series of prints from negatives made by the Zantmyre lens, and globe lens, showing the relative field and illumination of the lenses. He also read a letter from Mr. B. F. Gage, of St. Johnsbury, Vt., accompanied by a cabinet photograph and ambrotype, showing the peculiarities of the process which formed the subject matter of his communication to the Section. Mr. Hull also read the specifications of Mr. Gage’s patent claim, as published in the Philadelphia Photographer. Prof. Tillman asked whether any member had tried Mr. Gage’s device. Mr. H. S. Anthony thought it advisable that some competent person should try the process and report to the Section. Mr. Hullenback explained a method which consisted of exposing the plate to diffused light after its removal from the camera and before development. Then followed a general discussion upon various methods which had been used to produce similar results. On motion of Mr. Hull, a committee of three were appointed to make pictures by Mr. Gage’s process, and by the ordinary negative process, and exhibit the results at the next meeting of the Section. Messrs. Anthony, Hull and Chapman were appointed by the Chair to serve as such committee. On motion of Mr. Chapman, the name of the Chairman was added to the committee. …On motion of Prof. Tillman, the time of meeting was changed to the first Tuesday in the month, instead of the second Monday. The Section then adjourned to the first Tuesday in December.”
December 3, 1867.
Mr. H. J. Newton, in the chair; O. G. Mason, Secretary. Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Prof. Tillman read a letter received from Professor Joy. The committee appointed at the last meeting to try experiments with Mr. B. F. Gage’s negative process, reported progress….”
ANTHONY’S PHOTOGRAPHIC BULLETIN
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“New Pictures.” ANTHONY’S PHOTOGRAPHIC BULLETIN 2, no. 6 (June 1871): 184. [Gage (St. Johnsbury, VT) sends stereoscopic prints.]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Cage, F. B. “Bronchitis Cured By Photography.” ANTHONY’S PHOTOGRAPHIC BULLETIN 3, no. 1 (Jan. 1872): 405.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Cage, F. B. “How to Get Excellent Cotton with Little Trouble.” ANTHONY’S PHOTOGRAPHIC BULLETIN 3, no. 2 (Feb. 1872): 438-441.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Obituary.” ANTHONY’S PHOTOGRAPHIC BULLETIN 5, no. 10 (Oct. 1874): 374. [Brief note that F. B. Cage (St. Johnsbury, VT) died.]
BURLINGTON WEEKLY FREE PRESS (BURLINGTON, VT)
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Vermont Items.” BURLINGTON WEEKLY FREE PRESS (BURLINGTON, VT) (July 19, 1867): 2. [“Mr. Jonathan Bagley of Hartland was thrown from his carriage on the 3d inst. and almost immediately killed. He was an old man, over eighty.
A boy of 11 years, son of Dr. J. S. Morse of Royalton, was drowned in the river July 21, in attempting to swim across.
The surveyors of the Portland and Ogdensburg road are now at work in Danville searching for the best place for locating the road through that town….
…Abel Stacy’s dwelling-house in Concord was struck by lightning July 4th, tearing up the boards under Mrs. Stacy’s chair, but not hurting her.
A house in Hartford was struck the same day, and all the stove-pipes in the house knocked down, and the kitchen stove moved some inches.
The rum-sellers of Lyndon were looked after a little, by State’s Attorney Willard, a week ago Friday, and fined $50 each.
Patents were issued July 9th to W. H. Baldwin and J. H. Blake of Brandon, for improved railway chair; to B. O. Church and Harvey Smith of Brattleboro, for octave coupling for reed instruments; to G. Simpson and W. H. Edmunds of Waterbury, for improvement in lamp extinguisher; to Franklin B. Gage of St. Johnsbury, for process for making positive and negative photographs in the camera.
Martin Keith of Troy, Vt., was killed by a two year old bull, in his pasture, on the 4th. His body was found terribly mangled. The bull had never shown signs of viciousness, but was killed immediately.”]
CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT)
[This weekly newspaper has been in continuous publication since 1837. F. B. Gage advertised in almost every issue of this paper during the more than twenty years that his gallery was open in St. Johnsbury. There were also special ads for specific events, and the paper published news items about a colorful local individual and valuable businessman in the community; and published his poems and short stories, etc. All together, there are hundreds of citations. I have selected some of these references here, which help put some flesh on the bones of the more formal accounts of Gage’s life and career.]
MCPHERSON, W. D.
[Advertisement.] “Daguerreotype Miniatures.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 29, 1851): 3. [Taken singly or in groups at W. D. M’Pherson’s Daguerrian Saloon, opposite J. C. Bingham’s Drug Store, where he would respectfully invite all those who wish for a perfect Likeness to give him a call. Children taken of any age. Pictures taken from Portraits, Daguerreotypes, Busts, &c.; also, from deceased persons and invalids, at their residences. Pictures taken equally well I cloudy weather, and neatly set in Lockets, Rings, Pins or Frames – Prices $1.00 and upward. St. Johnsbury Plain, Nov. 24, 1847.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “F.B. Gage’s Sky-Light Daguerrean Gallery. St. Johnsbury Plain, Vt.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 25, 1852): 3. [“The subscriber having opened a skylight Daguerrean Gallery, three doors south of the St. Johnsbury House, would respectfully announce to the inhabitants of St. Johnsbury and neighboring towns, that he will be happy to wait on all who may wish for a correct likeness of themselves or friends. Having procured all the latest improvements in the Art, he is now able, by a new arrangement of light and the use of new materials, to produce pictures of a most Lifelike & Beautiful Complexion, as all may see by calling and examining specimens. These pictures are finished by a newly discovered process which gives them a richness and durability unsurpassed by any in this country or Europe. The public are requested to call and examine specimens. Come one and all; you will be equally welcome whether wishing pictures or not. If you have called once call again, and tell your friends to call also, as he-will be happy to see you at all times and show you anything new in the Art.
Pictures taken in cloudy as well as clear weather.
Perfect likenesses warranted in all cases or no charge.
Copies from Daguerreotypes, Portraits, &., neatly executed.
Miniatures for lockets, pins, rings, &c., taken in the most perfect manner.
Views of buildings and scenery taken in a style unsurpassed by any.
Likenesses of sick or deceased persons taken at their residences if desired.
Prices varying from 1 to 8 dollars according to style and finish of case.
Pupils instructed and furnished with apparatus.
F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Sept. 25, 1852.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Daguerreotype Likenesses.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Dec. 11, 1852): 3. [“Our neighbor, Mr. Gage, is doing a good business in taking likenesses. His pictures look well, and he will satisfy all of his customers. He has a fine room for his purpose over E. Hall & Co’s Store.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “A Daguerreotype Song.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Jan. 8, 1853): 4. [“Supposed to have been sung by a lady after having visited F. B. Gage’s Daguerrean Gallery, three doors south of the St. Johnsbury House) St. Johnsbury Plain, Vt.
Air: Things that I don’t like to see.
One morning last week when I’d nothing to do,
And wanted to see something funny or new,
I went with my cousins Maria and Jane,
To visit the Daguerreotype Rooms on the Plain.
I merely went in just to make a short call;
And look at the pictures that hung on the wall;
But I saw just as soon as I entered the door,
I had never seen pictures more perfect before.
For there was Estella, Adelia, and Jane,
And I never saw pictures so rich or so plain:
And John and his sweetheart, and Sam and his wife;
I declare they all looked just as natural as life.
There were multitudes more both in cases and frames
But I never could tell you one half of their names,
I thought every one looked the nicest and best,
Though I think Jenny Lind’s not so good as the rest.
Now when I had seen them, they all looked so fine,
Said I to the Artist, “I’II sit and have mine.”
Then he had me sit down in a chair at my ease,
And, said he, “You may wink just as much as you please.”
And then, when I smiled just as much as I ought,
In less than a moment my likeness was caught.
So quickly ’twas taken, so nicely ’twas done,
To sit for my picture was nothing but fun.
And every one says,(so I know it must be,)
“That my picture’s a very apt emblem of me.”
Since this is so perfect, I must have another,
To go to the West to my sister and brother,
And then I must have another to send —
But no matter to whom for he’s only a friend.
And now if the people will take my advice,
I freely will give it without money or price.
If you want nothing more, give the Artist a call,
Just to look at the pictures that hang on the wall,
‘Twill do you no harm just to drop in and see,
And take your friends with you, as I did with me.
He can take them as well whether cloudy or fair,
And you’ll find him at home for he always, is there.
He’s using a splendid new German Machine,
That was made by one Sohn in the Province of Wein.
If any should wish to acquire this great Art,
He’ll learn him the trade so he’ll-know it by heart,
And his pictures wont fade, as other Artist’s have done.
For you know that he hangs them right out in the sun.
And whether in lockets, pins; rings, or a frame,
You’ll see that his pictures are always the same;
And then, I am sure you’ll conclude with the rest,
That he’s always a little ahead of the best.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Look out for Counterfeits!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (May 7, 1853): 4.
[“Since ev’rythings’ new in these new-fangled times,
I’ll tell you some news, and I’ll tell it in rhymes.
‘Tis a bit of a secret, and you’ll keep it no doubt,
For it never would answer to have it leak out.
Kate told me the story, so I’ll tell it to you, —
For I know that the story is perfectly true, —
That a fellow from somewhere – nobody knows where.
Came to St. Johnsbury, & settled down there.
And, perhaps, you will think it a dreadful disgrace,
But he’s opened a counterfeiting shop in the place.
Where he counterfeits everything under the sun,
That ever the skill of an Artist has done.
He’s fitted a splendid new room in the town
Just below the ‘Post Office, kept by Jewett & Brown,’
And you’ll see his new sign hanging out from the door.
Just over the well-known E. Hall & Co.’s store.
There he counterfeits faces, and does them so brown
That he’s had a great rush since he came into town,
And ev’ry one says, since tis now all the rage:
“If you need a good face you can get it of Gage.”
He’s studied and practiced so long in the Art,
I should know at a glance that he knew it by heart,
And if any should happen to doubt what I say,
Drop in there and see when your passing that way.
Drop in there some day when you have nothing to do,
And in less than a minute he’ll counterfeit you;
And he’ll do it so well, whether cloudy or fair,
You would say ‘twas yourself, and no counterfeit there.
Since his counterfeits win the most hearty applause,
Be assured that he stands in no fear of the laws;
But in spite of the law, and Artistical ire,
He’ll be appy to counterfeit all who desire.
St. Johnsbury Counterfeiting Gallery, March, 1853.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Marriages.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (June 11, 1853): 3. [“In this town, June 6, by Rev. W. B. Bond, Mr. F. B. (Gage and Miss Laurietta Huntly, all of this town. In this town, May 31, by Rev. Wm. D. Malcolm, Mr. Lucius Spencer of Brownington and Miss Susan J. Randall of Lyndon.
In Waterford, June 6, by Rev. F. Warriner, Mr. Dexter Fitts of Hanover, N. H., and Miss Sarah A. M. Hill, of Waterford.
In Derby, May 29, by Rev. H. Tabor, Mr. Herman Bisbee and Miss Mary P. Sias, all of West Derby.
In Danville, May 29, by Rev. A. G. Button, Mr. Austin A. Finley, of Hartland, and Miss Mary M. Pope, of Danville.
In Cabot, May 29, by Rev. Mr. Cooper, Mr. Elijah W. Chamberlin, of this town, and Miss Caroline M. Nevins, of Cabot.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Gage’s Mezzotint Statutypes.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 23, 1853): 2. [“Our industrious and highly successful Daguerrean Artist, Mr. F. B. Gage, modestly announces in our advertising columns, that he has brought to a good degree of perfection a new process of daguerreotyping likenesses, which promises to surpass all methods previously known. The difference between this method and those before practiced, consists in the preparation of the plate. It is well known that the plate is rendered capable of retaining an image by being exposed in turn to the vapors of Iodine and Bromine. The practitioners of the art have always been conscious that something was wanting in the process, and they have made many attempts to discover what was needed to increase the susceptibility of the plate and render it more sure and reliable. These labors often resulted in some minor advantages, but not in that great and decided improvement which was the object of the research. Many months ago Mr. Gage conceived the idea, and by a long course of experimenting has at length succeeded in discovering a substance, which in addition to those already used, will impart to the plate the power of recovering and retaining a picture, bold and clear as the sharpest mezzotint, and at the same time soft, and delicately chiseled as the most exquisitely cut marble. These pictures are extremely distinct. They can be seen in any light, and always stand out bright and clear as the living countenance. One examination of Mr. Gage’s specimens will convince any one that we have not exaggerated, nor set down aught in extensio.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Caledonia County Fair.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 30, 1854): 3. [“The annual Cattle Falr of the Caledonia County Agricultural Society was held at Danville on Wednesday and Thursday. The show of cattle, and the various products of the, farm and the shop, was a good one, but we have not time to enter into a particular description. The following are the Premiums Awarded.
Neat Stock.
1st, Ten yoke oxen from one town,
Cabot, $10.00
2d. Danville, $5.00
(Etc. about a column of listings of every animal and product)
Daguerreotypes.
1st, E. Perry, Danville, . $1.00
2d F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, $.50
Monochromatic Painting.
1st, Helen Davis, Danville, $1.00
2d, Aaron Smith, Hardwick, $.50
1st, oil painting Miss L. Pearson,
Peacham, $1.00
(Etc.)”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “F. B. Gage, Daguerreotypist and Statutypist.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Apr. 14, 1855): 3. 1 illus. [(Advertisement has a crude woodcut of a sun rising behind a daguerreotype camera, perched on a globe.) “St. Johnsbury Daguerrean Gallery. Gage’s Mezzotint Statutypes.
Something New!
These pictures are different from any ever before offered to the public, and are considered by the best judges the most desirable style of likeness which the Daguerrean Art is capable of producing. They have all the roundness and apparent solidity of a perfect statue, combined with all the richness of the most brilliant Mezzotint engraving. Pictures taken in this style have more character than if taken in the usual way, as every line, angle and wrinkle of the face is chiseled with the most unerring certainty, and all the peculiarities of expression are retained in the greatest perfection. – Light blue eyes taken by this process retain their expression, and have all the perfection of life.
The method of taking the Statutypes was discovered (after making a great variety of experiments) by F. B. Gage, of St. Johnsbury, and is known and practiced by him only. Specimens of these pictures are on exhibition at his Gallery. Artists are especially requested to call and examine them.
Pictures taken in all kinds of weather, and perfect satisfaction guaranteed or no pay. Instructions given in the Art. Any person wishing to learn the trade will find an excellent opportunity in doing so by applying soon. St. Johnsbury, March 1855.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “The Old Daggerreen.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Mar. 15, 1856): 4.
[“Since the sleighing
Is so splendid
And may soon be .
Quite suspended,
Come up beaux and
Belles together,
Get your pictures
This fine weather.
Come good father,
And fond mother,
Come with sister
And with brother;
Ere with palsy,
Ye be shaken,
Come to Gage’s
And be taken!
Whether fleshy,
Lean of sharky,
Come-up white folks,
Come up darkey;
Both for ugly
Folks, and clever,
Gage takes pictures
Better’n ever!
St. Johnsbury, Jan. 10,’ 1656.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Ambrotypes.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (May 10, 1856): 3.
[“To Every Body.
As this advertisement has never before been in print, and may never be again the public are advised to read it, and permission is hereby respectfully given them to do so.
Have you heard what all the rage is?
‘Tis the Ambrotypes at Gage’s.
Pictures that are called by sages
The greatest wonder of the modern ages.
To The Ladies
Having lately enlarged my Gallery, and fitted up a Reception Room in magnificent style, the ladies will now find it pleasant to call and look at the pictures. I would remind them that,
Queer old maids that’s cross and and fretty,
And young girls intensely pretty,
Wearing curls extremely jetty,
Will be very sure to get a
Capital Ambrotype at Gage’s.
About Babies.
Certain days will be mostly devoted
taking pictures of babies of all styles and qualities, such as
Babies little and babies bigger,
Babies that can squall with vigor,
Babies that cut quite a figure,
and all sorts, from white to nigger.
N. B. –Nigger means them that is sable complexioned.”
To The Gentlemen.
The gentlemen will not be sent away empty, as I am better than ever before prepared
To Extract
Men of wealth, and men of fashion,
Men that sometimes get in passion,
Men that put all sorts of trash on,
And, in fact,
Any one that brings the
Cash on!
F. B> Gage, Artist. St. Johnsbury, May 1, 1856.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Gage’s Farewell.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 15, 1856): 3. [“Gage Is Going To Leave
These ‘ere frosty diggings
And take no more pictures
Over Hall & Higgins;
For he’s bound to flourish
In some Western city
Where the wintry weather
Aint so cold and gritty.
Therefore all ye people
Take this little warning:
Gage is going early
Some bright and pleasant morning,
And if you want pictures
That beat all the nation,
Shun that little word
Called procrastination.
For a few weeks longer,
ln all kinds of weather,
Gage will take the beaux and
Laughing belles together.
So bring on your faces
And don’t stand a-croaking,
Gage means what is written.
Without any joking!
November 10, 1856.”
This may certify, That Mr. F. B. CAGE of St. Johnsbury, Vt., received the fallowing premiums at the First Annual Fair of the Conn. River ValIey Agricultural & Industrial Association, held at Bradford, Vt. Oct. 14, 15 & 16, 1856:
1st premium on Ambrotvpes, $3.00
1st premium on Photographs, $2.00
1st premium on Colorotypes. $2.00
George Pritchard. Treasurer. Bradford, Nov. 12, 1856.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Gage & Rowell, Ambrotype & Photographic Artists.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Apr. 4, 1857): 3.
[“St. Johnsbury, Vt., & Littleton, N. H.
The Gallery at Littleton will be open only two or three weeks in every twelve. Open April 8, for one or two weeks.
Ambrotypes taken at less prices than formerly. Old daguerreotypes cleaned to look as well as new. Oil Paintings cleaned and Varnished, At the Bradford Fair, Mr. Gage drew
1st Premium on Ambrotypes $3.00
1st Premium on Photographs $2.00
1st Premium on Colorotypes $2.00
At the Caledonia Fair,
1st Premium on Daguerreotypes, &c. $2 00
(From the People’s Journal.)
“We feel warranted in recommending Mr. Gage as one of the first artists in the country.”
(From the White Mountain Banner.)
“Mr. Gage’s reputation is, not excelled, by any artist in New England.”
(From The Caledonian.)
“Mr. Gage is an adept in the line of his profession.”
(Humphrey’s Daguerrean Journal published in New York City, says:)
“Gage’s Photographs are Gems. We can confidently say that we have never seen so pleasing a collection from one operator. They are an honor to the artist.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “& So Forth, & Soon.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (May 23, 1857): 3. [“By the Flowing Beard.
How swiftly the moments of life hurry on.
Nor slow forth, nor slow on,
But swift as the tide of a swift rushing river
They flow forth & flow on.
Towards that dark, solemn land, where- the footsteps of man,
Never go forth, nor go on—
& so forth, and so on.
Then O, as you row down the River of Life,
As you row forth, & row on,
Have thy likeness preserved in a case or a frame
To show forth & show on,
When thy form lieth cold in that land where no flowers
Ever grow forth, or grow on—
& so forth, & so on.
Then take my advice. oh ! ye pictureless tribe!
Good advice as I know on:
With some rocks in your pockets, go forth from your homes
Just go forth, and go on,
Not stop ‘till you reach Gage & Rowell’s Saloon
With a good healthy glow on,
& so forth, & so on.
And e’en though the weather be cloudy or fair,
Or snow forth or snow, on:
And e’en tho’ the tempest should rise in its wrath.
& blow forth & blow on.
Will take you a picture, you won’t be ashamed
When you go forth & go on,
To show forth & show on–
Our Ambrotype pictures are greatly improved.
As we get forth, & go on.
Until they surpass everything in the world
That we hear on, or know on;
And our prices of late we have greatly reduced,
As we show forth & show on,
& so forth & so on.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Good Wheat.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 4, 1857): 4. [“A few bushels of good wheat wanted in exchange for cash. F.B. Gage. St. Johnsbury. June 15, 1857.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Pictures for the Times!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Jan. 9, 1858): 3. [“Ambrotypes for 25 Cents at Gage & Rowell’s.
Then bring on your sons
(As our cheap machine runs
Only three weeks from date.)
And take out your daughters
And trot out your quarters
Before its too late.
St. Johnsbury, Nov. 12, 1857.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Copartnership Expired.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Feb. 13, 1858): 3. [“The term of copartnership between the undersigned having expired, the same is dissolved by mutual consent. All business matters appertaining to the copartnership, will be settled by Mr. Gage only.
D. F. Rowell
E. B. Gage.
St. Johnsbury, Feb. 6th; 1858.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Life Size!!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (May 15, 1858): 4.
[“Life Size Photographs.
That surpass the most delicate Steel Engravings, at Gage’s.
Life Size Photographs
Colored in oil colors until they surpass the portraits of the Old Masters, at Gage’s.
Improved Ambrotypes
From 50 cents to 10 dollars each, at Gage’s
Pictures of ‘Life Size’ are made at no other Gallery in Vermont.
Come And See Them!!!
F. B. Gage.
St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery, February, 1858.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Caledonia County Fair.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 25, 1858): 2. [“First Day.—Wednesday. The first day of our Fair was particularly cold and raw. Notwithstanding this, quite a large number of people assembled on the Fair grounds in the morning, and the number gradually increased till the last of the afternoon. The heavy thunder shower of Tuesday afternoon, effectually dispelled the dust, and the roads and grounds were in a good condition. The morning was principally devoted to the necessary preliminaries of entry and arrangement for the exhibition. The grounds presented quite a lively and animated appearance. The Boston Brigade Band, which repaired early to the ground, discoursed from their stand, from time to time, most excellent music. Mechanics’ and Floral Hall were filled with active men & women arranging for an advantageous display of the works of Nature and Art,–of mechanical skill and taste, which had been brought to our Industrial Exhibition…” “…Floral Hall was really beautiful. The busy hands of many ladies and gentlemen had made it look like a gallery of art. Great praise is due those individuals who gave their time and labor so freely, in fitting up the building in such beautiful taste…. Miss O. M. Lawrence of Waterford, presented some hair work that must have been the occasion of a great deal of patient labor…. Among the worsted work we noticed’ a beautifully wrought chair …Some very fine bead baskets were suspended in the room,… a leather “what-not.” Mr. Gage occupied one corner of the room, mostly with Photographs, both of individuals and rural scenery. They were pictures that do credit to the “man with the long flowing beard,” “and so-forth, and so-on.” Some very good oil paintings were presented…There were pin cushions, and other knick-knacks…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Judgment Come at Last.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Jan. 29, 1859): 3. [The validity of James A. Cutting’s Ambrotype and Photographic Patents having been established by Judicial decision. Every Artist in Boston has been compelled to buy a license and place himself under bonds not to sell any pictures for a less sum than 50 cents each. The Artists of Caledonia county will be compelled to enter into the same arrangement. F. B. GAGE, Agent for Patentees. St. Johnsbury, Vt. Jan. 29, 1859.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“A Good Job.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Apr. 30, 1859): 2. [“Gage does not dabble in poetry to the neglect of the chemicals. He is now engaged in engraving Negative Photographic plates for the Stereoscope, from which millions of photographic pictures may be taken. Mr. Gage is employed by a New York house, and we understand that this will not be less than a thousand dollar job for him. He is out now taking views of some of the wildest and most picturesque scenery for which Vermont is so noted. Some of our readers would be surprised at the beauty of such a picture as the Lyndon Falls, or a backwoods sugar camp, as brought out by an artist in a modern stereoscope. The fact that Mr. Gage is employed for this undertaking is only another evidence of his acknowledged superiority abroad as an artist. He is an inventor as well as a practical artist. He has now a book in press treating subjects connected with the art which he has so long-made a study, the copyright of which is already sold. Aside from this, he is a regular paid contributor to a lending New York journal, the articles of which are copied into a London paper, and from that translated into both the French and German. We only mention these facts to show that we have an artist among us whose skill is appreciated and acknowledged by those who “know what’s what.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Rossibus – Gageibus – Gasibus.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (May 7, 1859): 2. [“We have received a very lengthy communication from Barnet in regard to the (illegible.) The parties in this great “fight” are Gage versus Ross, and they employ no counsel, but argue, their own cause. We will state, however, that this poetic war closes with this number; all further communications will be inserted in advertising columns at one dollar a square. We will see how valiant these men are when their pockets are concerned.
As a matter of news we would state (what was broadly hinted in Mr. Game’s article last week) that Maj. Ross left St. Johnsbury Centre without settling his bill for fuel, lights, use of hall, &c. At Barnet he was arrested by Sheriff Stevens, but procured bail and was set at liberty. The trial was last Monday, when the plaintiff recovered his whole bill and the costs of prosecution. We presume that the valiant Major will make this trial the subject of one of his lectures in future, as he did his Brattleboro trial at this place: and he will doubtless draw tears from the eyes of his auditors when he recounts this fresh evidence of his martyrdom to the cause of—soap.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
De Forest. “Gage-ibus Blowibus.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (May 7, 1859): 3. [“Our photograph friend seems ill at ease
That his tricks are exposed to the public gaze.
Of all the good people of country and town,
That arc met in the weekly “Caledonian’s round,
And replies with a lyric, ground out of his mill,
A decoction ‘t might waken Shakspearian will.
Free-from all intentional guilt,
We acknowledge ourselves “intirely kilt”
Innocence, smothers all feelings of rage
Towards St. Johnsbury’s patron and knight, F. B. Gage,
And if it produce him but one throb of joy.
To try to annihilate a New Hampshire boy—
Here goes—I am ready—and will, if I can,
Stand up and fight bravely this poetry man.
“Rossibus Soapibus” never will shrink
From the truth—he needs must think.
If Mr. Gage sends out his rockets.
Fusing about St; Johns bury pockets,
We humbly suggest that it might be wise
To pluck the beams from his jaundiced eyes,
Before he is blinded by the dross
That he charges upon his neighbor Ross.
He. commenced by blowing the Major’s clothes,
Like those in which liberty conquered its foes,
Which were worn on the brow of old Bunker Hill,
And which are the emblems of liberty still.
He laughs them to scorn with a gracious good will.
And vows that the Major’s whole business he’ll kill,
By introducing a guillotine bill,
And by management, getting it “chucked through the mill.”
Then he blows on his soap, and his jewelry too,
And he says many things which “I” say are true,
In regard to his soap—’tis a hard thing to whip,
In regard to his jewelry—I “give up the ship.
He makes the assertion that Ross is a clown,
And if he descended from Scotch ancestry down,
He’s descended so low that they’ll never be proud
To own him as kin at home or abroad.
I would very much like to ask from what race
Our poet descended.—The hair on his face
Proclaims that he has an affinity strong
To the canine tribe — say, Gage, am I wrong?
I hope that our friend will take no offense
At my method of judging his sense—or nonsense,
For I own my opinion is paltry indeed
Of the man whose brain has but run out to seed.
“Rossibus Soapibus” is not dead.
The guns you fired went over his head.
Don’t fire again ; he will beat a retreat,
Hoping next time you blow you will aim at his feet,
So don’t tear the ground with your powder and ball
To kill out the soap man—watches and all.
Lancaster, N. H.; May 2d. 1859.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Stereoscopic Views.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 16, 1859): 2. [“Mr. F. B. Gage succeeded in getting several stereoscopic views of the crowd that were collected here the 4th, among the most interesting of which figure the Fantastics.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Sterescopic [sic] Pictures and Sterescopes [sic] for sale at Gage’s.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 20, 1859): 3. [“The Wreck of the Train of Aug. 9th; a striking picture for the Sterescope, for Gage’s.
White Mountain Views, for the Sterescope, for sale at Gage’s.
Family Groups,made for the Sterescope, at Gage’s.
Ambrotypes greatly improved and Photographs as usual, at Gage’s.” (Includes a crude woodcut illustration of a large pile of stereoscopic cards.)]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Local and State. ‘Twenty-five Cents a Crack.’” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Dec. 10, 1859): 1. [“Dropping into Gage’s gallery the other day, we found his walls literally lined with pictures of which both the originals and the artist may well be proud. Mr. Gage has spent a large portion of the past season in procuring “negatives” of some of the fine scenery which is so abundant in this part of Vermont, as well as some very fine views of White Mountain scenery, and the picturesque “Wild Ammonoosuc.” These pictures are taken for the stereoscope, and we learn that there is a large and increasing demand for them.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “St. Johnsbury Business Directory.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Dec. 10, 1859): 1. [“F. B. Gage, Artist,
At St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery.
Ambrotypes, Melainotypes, and Life Size Photographs.
Better and cheaper than elsewhere.”
(The Caledonian Record published a “Business Directory,” which consisted of a three or four line listing of individual businesses, printed down the page in a column of every weekly issue. The listing was about $2 for a year, and Gage had a similar listing in almost every issue from the 50’s through to the 70’s. He would also run content specific or time-specific advertisements as well.)]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Selling Out at Cost.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Dec. 30, 1859): 3. [“Cheap Ambrotypes.
Twenty-five cents a pop,
Over to Cage’s shop.
Popping ‘em fast as he can,
Woman, baby, and man:
Making a regular rout,
Cleaning the Old Stock out,
For twenty-five cents a crack
At either your face or back.
Short to the day of Grace.
Shave and forward your face,
Deborah, Jake and Nance,
Or you will lose the chance:
The chance of getting a pop
For a Quarter at Gage’s shop.
For when the old stock is through,
Higher the price of the new.
Dec. 1, 1859.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “I’ll Treat.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Feb. 17, 1860): 3. [“Citizens of St. Johnsbury and elsewhere, with a sight of some of the wonders of the stereoscope, consisting of
4 Instantaneous Views of Niagara,
4 Instantaneous Views of Broadway, N. Y.
Blondin Crossing Niagara on the Tight Rope.
Gage’s White Mountain and other Views, (splendidly colored.)
Open Day and Evening, Terms—Gratis.”]
RAWSON, E. E. (LYNDON, VT)
[Advrtisement.] “Photographic Pictures!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Mar. 23, 1860): 3.
[“Low Prices! Low Prices!
Ambrotypes
For only 15 cts. each, and with a good case at 37 ½ cts. Photographs and Melainotypes.
Cheap In Proportion.
Rawson’s Picture Gallery will be closed nearly all the time during the summer, after about the middle of May. Pictures will be sold at these extremely low prices but a
Few Weeks Only
and all persons wishing anything of the kind should avail themselves of this opportunity.
N. B. A good assortment of Stereoscopic pictures and Stereoscopes for sale.
E. E. Rawson. Lyndon, March 22, 1860.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Apprentice Wanted.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Mar. 23, 1860): 3. [“At the St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery. Any ingenious young man who can come with good reference will receive a liberal offer to learn the art, if application be made immediately to F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Vt.” (The “I’ll Treat” ad repeated on the same page.)]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Returned.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (June 8, 1860): 3. [“F. B. Gage having returned to the St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery, it will be open as heretofore.
A new set of stereoscopic pictures on exhibition. F. B. Gage. June 6, 1860.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “More Gold!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 20, 1860): 3. [“F. B. GAGE has been seized with a fit of covetousness and is about to start for the Gold Regions, leaving the St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery closed until further notice. July 18, 1860.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Thursday, July 19th, 1860.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 20, 1860): 2.
[“Was there ever yet a wetter
Morn than this, or any better?
All men laughing, none complaining.
Of this glorious freak of raining.
All the clouds, the drouth transgressing,
Pouring down this mighty blessing?—
To the farmer, grown serener,
Earth looks gloriously greener.
Grass and grain their heads are raising.
In the very act of praising;
Where’s the man that stands refraining
Blessing God for this great raining?”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“A True Historie.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 20, 1860): 2. [“Of ye greate duplicitie of Dr. La Costie, in ye romantic’ citie of St. Johnsburie; in the, year Anno Domonie eighteen hundred and sixtie.”
The people of old St. Johnsbury Plain
Are much astonished to see no rain;
And they daily protest they can’t see why
The clouds and the rain have left the sky.
Leaving the fields as much in despair.
As Dr. La Coste’s patients are, —
Who have suddenly changed their natural hue,
From magnificent green, to horrible blue.
This Dr. La Coste, as you must know,
Came into the place two weeks ago,
As-great a Christian as any you’ll find,
Of his very peculiar style and kind;
For he cheerfully took poor strangers in,
With his splendid roots and capital gin,—
And squeezed them until he got their “tin;”
And ’twas in this curious style and wise,
He cured their deafness and healed their, eyes!
To the famous St. Johnsbury House he came,
A man of exceeding skill and fame,
From the Hospitals of England and France,
He would offer the people a splendid chance.
His business it was to heal the deaf,
In a space of time exceedingly brief:
The most incredulous he could surprise
In his rapid manner of curing eyes;
Ten days would render the cure complete
Of the toughest cases he could meet
All the people whose sight was dim,
And the deaf, should come at once to him,
Or they might fail of a cure at all,
If they failed to make him an early call.
Well, the people flocked from far and hear,
This wonderful Doctor’s logic to hear;
And they very soon became impressed,
That this Doctor with wonderful skill was blest,
And they felt so very exceeding sure;
The Doctor’s skill the patient would cure,
That, rather than lose so good a chance
Of enlisting this wonderful man of France,
They paid the Doctor his fee in advance.
For the Doctor would never dispense a pill
Till the anxious patient had paid the bill.
Now the sequel is this, and it plainly appears
That the Doctor did sharpen their eyes and ears,
For ’twas found one morning at break of day,
That the Doctor at night had run away,
And of bills contracted—a goodly array —
He left for his father, the Devil, to pay:
And neighbor Watson found in his valse
A peck of the Advocates of Peace,
Rolled up, doubled up, and into it pressed
Twas all the baggage the Doctor possessed.
Now Mr. Watson could well afford
To get rid of the scoundrel, by losing his board.
I never will tell, not even next winter,
What kind of a trick he served the printer.
It must have been something exceedingly funny,
For it was a trick without any money.
He also went into Gage’s saloon
And ordered some pictures delivered at noon;
But long before noon he had taken his leave,
And Gage and the pictures were left to grieve.
It may be he fled because afeared
Of this long flowing bard, with his long flowing beard.
I fancy the tailor could give you his measure.–
But the tailor is deaf when you ask of his treasure.
And he is also so blind that he can’t see the ‘rocks’
He expected to get and invest in the stocks.
But these are the very diseases, I’m sure,
The great Dr. Coste pretended to cure.
Now these parties should feel exceedingly cheap,
To be caught at their regular business asleep;
And whenever a traveling doctor is seen,
If they look in the glass they’ll see something green.
But that’s nothing compared with these new style of greens,
That shell out their fives, their tens and fifteens,
To pay the sham Doctor for sham medical skill.
That will catch the purse, and the patients kill:
Or leave them, until some other knave comes,
To whistle Yankee Doodle, and suck their thumbs.
MORAL
Who pays for sham pictures, or pays for sham pills,
Pays for pictures that fade, and for physic that kills,
Kills either the patient, or kills his pus.
You can scarcely tell which is better or wus!”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Letter from the Vermont Gold Diggings.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 3, 1860): 2. [“Gold Regions, Plymouth, Vt., July 28; 1860.
To the Editor of The Caledonian.
Here I am in the Glen House at Plymouth Five Corners in the heart of the Vermont Gold Regions. I left your place on Tuesday the 23d, by rail to White River Junction.— Then by cars to Woodstock Station up the Central 5 miles. Here I took the stage to Quechee 3 ½ miles. Quechee it noted for some remarkable gulfs and other fine scenery. Two days were spent in transferring some of the gems to my dark box. The next day a ride of 6 miles brought me to Woodstock, where I found the birth-place of the renowned Powers in its original style of architecture of more than sixty years ago.— Not the Tom Powers of political notoriety, but the veritable Hiram, the sculptor of the Greek Slave—the most distinguished of all American sculptors. The old house has been scarcely altered from the time of Hiram’s birth. It is designed to keep it so as long as possible. By the assistance of the present owner I was enabled to stow the old house and its surroundings into my trunk and bring it away with me for the benefit of your citizens. When I returned to the Woodstock Hotel I found the polite landlord had turned his hotel into an express office, and had sent my trunk with its array of chemicals back to St Johnsbury by express. Between not very good accommodations and pretty stiff charges, with the carelessness of sending my trunk away, I did not find much to commend in Mr. Henry’s Hotel., As another hotel is going to be opened here it may be possible for the traveler to find a more decent house.
A ride of 6 miles by stage to Bridgewater Village, and a private team to this place, six miles more completed the trip and brought us to the gold regions. This place is reported to be the most profitable digging ground in the state. It is an old place in a deep glen, shut in by high hills of the brightest green imaginable. A more romantic region could not well be conceived of, and it has the peculiarities of a place removed from the great thoroughfares.
A good story is told of a New York exquisite who came up here, and was so struck with the out of the world appearance of everything and the barbarous looks of the miners that he selected the most human looking man of the crowd, took him aside and confidentially asked him if it would be safe for him to stop there over night. I visited several mines to-day, but only two of them are worked on account of a scarcity of water to wash the gold out—the drouth having delayed the mining very much. Some of these mines are working out from five to twenty dollars a day to each man, but there is work in it, as any one may judge from the huge heaps of earth and rock that are moved by the miners. It is not so easy to spend money here as at the White Mountains, but there is more picturesque scenery here, and more diversity than there. It is probable that the miners do not average more than they could at some other business as many lose their time where one gets his “pile.” However the stimulus is such that many rush into it and out of it in a very short time, the claims changing hands very often.
There are diggings all over this town and in some of the neighboring towns. They are all more or less worked, bur the one at Plymouth Five Corners seems to be the headquarters, Out of a small mill pond in sight of the Glen House, Mr. Hankerson, the man who first discovered the gold in these regions is clearing four or five thousand dollars above all expenses this season.
Several of the most picturesque diggings and other views were transferred to my package to-day, and I shall leave for some other diggings on Monday, satisfied that some of the people of this state who rush to the White Mountains, might see more and pleasanter things in their own Green Mountains if they chose to take the trouble. The Covetous Man.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Henry’s Hotel, Woodstock.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 10, 1860): 2. [“We have received a communication of nearly a column, signed Gilman Henry & son, Woodstock, in which a paragraph of ten lines which appeared in our columns last week in regard to Henrys’ Hotel is explained on replied to. The letter is too long to publish entire, and we will try to give the “gist” of it in a few words. First, the Messrs. Henry say that they asked and received of our correspondent, F. B. Gage, $1.50 for a day and a half’s board, which they consider answer enough to his assertion of “pretty stiff charges.” Second, persons having articles to send by express frequently leave them at the hotel, there being no express office in town, and the stage driver, finding Mr. Gage’s trunks marked, “St. Johnsbury by express,” carried them off without the knowledge of the hotel proprietors. They were returned free of expense. This is all there is in the Messrs. Henry’s communication to explain the strictures of Mr. Gage the remainder of the letter being mostly complimentary (in a horn) of Mr. Gage’s personal appearance. As all our readers know the proprietor of the “long flowing beard” to be a good looking man, we will omit this part of the letter.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Personal — Very.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 17, 1860): 2. [“Two weeks ago we published short letter from the Vermont Gold Diggings, written by one of the-citizens of this place, in which the following paragraph occurred; “When I returned to the Woodstock Hotel I found the polite landlord had turned his hotel into an express office and had sent my trunk with its’ array of chemicals back to St. Johnsbury by express. Between not very good accommodations and pretty stiff charges, with the carelessness of sending my trunk away, I did not find much to commend in Mr. Henry’s Hotel. (As another hotel is going to be opened here it may be possible for the traveler to find a more decent house.” The next week we received the following;
Woodstock, Vt. Aug. 6.
To the Editor of the Caledonian:
Sir:—A friend called our attention to a letter published in your paper of the 3d inst., in which there were some strictures upon our hotel, and we will thank you to give space to this explanation or reply. On the 26th day of July last a person, of rather rough exterior, after depositing a very unusual quantity of baggage in the lobby or hall of the house, entered his name on our register as ‘F. B. Gage, Photographer for the American Stereoscopic Emporium, N. Y.’— As we did not know what this long tail to the person’s name was intended for, we perhaps were guilty of neglect, in not showing him more attention, we suppose, however, he took his meals like other men, and his. room we know was clean and comfortable. On the morning of the 27th, we furnished him with a man, horse and wagon to take him and a quantity of luggage to the old farm house where Hiram Powers was born, and on the evening of the same day the man and team was sent to bring off his load of traps, which we suppose the ‘Photographer of the American Stereoscopic Emporium, N. Y. used in his art or kept for show, we do not know which. The next morning he left town after breakfast, making his time at the house 1 ½ days. We usually charge one dollar and twenty-five cents a day. As his appearance did not indicate an abundance of money, and as he perhaps was not in at .dinner the 27th, we asked and received of him one dollar and fifty cents for his day and a half at the house and for the man and team to the Powers’ place, fifty cents each trip, and we should pity any hotel keeper whose necessity for business or money would induce him, after seeing the man, to keep him the same length of time for less. So much as to what he says about ‘pretty stiff charges.’
He says we ‘turned our hotel into an express office and sent off his trunk.’ There is not any express office in the village, and persons having parcels to send by express often leave them where he left his trunk, and the proprietor of the stage who carries express bundles, seeing this trunk marked “St. Johnsbury—by Express”; without our knowledge forwarded it to St. Johnsbury, but on learning, that it should not have been sent, he went at once to the telegraph office and directed it to be returned the next morning, and it was returned he say’s without expense to the owner, and forwarded to some place in Bridgewater, as directed by him.
We frequently hear it remarked that persons who travel the least and fare the poorest at home, are the first to find fault when they are abroad. How true that may be in this case we are willing to leave to those better acquainted with the ‘Photographer for the American Stereoscopic Emporium, N. Y.’ than we are, There are however two things which we wish to call the gentleman’s attention to, and that as publicly as he has assailed us and our business. One is, that we wish to have it distinctly understood that when it is not as much of an object for him (or any other man) to avail themselves of such-accommodations as we offer, as it is to us to keep them, we choose to have them go further; and the other is, that as keepers of a public house, we have a public character and when that is assailed and we are injured by such falsehoods as he has published, we have other remedies, which, might be more troublesome to the gentleman than a newspaper article, if we should see fit to employ them. Very respectfully, Gilman Henry & Son.”
Considering the above letter much longer than was necessary to answer the charges of our correspondent, as well as unnecessarily personal, we summed up the answer of the Messrs. Henry in as few words as possible, and gave it in our last. This did not at all satisfy the much injured proprietors of Henry’s Hotel, it seems, as we received another letter from them this week, demanding their first letter entire in our next issue. As we never like to be told what we must publish; (suggestions always thankfully received,) the first impulse was to take no more notice of Gilman Henry and Son; but we finally thought we would grant them the notoriety which they so much sought, and give their letter entire as we have. We doubt if our readers generally will consider personal abuse as any great argument, and Gilman Henry & Son may find that underneath the “rough exterior” of our correspondent there may lie brains—an article that many persons of more polished exterior do not possess.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Henry’s Hotel — Mr. Gage’s Reply.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 24, 1860): 2. [“To the Editor of the Caledonian. Gilman Henry & Son of the Woodstock Hotel, in the last number of the Caledonian have charged me with falsehoods, which means pretty much the same thing as saying that I l-i-e-d. This, being a rather serious charge, I would like to tell what I know about the matter, and as I made no specifications in my letter from the Gold Regions, it will be proper to do so now. In regard to H. & Son’s table I have no fault to find. I have had better, and have had worse elsewhere. I could not say the same of the lodging accommodations. On retiring, to rest I found the bed too highly flavored to admit of sleep. After holding my nose a while, to shut out the fragrance emenating from some portion of the bed-clothes, I instituted a search for the objectionable article which I found, and having deposited it on the floor, I spread my coat over me in the place of it and slept a portion of the night.— I considered it the poorest accommodations I ever received at a public hotel. It will be remembered however that their guest was a person of “rough exterior, whose appearance did not indicate an abundance on money.”
In regard to the steep charges, I find no fault with the charge for board and lodging although it was more than I would be willing to pay again for the same accommodations, when better could be obtained for more money. I did consider it however rather “steep” to pay one dollar for ten or fifteen minutes’ ride with H. & Son’s Irishman, notwithstanding I carry “a rough exterior with an appearance that does not indicate an abundance of money.”
H. & Son admit that my trunk was deposited in the “lobby” of their house, and that the express man forwarded it to St. Johnsbury without their knowledge. As all hotel keepers are responsible for their guests’ baggage, it was H. & Son’s business to see that my trunk was not carried off. Knowing that the express called there for bundles, they should have guarded against any possibility of its being taken. It was none of my business what various uses they made of their “lobby,” provided my baggage was forthcoming when demanded ; neither was it their business if my trunk had been all covered with old directions “to go by express”— When I arrived at Rutland,. I found I had been delayed two days on account of my trunks. I was obliged to lie idle during this time, and on expense, and had to return 7 miles to get it, making 14 miles more travel, besides finding sundry bottles smashed and chemicals lost. I judged it to be not less than $10 actual damage to me. H. & Son evidently think the returning of the trunk “without expense” a magnanimous act. Had they been magnanimous enough to have paid the ten dollars loss occasioned by their unwarrantable carelessness, I should have had less reason to complain. Even had they indulged in a handsome apology it might not have hurt them. But their guest was a man of “rough exterior whose appearance did not indicate an abundance of money,” it is scarcely necessary to treat such persons with common civilities!
My stay at Henry & Son’s hotel 1 ½ days cost me in reality twelve dollars and fifty cents, as I have shown. It was under this provocation that I said in my letter from the Gold Regions that I did not see much to commend in Mr. Henry’s Hotel, a statement which I have seen no reason as yet to retract. With this explanation I leave H. & Son’s ragged hotel remarking that when they have become favorites with a moderate share of the citizens of their own town they may find themselves more capable of satisfying travelers of “rough, exterior whose appearance does not indicate an abundance of money,” and who moreover happen to have a “long tail attached to their names,” which Henry & Son admit they are not shrewd enough to comprehend. Very respectfully yours, F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Annual Fair of the Caledonia County Agricultural Society and Fair Ground Company.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 5, 1860): 2. [“First Day–Wednesday, Sept. 36.
The first day of our Fair opened rainy and unpromising, and it “held its own” remarkably throughout the day. Notwithstanding the rain and mud and cold, the show of stock was quite good indeed, we noticed this year an improvement in the quality of the stock. There were no poor cattle upon the ground….”
Mechanical Department
“…F. B. Gage occupied the South-east corner of the building with his photographs.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “The New Stairs!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 5, 1860): 3. [“Will admit the patrons to the St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery in a more comfortable manner than before, where the man of the “Rough Exterior” may be found for a few days.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Local and State News. The Fair.—Addenda.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 12, 1860): 2. [“There were some mistakes and omissions made in the printed list of premiums last week. On box of edging Margaret F. Stocker, (not Aver,) drew the premium. Mrs. J. S. Parker, (not Barker,) was awarded premium on ottoman, &c. Timothy Coveny (not Canning,) had the best unrefined sugar; and Joseph Lang of Peacham, June butter. The committee on fancy articles we have learned since the-Fair that it was expected they would examine the photographs, &c., in the absence of the committee especially appointed for the purpose. They take pleasure in making honorable mention (which is all they can now do.) of the photographs and stereoscopic views presented by Mr. F. B. Gage of St. Johnsbury. We are pleased to see by a comparison of the photographs of this year, with those presented heretofore, that our artist of the “rough exterior” is not of the old fogy school, but is determined forge ahead. We would especially mention the stereoscopic views presented by him as worthy ‘of notice. We were hardly aware that nature had placed so many gems of beautiful landscapes along the Passumpsic valley, till we saw them so finely reproduced before us in the stereoscope. We have never seen so good an atmospheric effect brought out as is seen in some of these pictures.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“New Advertisements.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 26, 1860): 2. [“Our numerous Lyndon readers will notice that Mr. Lewis R. Brown has received a new stock of jewelry, watches, silver-ware, &c.
Mr. and Miss Hosmer are advertised to give a concert at Union Hall next Thursday evening. The papers say much in praise of these vocalists.
The “man of rough exterior” advertises his new pictures, which are truly marvellous.
H. C. Dickinson—New buckwheat flour.
E. Jewett—Cloaks.
Aldrich & Underwood—Picture frames.
N. M. Johnson & Co.—Worsted goods.
E. B. Magoon & Co.—Weeks Magic Compound.
***
Anti-Slavery Addresses.
Messrs. Douglas and Remond, two colored gentlemen, spoke to a large audience…”]
RAWSON, E. E. (LYNDON, VT.)
[Advertisement.] “Enlargement!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 12, 1860): 3. [“E. E. Rawson has recently added Two New Rooms to his Picture Gallery, making it the largest and most commodious gallery in this part of the state
All kinds of photographic pictures made as usual, and not excelled in Vermont. Come and see Rawson’s Stereoscopic views of Memphremagog Lake Scenery. These views are sold at wholesale and retail by E. Anthony, 501 Broadway, N. Y., and by the subscriber at this gallery. E. E. Rawson, Lyndon, Vt., Oct. 1860.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“A ‘Good Thing.’” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 11, 1861): 2. [“It is said that war is not promotive of the fine arts. However true this maybe in a general application we are very sure that it will not hold good in all cases. For instance: notwithstanding- the war, Mr. Gage continues experimenting and inventing and improving in the art of making pictures of various styles till he stands among the best photographic artists of the country. We were led to these remarks by examining some of his new style card pictures, called the Ebonytype, which compare favorably with the best pictures made in New York and London. These card pictures are made-the same size the world over, and are calculated to slip into the. Photographic Album, a book in which one can preserve likenesses of all his friends, however numerous, in a neat, compact and much better way than by the common ambrotype or daguerreotype. We call the photographic album a “good thing.” Call at Gage’s and see it.”]
BY COUNTRY. USA. 1861.
[Advertisement.] “C. C. Childs.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 25, 1861): 3.
[“Watchmaker, Jeweler, and Engraver
Opposite the Post Office. St. Johnsbury, Vt.
In this week opening his
New Stock
of Goods which he has recently purchased in New York and Boston, at the Lowest Cash Prices and he now offers from his large Stock of Watches, Jewelry, Silver and Silver Plated Ware, Fancy Goods,
Books and Stationery, Toys,
Picture and Picture Frames,
Great inducements to all who wish to purchase any articles in his line of goods, as he sells for
Cash At Low Prices.
Also, he has made arrangements with some of the principal Importers and Manufacturers of N. York and Boston to furnish him with the latest styles of Watches, Jewelry; Plated Ware, &c— Also with some of the first publishing houses to supply him with any articles in the Book and Stationery line, weekly, thereby giving him advantages (not possessed by other dealers,) to furnish his Wholesale and Retail
customers at all times with new and desirable goods, such as Watches and Jewelry it all kinds and styles, Books and Stationery, Silver Plated Ware, Fancy Goods, a great variety, 1001 kinds;
German Toys
of laughable styles and amusing to children.
Plain and Colored Lithograph Pictures,
Oval, Gilt and other Picture Frames.
At my store at all business hours may be seen, free of charge, a Picture Gallery, revolving Stereoscope and many fine Stereoscopic Views.
Spectacles and Eye Glasses.
Of Gold, Silver and other kinds of bows. My assortment and experience are such that I can fully supply the wants of those who can be helped, equal to any optician, and at one fourth less price. Mrs. C. C. Childs continues to manufacture
Hair Jewelry
in the latest and most approved styles and. at cheaper rates than in Boston or New York.
N. B. I continue to manufacture my silver Spoons and warrant them coin standard.
Old Gold and Silver taken in exchange for goods. Those wishing to purchase will find it for their interest to give me a call.
All Goods Warranted as Represented.
Watch, Clock And Jewelry
Repairing And Engraving.
Having had over 12 years experience in the business, being a practical Watchmaker and Engraver myself, I shall spare no pains in giving satisfaction in this department of my business and warrant all work. C. C. Childs. St Johnsbury, Vt.”
(A similar advertisement on p. 2 of the Aug. 23, 1867 edition of the Caledonian, has this additional statement: “…Also, Albums and a fine variety of Stereoscopic views. White Mountains, Battle Field, and other views for the low price of $3.00 per dozen, and another lot of those Decalcomic Paintings…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“An Old Rogue.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (June 13, 1862): 3. [“We publish below a .spirited- correspondence between a distinguished literary lady of Boston and Mr. F. B. Gage of this place, The correspondence will sufficiently explain, itself, and will distinctly recall to our readers a distinguished Dr., an old acquaintance of the “circulating order,” and will serve as another warning to our citizens not to trust too much to appearance. It is due to the lady to say that she was only duped by being misinformed that the gallant Dr. had reformed from his intemperate habits and had adopted an honorable course of life.
Boston, May. 30, 1862.
My Dear Cousin:—J. R. Dix, Esq., author, etc., etc., has this moment left the house after one of his calls. Your portrait hung on the wall, your pictures lay on the table, and quite naturally our conversation reverted to you. Under such circumstances, I could not resist the temptation to repeat the story of your night at the Hancock House—the midnight attack of the bloodthirsty compagnons de lits, and your utter defeat, which you so well avenged. Snatching from his pocket a pencil, .the gentleman cried— “Bring me paper;” and in thirty seconds produced the following, which I transcribe, wishing to preserve the original,
Yours, very sincerely,
In his bed lay Gage, in a terrible rage,
In condition which oft we’ men see:
But there he lay, not till break of day—
He rose in poetical frenzy.
The spirit of Poetry came to his aid,
He brushed off the insects with curses,
And lo! Inspiration wiped out his vexation,
And he scratched off some wonderful verses.
St. Johnsbury, June 2, 1862.
Your little note, dear coz., is read;
I trust my answer will be short—
Where scoundrels drag me into rhymes,
I spare them not when I retort.
Some years ago—perhaps ’twas six—
There came a man into our town;
He called himself one John Ross Dix,
An English author of renown.
He came to lecture; and he gave
Two lectures here in Union Hall;
When people thought it wise to save
Their time, for all his talk was small.
He soon got drunk; and got in debt,
For pictures, printing, and his board;
Then run away one certain day,
Before a single bill was scored.
He-left a carpet-bag, I think
The landlord said, with nothing in’t,
Except an empty whiskey flask,
A poem, and a worn-out flint.
He borrowed from a lady, too,
One dollar, which she thinks is sunk:
He failed to pay, but did not fail
To get himself supremely drunk.
There is no honor in that man.
No honesty nor manliness;
I hold him in such vast contempt
That words its vastness can’t express.
He came well recommended here
For doing things both just and good;
Where John Ross Dix got recommends,
I’m very sure the Devil could.
Oh, cousin, if he call again,
His stay I fancy will be short,
If you remind him of his lines,
Then read to him this plain retort.
Truly Yours, F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Remember The Dead.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Jan. 9, 1863): 3. [“You can have Beautiful Card Pictures of your deceased friends made from Daguerreotypes or Ambrotypes for Christmas & New Years Presents. Also copied to frame and finished in ink or colored. Card Pictures of various styles from $.50 to $3.50 per dozen, at St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery. F. B. GAGE. Proprietor.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Caledonia County Fair.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 25, 1863): 2. [“The 18th Annual Fair of the Caledonia County Agricultural society was held on the Fair Ground in St Johnsbury on Tuesday and Wednesday Sept. 22 and 23, 1863.
Tuesday, Sept. 23. The day opened (shall we say, as usual?) with a cold, drizzling rain, which continued at internals throughout the forenoon. This fact doubtless kept some stock and many people away from the first day’s fair….”
Floral Hall.
“ln regard to the articles of household manufacture, embroidery, fancy articles, and a huge mass of property which we should class under the head of “miscellaneous,” we are not competent to judge of and have not much to say. The show was good, as the continuous crowd which filled the building abundantly evidenced. Without drawing comparisons, and at the risk of being considered a reporter of poor taste, we will say that a “love of a bonnet” was exhibited by no less than three manufacturers and dealers: Mrs. Johnson of Railroad street, Miss McDougall and Mrs. Fleetwood of Main street. The establishment made of moss was very unique and a great attraction in Floral Hall. There were two beautifully executed crayons hung up by some one, who, we could not learn. Some pencillings by Amanda L. Brown of Lower Waterford, were very good indeed. Mrs. M. Badger of Danville, exhibited some picture frames that showed great ingenuity and skill in the composition. Gage occupied a prominent place with his photographs, which are hard to beat, as every one knows….”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Wanted.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Apr. 8, 1864): 3. [“Any honest, industrious, intelligent young man wishing to learn the Photography business, will find good inducements at the St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery. The best references required. Apply immediately. F. B. Gage.” (This ad ran for months, apparently without any positive result.)]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Lost in Battle.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (June 17, 1864): 2. [“Large, beautiful, imperishable Portraits of any friend who has been
Lost In Battle
Can be made from Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, card pictures or card negatives.
Perfectly Satisfactory
Likenesses
Guarantied!
These are the most
Pleasing Mementos
That can be preserved of those who have laid down their lives for the Nation’s welfare. Call at the
St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery
And examine specimens. F. B. Gage, Proprietor.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Living and Dead. Card Pictures.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 8, 1864): 3. [“Of Abraham Lincoln; Wendell Philips, Capt. E. B. Frost, Willie Johnson, the Little Drummer Boy, Lieut. Able Morrill, Mrs. Butler, (over 100 years old).
Also card pictures of other distinguished persons for sale at the St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Local and State Items.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 16, 1864): 3. [“—Dr. Bullard hat returned from Newbern. We understand that both he and Col. Grout procured about 30 recruits.
—Copper has been discovered in several towns in Essex county. A vein has been opened in Concord that promises rich results.
—Carlos Pierce’s big Sanitary Fair ox, — a five thousand pounder—passed through here in Monday en route for the State fair. An effort is being made to get him to our county fair. He is two sizes larger than Van Amburgh’s elephant, and is growing every day.
—Rev. James P. Stone was in town a day or two the present week, preaching in his old church at the Centre in the afternoon and speaking to the North Church sabbath school in the evening of Sunday. Most of our readers are aware that he has been for the past fifteen months laboring among the Freedmen at Hampton, near Fortress Monroe, Va. He soon returns to his field of labor, and he earnestly begs of Christian men and women here at the North to send him money, women and children’s second-hand clothing, bedding of all descriptions, to save the lives of the thousands of contrabands who are flocking within the Union lines utterly destitute, and many of whom must die of exposure as cold weather approaches unless relieved by the hand of charity. Send letters and packages to “Tyler House, Fortress Monroe, Va.
— Mr. Gage has photographed a striking picture that appeared in Harper’s Weekly a short time since, entitled “Compromise with the South—dedicated to the Chicago Convention.” It represents in the foreground a Union soldier, minus one leg, and on crutches as leaning over a grave and shaking hands with a southerner armed to the teeth, and holding in one hand a cat-o’-nine-tails.— The headstone of the grave is inscribed—”In memory of the Union Heroes who fell in a useless war.” Kneeling over this grave is the goddess of Liberty. In the background on the side of the southerner is a group of slaves manacled, and a white Union man swinging from a gibbet. On the other side there is a representation of the barbarities of the rebels so common of late. It is an excellent picture for the peace men to look at and ponder.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Local and State News.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 25, 1864): 3. [“ —The “Man of Rough Exterior” modestly announces in our advertising columns to-day that he will read poems of his own production, to our citizens, at the Town Hall, on Saturday evening next, for the benefit of the Christian Commission. It has a worthy object and we conclude it will be a novel entertainment. Mr. Gage proposes to pay all the expenses so that all money taken at the door will go to the aid of our sick and disabled soldiers. Tickets 15 cts., for sale at Howard’s.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Novel Patriotic Entertainment!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 25, 1864): 3.
[“Novel Patriotic Entertainment: At the Town Hall. Saturday Eve., Nov. 26
F. B. Gage will read selections from nearly 200 poems of his own productions. Selections, will be made of such only as are suitable for the occasion. The poems will be upon a great variety of subjects and in many different styles from those of an amusing character to the grave, the philosophical and patriotic. The entire amount taken for tickets will go to the Christian Commission for the relief of our sick and disabled soldiers.
Tickets 15 Cents.
For Sale at T. M. Howard’s Bookstore.
Doors open at 7. Entertainment to commence at 7 ½ o’clock.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Brief Locals.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Dec. 30, 1864): 3. [“—The funeral services connected with the death of Harrison W. Varney, who died at Annapolis from cruel treatment by the rebeIs at Andersonville were held at the Methodist church to-day (Thursday.) From letters received from his chaplain, and the nurse during his last days, we learn that s he lived a good life and died a happy death. In his last letter to his wife were these long to be remembered words: “I am on my death bed. I die under the protecting folds of the starry banner of freedom! Take good care of our little one, and prepare to meet me in Heaven.”
—Mrs. E. A. Kingsbury of Philadelphia will lecture in the Town Hall on Tuesday evening next at 7½ o’clock. Subject: Our Country, in Fetters and in Freedom. Admission 15 cents. After the lecture there will be for sale the photographs of the three white slave children Gen. Banks sent North from New Orleans, for the benefit of the free colored people of the South.
—Sparks from the engine caught something in the baggage car on fire near Mclndoes on Tuesday, doing considerable damage before it was discovered.
—There is earnest enquiry all about whether our town will have to raise as many men on the new call as though we had put in one year’s men instead of three years’ men last fall. Our authorities had positive assurance from the War Department, when raising the men last summer, that should there be another call for men the quotas should be evened up and those towns that put in three years’ men should have credit accordingly. It will be a flagrant act of bad faith unless it is done.
—At a meeting of the Ladies Soldiers Aid Society, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: Resolved, That a vote of thanks be tendered to Mr. F. B. Gage, and to Miss Kate Kittredge for gifts of twenty dollars and fourteen dollars and twenty-five cents, respectively. C. M. Chamberlin, Sec.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Splendid Imperishable Portraits,” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 13, 1865): 3.
[“Such As Those
Exhibited At The Late County Fair,
Can Be Made
From Old Imperfect Ambrotypes,
Daguerreotypes and Card Pictures of deceased persons. Call and see specimens.
Colored Card Pictures,
Views of Residences, &c.
Just Received—A new and large supply of
Oval, Black Walnut and Black Polished
Frames,
At Gage’s Portrait Gallery. St Johnsbury, Sept. 22, 1865.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Good Templars.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 10, 1865): 3. [“The following officers were elected by Harmony Lodge, No. 17, for the quarter commencing Nov. 1:
J. P. Scarry, P. W. C. T.
F. B.Gage, W. C. T.
Julia A. Carpenter. W. V. T.
C. H. Walter, W. S.
Julia Martin, W. T.
C. C. Bingham, W. P. S.
A. W. Williams, W. M.
Mrs. M. B. Flint, W. I. G.
S. W. Hall, W. O. G.
H. P. Hoyt, Chaplain.
Mrs. C. H. Walter, W.A. S.
Jossie Stevens, W. D. M.
Mrs. L. H. Gage, W. E. S.
Ottie P. Carpenter, W. L. S.
L. O. Stevens, Lodge Deputy.
Meetings Tuesday evenings.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “The Wonder!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (June 15, 1866): 3.
[“Far up among the Green Mountains
In the valley of the Passumpsic
In the County of Caledonia
In the village of St. Johnsbury
In the store where Hall & Peck keep
In the room of the Post office
Where a crowd of people gather
Every day just when the mail comes;
In the store where Hall & Peck keep
(And sell goods the very cheapest)
You can see a modern wonder
You can see a tiny tintype
See a little tiny tintype
Never much but now so faded
You would call it a dim picture
You will also see a portrait
See a large and splendid portrait
Copied from that little tintype
Made into a splendid painting
Made and finished up at Gage’s
You will wonder ‘tis so perfect
So much like a living being
You will almost think it breathing.
After you have gazed and wondered
And expressed your admiration
You’ll go home and muse upon it
And you’ll think of some old picture .
And some dear one dead and buried
You will search and find that picture
And you’ll take it up to Gage’s
That you may behold another
Wonder great it was the portrait,
That was made from that small tintype
You will tell your friends about it
They will come and see the picture
So that Gage’s reputation
Will so overshadow others
That all will know where to go to
To get portraits of their dear ones
Of their dear ones dead and buried.
• • • • • • • •
Once a daring, little creature
Once a radiant little cherub
A little fairy full of fondness
Filled a happy home with laughter
But then Autumn cold and cheerless
Clad the hills in crimson raiment
She lay down to sleep for ever
Two days after, from her features
A small photograph was taken
From that photograph a painting
Sprung and grew to wond’rous beauty’
And almost unknown perfection
They who loved the fairy creature
Feel and know that is Like Her
Who once filled their home with gladness
Like that dear one dead and buried
Call at Hall & Peck’s and see it!
F. B. Gage.”
________________________________
“Another Wonder”
“I have been to the post office.
To the store that Hall & Peck keep,
And sell goods so very cheap;
And I saw that little tintype;
Saw that little faded tintype,
Scarce could see that little tintype,
‘Twas so much worn and so faded.
Time had wrought on it such changes
That the picture never worth much,
Could scarcely now be seen at all.
Longer still I gazed and wondered,
Wondered at the face before me,
Wondered if it really could be.
That that picture large and life like,
That the picture full of beauty.
Could be copied from that worn out
From that faded worn out tintype.
Truly that a wondrous art is,
And Gage is a wondrous artist,
And I hope that all who have a
Little, faded worn out tintype.
Quick will take it unto Gage’s.
He will stand and look upon it,
Stand and look a while upon it;
Then will smile and say he thinks that
He can make a splendid picture,
He can make a life-like picture,
From that little good for nothing;
Very small and faded tintype, But there is another wonder.
Not so great perhaps as Gage’s,
Yet a wonder surely it is;
As those who sleep well will tell you.
All those who are so very wise are,
As to buy a good spring mattress,
A spring mattress of Cassino;
For it is the very best bed,
As all those who use it do say,
(And their number now is many,)
If you will but ask them of it.
Ask about this good spring mattress;
This spring mattress that Cassino
Will .sell to you if you ask him,
If you have the greenbacks with you,
Have the greenbacks to give him
For the mattress he will sell you.
J. T. Cassino. St. Johnsbury, Vt.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“The Farmer’s Festival. Twenty-First Caledonia County Agricultural Fair.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 21, 1866): 3. [“Seed time and harvest have come and gone once more, and with the ingathering crops the farmers again gather in their accustomed festivals. Very many of our readers recollect the first fairs held on the old grounds north of Paddock’s village; those were called good fairs, but they bear no comparison to the fairs now held by the same society. Fewer people recollect the fair held at Lyndon corner more than twenty-five years ago, and the one held here on the flat northwest of where the Methodist church now stands, some over twenty years ago. Agricultural fairs were then in a primitive state in Vermont; since then great improvements have been made. So much by way of preamble. We now propose to speak somewhat of the exhibition of I866:…
Floral Hall.
Of Floral Hall we do not propose to speak very minutely. This is always a great attraction at these fairs, and the present year was no exception to the general rule. Directly in the center of the exhibition building F. B. Gage the artist had established his portrait gallery. Of his pictures we have no need to say a word—they speak for themselves. Although the artist may pride himself on his “rough exterior,” he is quite as proud of his skillful workmanship….”
Miscellaneous Articles
Patch work ottoman Mrs. H Curtis $.50.
2d Mrs. Houston, St J. $.50.
Sofa pillow L A Chase, St J. $.50.
(Etc.)
Bead work Jennie Jewell (blind) $.50.
(Etc.)
Picture and frame Mrs. C. H. Walter $.25.
Oil painting Mrs. H C Newell $.50.
(Etc.)
Leaf wreath Louisa Bemick, St J $.25.
Best photographs F B Gage $2.00.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Connecticut River Valley Fair.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 12, 1866): 3. [“At this fair held at Bradford, Mr. F, B. Gage of this place, took a $10 premium on his collection of photograph portraits. This is deserved. Gage stands at the head of all the artists in this section. Mr. Caswell’s three years old colt also took the first premium at this fair. A. Newbury man got the refusal of this splendid animal at $1000. W. J. Henderson of Ryegate took the second-premium on stallions, and E. B. Kenney of Mclndoes Falls, on cheese.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Complimentary to the Artist.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 2, 1866): 3. [“An old lady having occasion to visit Gage’s new portrait gallery lately, was surprised on entering the door to encounter the familiar face of Dr. Bullard. “Well Doctor,” said she, “I am not feeling well to-day; can you prescribe for me?!’ Not receiving a reply as soon as she expected, she adjusted her spectacles and approached a little nearer. “Law, me!” she exclaimed in astonishment, “this is only a picture —why, I really thought it was the doctor himself!” Gage’s gallery is lighted evenings and is open for the reception of visitors.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Patent Granted.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 5, 1867): 3. [“Mr. F. B. Gage of this town, has received a patent from the United States for a process for blending the lights and shades of pictures made in the camera, and which is considered an important invention. London journals of June 7th publish that Mr. Gage has been granted a patent in England for the same invention. Mr. Gage has also applied for a patent in France. He has also applied in the United States for patents on two other inventions in the photographic art.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “New Patented Pictures.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 19, 1867): 3. [“Specimens of the new pictures patented by F. B. Gage July 9, 1867, may be seen at the St. Johnsbury Portrait Galley, Call and See Them!
A trustworthy girl wanted to work in the Gallery. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Mary.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 2, 1867): 3. [“An Interesting Poem with a Moral.
Two little tin-types out a walking
One day fell earnestly to talking.
One Tin-type said unto the other,
My grief I really cannot smother:
For I’ve been villainously slighted,
And wronged so that it can’t be righted.
Ah! said the other one, replying,
You do look grieved, there’s no denying.
That you’ve been wronged I’d never doubt it,
So tell me plainly all about it.
I wilI — did you know Brigg’s daughter,
She that dwelt just across the water?
She was the fairest of all the creatures,
And I was taken from her features.
And I will own I felt elated,
From one so fair t be created.
Small as I was, in me were traces,
Of all her beauty and her graces.
Briggs owned a farm and lived by tillage,
And Mary daily to the village
Came faithfully in quest of learning,
That treasure so well worth the earning.
But ere her seventeenth year was ended.
Just when the Autumn had descended,
She drooped and died; ’twas sad entombing
A face so beautiful and blooming.
To leave her in the silent keeping
Of those dark walls forever sleeping.
Wrapped in the dreamless everlasting slumber,
Whose years no dial ere can count or number.
How swift it came! oh how appalling.
The shock upon that household falling!
But after Mary had departed,
And all around seemed broken-hearted:
I, in her mother’s work box lying,
Heard all about poor Mary dying.
Her mother then came very often,
And I could see her hard face soften:
And for a long time without stopping,
Could see and feel her big tears dropping.
Her playmates too, scholars and teachers,
Came frequently to see her features.
They prized me, then, beyond all measure,
And I was then their dearest treasure.
Betwixt her memorandum’s pages,
One day she took me down to Gage’s:
Opened the book and showed me to him.
By his long flowing beard l knew him,
And though I saw that she was weeping,
She turned and left me in his keeping.
Although I knew not all the meaning
Of all his focusing and screening:
He, with strange chemicals and vapor,
Copied me large as life on paper.
Upon the easel then ‘twas painted,
While I looked on and almost fainted:
Knowing if that were once created
I should thence forth be underrated.
Daily I saw the Iikeness growing,
Her bright black eyes, and dark locks flowing:
Her face like purest alabaster,
Until I saw and knew him master,
Of that great, wonderous art of giving
That look which makes the dead seem living.
‘Twas done — ’twas taken home – amazing
It was to see and hear the praising.
Folks flocked to see it by the hundred,
Admired it, praised it too, and wondered,
How Gage acquired the art of giving
That Iook which makes the dead seem living.
How was that household once so saddened
Again by Mary’s bright face gladdened.
Her mother blesses him who brought her
Again her almost living daughter.
Her father hourly gazes on it,
Nor mourns the money paid which done it.
• • • • • • • •
Now when the Tin-types tale was ended,
The tears adown its face descended;
For Gage, in fact, as well as story,
Had magnified and stolen its glory!
A heavy grief had fallen upon it,
For none took comfort gazing on it:
And now neglected, and down-hearted,
lt mourned its glory all departed!
Moral
Pause here and heed this little sequel,
Gage made another really equal;
That all may see and feel conviction,
This story’s true and is no fiction.
Come then and see this farmer’s daughter,
She that dwelt just across the water.
Persons who have small pictures which they wish enlarged and painted, should not lose the present opportunity of getting them done at the St. Johnsbury Portrait Gallery as the health of the present proprietor may compel him to leave the business. By the new processes just patented by F. B. Gage, better card and other pictures are made than ever before. They can be obtained at no other place in this vicinity. F. B. Gage. St, Johnsbury, July, 1867.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Wanted.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 30, 1867): 3. [“A lady with some taste for pictures to learn to print and finish card photographs. A permanent, light and pleasant employment. Apply by letter or otherwise to F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Vt.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Caledonia County Fair.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 27, 1867): 2. [“The twenty-second annual fair of the Caledonia County Agricultural society commenced Tuesday, Sept. 24th — one of the brightest of all the beautiful days of this beautiful month. The people of the County turned out with their best productions, and the exhibition, taken all in all, has never been equalled in this county, and people who attend other fairs, say it has been excelled no where….”
(Etc.)
Wax flowers Miss N. S. Graves St J $.25.
Pictures Miss Mary Hale Peacham $.50.
Water colors Miss Eliza D. Gleason $.50.
(Etc.)
Wax boquet Miss Lucy Currier Walden $.25.
Chemise yoke Mrs. D. W. Shaw St J dip.
Shell work M. Adams $.50.
(Etc.)
Photographs F. B. Gage St J dip.
Ottoman Miss Lucy Hawkins D’vl $.25.
(Etc.)…”]
KILBURN, BENJAMIN WEST.
“Wells River.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 8, 1867): 3. [“Mr. Kilburn the well known Photographer of Littleton, has recently taken several very interesting stereoscopic views in this vicinity. One represents the Montreal R. R. bridge between here and Woodsville. The picture gives us a very beautiful view of the bridge itself, and then quite as fine a view of the island just above it at the bank beyond the bend in the river, Bath mountain, and a portion of the sky above mirrored in the smooth surface of the Connecticut. Another represents the valley of the Connecticut as seen from the Pass. R. R. track, just above the bridge over the Wells River. Either of these pictures will bear a favorable comparison with the productions of any stereoscope manufacturer in the land. They not only illustrate the degree of perfection to which the art has been carried, but, quite as strikingly, they show how much of beauty there is in nature’s landscapes on every hand.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Wind and Rain.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (July 17, 1868): 3. [“…On Wednesday afternoon at five o’clock, there was a heavy thunder shower at this place, accompanied by much wind, which refreshed the earth and purified the air. Probably the wind and rain beat down the growing crops and much made hay was thoroughly wet and our highways are badly washed out for the first time this season, but the chance in the weather is very grateful.
“Struck by Lightning.”– During the shower Wednesday afternoon the lightning struck the north chimney on the store of E. F. Brown, scattering the brick in every direction, and throwing some of them ten rods, though the larger part were hurled down upon the building of S. Higgins, demolishing two windows and a door in the part occupied by O. C. Dow. The fluid passed the entire length of the chimney to the cellars where it is supposed to have passed into the ground, although no trace of it appears there except the bursting open of the small door at the base of the chimneys and the scattering of soot about the floor. In the upper story, used by Gage as a photograph gallery, the floor was torn up about the stove, and some large splinters thrown up with such force as to break through the ceiling and lodge in the lath. The stove pipes and caps, soot and ashes were thrown about the rooms. Mr. Gage was at work at the sink in his back room, but had a moment before stepped into the front room to close a window, and was returning when the bolt came. Had he remained at the sink he would most probably have been killed, as the floor was ripped up by the sink, directly where he was standing. The building is occupied as stores, shops and offices, and a family lives in the second story, but notwithstanding it was full of people, no one was injured, and no one complains of feeling even an electric shock. It was a most Providential escape. Those who stood on the piazzas on the opposite side of the street, and saw the flash, represent it to have appeared like two large balls of fire descending upon the building, and giving it the appearance of being in one mass of flame.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“The Holidays and Our Advertisers.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Dec. 18, 1868): 2. [“Photographs.”
“Gage continues to make the pictures for the million. His eccentricities are only equaled by his genius. Not satisfied with making good counterfeits of the form divine, he has lately been taking views about town; and has finished up some very nice stereoscopic views which he is about ready to throw into the market. Gage’s pictures excel in some points those of all the artists.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Familiar Places.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 20, 1869): 3. [“Next to a local newspaper, the old-time residents of a town like to get pictures of old familiar places. Mr. Gage has been for a year or two taking stereoscopic views all about the village, and in other villages and other towns; Some of these are highly prized by those who remember places as they were. In a year or two a view of Main street at the junction of Eastern avenue, as it was last April, will be prized by many. Mr. Gage’s gallery is full of views, valuable for associations—and any one will find it so who takes the pains to examine it.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Wood! Wood!! Wood!!!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Jan. 7, 1870): 3
[“If you want some pictures good,
Gage will take his pay in wood;
And if you have no wood to sell,
Cash will answer just as well.
January 1, 1870.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Novel Advertising.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (June 3, 1870): 3 [“While photographing Springfield, Vt., some days ago, Mr. F. B. Gage of this place made a picture of Black River Falls; including in this picture the original manufactory of the United States Piano Co., whose warehouses are now at 645 Broadway, New York. It being a very attractive picture, the Piano Co. saw money in it, and they have ordered 1800 copies which they will use this year to advertise their pianos.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Christ and the Cross.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 30, 1870): 1. [“Whoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven”—Matt, x: 35.
Show me the Christ—
I will cry to him!
Show me the Christ—
I will fly to him!
Show me the Christ—
I will die for him,
And bless him forever and ever!”
Hold up the Cross—
I will sing to it!
Hold up the Cross—
I will cling to it!
Hold up the Cross—
I will bring to it
Hosannahs forever and ever!
Give me the Cross—
I will boast of it!
Give me the Cross—
And the Host of it!
Give me the Cross—
The Holy Ghost of it
Shall bless me forever and ever!
Sept. 1870.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“The Caledonia Fair.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 30, 1870): 2. [“The Fair of 1870 opened auspiciously Tuesday, the 27th inst. At an early hour the people began flocking towards the fair grounds, and there was little cessation in the flow until about the middle of the afternoon, when the tide set outward….”
Photography
Portrait F. B. Gage, St J $2.00.
2d T C Haynes, St J $1.00.
Carte de visite Photographs T. C. Haynes $2.00.
2d F. B. Gage $1.00.
Ambrotypes or Tintypes T. C. Haynes $2.00.
2d F. B. Gage $1.00.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “The Last Look.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 7, 1870): 1. [Thoughts at the funeral of Miss Army Weeks, at the Methodist Church. St. Johnsbury, Sunday; September 25, 1870.
The hymns were sung, the prayers were said,
And, when the coffin lid was raised,
The throng passed round with muffled tread
And on the dead in silence gazed.
Ah would that I could read the thought
Of all who gazed upon her face:
How much repentance was there wrought?
How many thoughts of heavenly grace?
How many passed with vacant stare,
And read no lesson from the sight?
How many gazed whose dark despair,
Grew blacker than the blackest night?
God only knows—his eye can scan
The secrets of the souls of all;
That God who loves and pities man,
And will not let his sparrows fall.
Ah! mourner as I paused to gaze,
Death’s awful mystery to see,
I joyed to think that Christ was raised
A ransom both for you and me.
Ah! will we but stretch out our hand
And let Him lead us to that shore?
That brighter and that better land
Where sin and sorrow are no more.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “A Prayer.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 28, 1870): 1.
[“We have sinned long enough;
Make us, God, strong enough
Our great sins to see!
We’ve scorned thy grace enough,
We’ve shunned thy face enough.
We’ve been disgrace enough,
Oh turn us to Thee!
We have done lies enough;
Make us, God, wise enough
Our own faults to see!
Make our faith sure enough.
Make our lives pure enough,
Help us endure enough,
To cleave unto Thee.
We’ve been sin’s slave enough;
Make us, God, brave enough
Good Christians to be!
Fill us with fear enough,
Make us sincere enough,
Till we’ve dwelt here enough,
And go home to Thee.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “The Captain’s Prayer.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 18, 1870): 1. [“The circumstances here narrated are no fancy sketch. They occurred on board the brig I. B. Lunt, from New York to Savannah, Nov. 8, 1850. The writer of the following poem was one of the passengers, and still retains a vivid recollection of the effect produced by the Captain’s prayer:
At break of day we put to sea;
(Then I had never sailed before,)
On ocean’s vast immensity,
We soon were swept far from the shore;
And night and tempest wild and dark,
Shut in around our little bark.
And then there fell upon my soul,
A-strange and awful loneliness;
A feeling I could not control.
A fear that words cannot express;
A feeling that no power could save
That doomed ship from a watery grave.
And all that long November eve,
We cowered in mortal dread and fear;
We felt the great waves swell and heave,
They seemed to cry:—Your graves are here—
Your eyes no more shall see the land,
For death and judgment are at hand!
But when a Bible, worn and old,
The Captain look from off a shelf.
And read where Christ’s great love is told.
And prayed for us and for himself,
With voice and faith serenely calm.
Our souls were filled with heavenly balm.
For their the Captain’s soul we knew,
That it was calm and true and brave
That all that human hands could do
His hands would do the ship to save: —
And so we trusted him and slept,
While God his-ship in safety kept.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “You and Me. A Thanksgiving Day Poem.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Nov. 25, 1870): 1.
[“In Bethlehem one peaceful morn.
The blessed Son of God was born,
That he might suffer death and be
A sacrifice for you and me!
And oh, what agony he bore
To open wide Redemption’s door,
That you and I might leave our sin,
And come to him and enter in.
A crown of thorns, a mocking name
They gave him to complete his shame;
And then they nailed Him to the tree,
And pierced his side for you and me.
Christ walked the sea in mortal guise
To show the power that in him lies :—
Then He in triumph walked the sea
Of Death to ransom you and me!
Lest dread Oblivion in its waves,
Should chain us as in endless graves;
Lest grim annihilation there
Should swallow us and our despair!
By Jewish hands his blood was spilt,
O! awful deed of shame and guilt!
O! Love unfathomed, that set free
The bonds of death for you and me!–
O, soul of scorn! oh heart of pride!
With Iust and vanity allied,
Will ye the bitter cup renew
And crucify the Christ anew?
Oh, meekness in a manger born!
Pity our pride. subdue our scorn,
And lead us to the cross to kneel.
Where Christ his glory will reveal.
Before Jehovah’s holy throne,
Let us our shame and sins atone;
And while in penitence we pray,
Make life one long Thanksgiving Day.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Local News.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Dec. 9, 1870): 3. [“Mr. F. B. Gage, who has a large collection of poems, will give a public reading at the town hall this (Thursday) evening, at half-past 7 o’clock.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Look Here! Photograph Gallery For Sale!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Dec. 30, 1870): 3. [“Owing to increasing ill health I will sell my Photograph Gallery, and go out of the business. This a chance in a thousand for any one who wishes a good, well-established business. Persons wishing to avail themselves of my long experience in making large pictures should attend to it at once, as I shall sell out and leave the business as soon as possible. F. B. Gage. St. Johnsbury, Vt. Dec. 23, 1870.”]
CLIFFORD, D. A.
“State and Local News.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 15, 1871): 3. [“Mr. D. .A Clifford artist over the Caledonian office, has procured a quantity of views for the stereoscope, taken on Mount Washington last winter. Call and see them.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“The State Fair.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 22, 1871): 2. [“The State Fair which was held in this place last week, though successful in some particulars, on the whole was a lamentable failure, and the subject of quite general complaint. This failure was due to its management;…”
Vermont State Fair.
Mechanic’s Hall.
There were many, things worthy of special notice in Mechanic’s Hall. Prominent among the articles here shown, was an elaborate display of Howe’s Scales, from a railroad track scale down to a post office balance. These scales were evidently got up to exhibit,—not for use, —and they made a very handsome show. It may be proper here to say that the Fairbanks had no scales on exhibition, and have had none at state fairs for several years. These fairs come,at a season of the year when they are pressing their force to the utmost to fill orders, and they actually had not on hand an assortment which they could put into the fair…. a display of files… …agricultural and joiners tools…. a section of water-pipe… …little “coasting wagon”‘ from Springfield was a pretty child’s toy,… …double circular saw mills… farming and other implements. …horse-powers… planers and matchers… hoes, forks and rakes… hay tedders and horse-rakes, plows, cultivators and corn planters, and innumerable other implements of husbandry….carriage work and carriage painting, …phaeton,…a top buggy…open buggies and a sleigh… Sanford’s improved sickle grinder, …Colby’s little washer,: one of those inventions calculated to lessen woman’s hard lot… Gale’s sugar evaporator… a portable gas machine with which he proposes to light buildings… stoves, copper and tinware ; and F. B. Gage had a good exhibition of photographs, life-size, and smaller. G. H. Hastings of Lyndonville also exhibited photographs.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
[Advertisement.] “Dress Making.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Sept. 19, 1873): 3. [“—Mrs. F. B. GAGE will attend to Dress Cutting and Making. Mrs. G. is agent for the Davis Chart, and gives instruction in that system of drafting and cutting any style ladies garments. Rooms in Armington’s new Building, Prospect St., St. Johnsbury.” (Mrs. Gage advertised several times in 1873 and 1874. I wonder if she was working just for interest and pin-money or whether Gage’s apparently increasingly serious illness and the apparent diminished business in his gallery had reduced their income to where she had to do this out of necessity.)]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“The Annual Temperance Meeting.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Jan. 10, 1874): 2. [“The annual meeting of the Caledonia Young Men’s Temperance Society was held at the Town Hall in this place on Saturday, the 24th inst. There was a large attendance present, nearly all parts of the county being well represented….” (Followed by a long and detailed report of the meeting, where reports from various townships in the county were read and committees formed, the Vermont liquor law described and discussed, etc. Organization officers were elected and a resolution to attempt to stop liquor sales and work to elect pro-temperance public officials, who would enforce the liquor laws, were draw up and passed. F. B. Gage was at this meeting and he commented several times throughout, including a statement that “He voted with the Republican party, but hereafter he would vote for temperance men only, without distinction of party…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Death of F. B. Gage.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Aug. 28, 1874): 3. [“The death of Mr. F. B. Gage removes from our place a long-time resident, and an eccentric and in some respects remarkable character. He was eccentric in his dress, looks and manner of life. Always wearing his beard long and flowing years ago when short beards were the style, he became a marked man. During a newspaper controversy some dozen or more years ago, he was designated by his opponent as “the man of rough exterior.” This nom de plume rather pleased than offended Mr. Gage, and he afterwards often assumed it. Mr. Gage’s mind was of quite a literary turn. He formerly wrote a good deal of poetry, but later years he has given more attention to story-writing, and was quite successful, especially in writing childrens’ stories, many of which were published in the Youth’s Companion. Some of his early poems had merit in both sentiment and wit, and many of them found their way into these columns in years past. He battled with disease all his life, and we doubt if he saw a “wee day” in the last twenty years. He leaves a wife and four children.
In one of Mr. Gage’s published poems is the following verse which is appropriate to appear with this notice:
I have a treasure in the blue Beyond!
And since my brow is wrinkled o’er with time,
And all my dearest hopes have passed away
Seeking my treasures in that viewless clime,
I shall lay by my staff some Autumn day,
And pass into the blue Beyond!”]
WEBSTER, J. N. (BARTON, VT))
“Vermont Views.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Feb. 19, 1875): 2. [“We are in receipt of stereoscopic views of some noted places in Vermont, from Mr. J. N. Webster of Barton. They include several views about Willoughby Lake: Newport and Memphremagog: Crystal Lake near Barton; several views on the Connecticut, and the new Congregational church at Barton, Dartmouth College, etc., etc.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, Franklin B. “Mrs. Pope and the Bear.” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 8, 1875): 1. [“You must look out for the sheep, wife. These warm days will bring the bears out of their dens. They will be ravenous, and like as not; they will break into the yard and carry off some of the sheep. l saw bear tracks up the mountain this morning.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Pope, ”they needn’t expert to get any of our sheep. If they come prowling round here, I’ll drive them oft in some way. We need the sheep too much to have them carried off by bears.”
“I wish you understood using the gun, wife. When I am gone, I worry about leaving you and the baby all day alone. The woods are so near, I can’t help thinking some wild animals may come, down from the mountains and attack you.”
“You needn’t fear about that,” answered Mrs. Pope. “To be sure it is lonesome with neither man nor dog about and l presume I should feel safer if I understood handling a gun, but I don’t believe anything will come near in the day-time. So-don’t worry about us, only be sure to get home before dusk.”
“Well, good-bye, then. Don’t expose the baby or yourself to any danger, and I’ll be back before night.”
So saying, Mr. Pope, with a bag of grain on-his horse, started off to the mill, leaving his wife and baby alone in their solitary log cabin in the wilderness.
This conversation occurred in the town of Kirby, Vermont, in the spring of the year 1811, when that region was but little settled, when even women understood they were in constant peril from wild beasts. Jesse Pope’s cabin stood close to the foot of the Kirby mountains, in whose rocky fastnesses bears, catamounts and wolves had their inaccessible dens. Bears, especially, were so thick as to be a sources of constant dread to those who had flocks, or were compelled to leave their homes unprotected, while they went, to the larger settlements on necessary, business.
Mrs. Pope fully understood the peril that surrounded her during her husband’s absence. Her cheerful talk with her husband was not mere bravado. She said what she did, us much to keep her own spirits up as to dispel her husband’s anxiety.. She knew that he must go to the mill, and there was no way for her but to stay at home and be as brave as possible. She was a brave woman. Nature had endowed her with courage, and the surroundings of her early life had all tended to foster and strengthen it. She fully, understood her situation, and when her husband passed out of sight she knew she and her baby were alone in the great wilderness, beyond the reach of help, should anything serious occur. But she had always lived, in the wilderness. The howl of the wolf and the growl of the bear were familiar sounds to her, and she had become accustomed to a lonely life in the woods. So, instead of shutting herself in the house, she went on with her work as usual.
After the breakfast dishes were washed and put away, she brought out her little “linen wheel” and went, to spinning flax. They must have clothes for summer wear, and that was the season to spin and weave, before, the summer fully set in. I can remember my mother and her spinning-wheel, .and I can imagine just how Mrs. Pope looked, sitting with one foot on the treadle. I can hear the buzz of the wheel as it flew round; l can see just how often she dipped her lingers in the little cup of water, as she drew out the fibers of flax, and dexterously shaped the strong symmetrical thread, in a manner that would astonish modern housewives.
All the long forenoon her musical wheel kept humming its pleasant tune, stopping only now and then as its mistress either crowed to the baby in the cradle, or looked out to see that no wild animals were prowling about. Noon came and went, and nothing disturbed them. The baby in the cradle went of to sleep, and she kept on with her work. After a time she rose and looked out again. This time she saw an astounding sight! Coming down the mountain-side from the woods, she beheld a full-grown bear, not a hundred yards distant. He was on his way to the yard where the sheep were in fold, and she knew he was after the sheep. She had a gun, but that would not avail anything, for she had never learned to use it. She had an axe, but she knew an axe to be a poor weapon to fight a bear with. The next thing she thought of was a pitchfork. Their few sheep were a treasure to the family. All their winter clothing was to come from the sheep, and now that they were in peril, she was aroused to instant action. The one absorbing thought of saving the sheep banished all sense of personal danger. Instead of shutting herself up in the house she darted out and closed the door after her lest anything should molest the baby. Then running into the log barn, she snatched up the pitchfork, ran around the barn, and planted herself directly in the bear’s path. Brandishing her pitchfork and screaming at him, she attempted to scare him back to the woods. But the bear was ravenous with hunger, and he came straight down the hill at her, showing his teeth and growling fiercely. As he approached and sprang toward her, Mrs. Pope dodged and dealt him a blow, the iron ring of the fork striking him exactly on the end of the nose. The shock stunned the bear for an instant, and during that one instant, with almost superhuman strength, Mrs. Pope plunged both tines of the fork into the bear’s side, where she supposed the heart to be. Either good fortune, or the hand of Providence, directed the weapon, for one of the tines passed clear through the bear’s heart, and he fell over dead, leaving, her not only victorious, but unharmed. After the excitement of the contest was over, Mrs. Pope went back to the house, shuddering at the extremity of peril she had been in. But after a time her nervousness passed off, and she went on with her work again; and so the afternoon, wore away.
At length, when the sun was about an hour high, she saw her husband emerge from the woods near the house. She left her spinning-wheel, and, with the baby in her arms, met him at the door as if nothing unusual had occurred. As he came up to the door leading the horse with one hand, and holding on the bag of flour with the other, he spoke out:
“Well, wife, I am thankful nothing has happened to you while I was gone. I suppose it was foolish, but I couldn’t help worrying all the time.”
“I don’t know as it was foolish, husband. But hitch the horse, and bring the bag in. I want to talk with you.”
When the bag was deposited in the house, Mrs. Pope said, “So you were nervous about us then?
”Yes. I don’t remember ever being so nervous before in my life.”
“Well, husband, I was nervous, too. I couldn’t help thinking what could I do if a bear should come down from the mountain after the sheep.”
“Why, common sense would tell you what to do; shut the door, take care of yourself and baby, and let the sheep go.”
“Do you think so, husband?” “Of course I do. What else could you have done?”
“You will see if you go out behind the barn and look.” “Behind the barn! What do you mean?”
“I mean what I say. Go and look behind the barn.” Mr. Pope started out in the greatest wonder, while, her wife buried her face in the baby’s apron to smother the womanly tears she could no longer restrain.
To his utter astonishment Mr. Pope found the dead bear behind the barn; with the pitchfork sticking in its side.
When he went in and heard the whole story from his wife; he fully realized that something had happened in his absence, and that he had more reason than ever to be thankful.
I am indebted to the wife of James Harris. Esq., of St. Johnsbury, for this history of Mrs. Pope’s encounter with the bear. Mrs. Harris’s father—Rev. Timothy Locke —lived not far from Mr. Pope’s house at this time; Mrs. Harris stilI distinctly remembers seeing the bear’s skin nailed on the outside of the barn, where it remained all summer, while Mrs. Pope became famous throughout the neighborhood for her heroism.”]
HASTINGS, GEORGE H. (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT))
[Advertisement.] “Photographs!” THE CALEDONIAN (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT) (Oct. 8, 1875): 4. [“Home again and in the old quarters (formerly occupied by F. B. Gage) after a winter’s stay in one of the first galleries in Boston, perfecting my self in the art, and with improved facilities, think we can please all who may favor us with their patronage. AII the New and Different Styles. Gotten up with neatness and dispatch. Stereoscopic Views of the Village and Vicinity. Albums, frames, Bookmarks, etc., etc. For sale at low prices. We would invite all to call and examine specimens of work. Geo. H. Hastings, Brown’s Block, Main Street, St. Johnsbury, Vt. May 12.”]
HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Photography in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 8:19 (Feb. 1, 1857): 289-292. [Letter from F. B. Gage, plus the editor’s description of seventeen photographs primarily views – of New Hampshire, taken by Gage.]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Collodion Process.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 9:1 (May 1, 1857): 2-4. [Gage from St. Johnsbury, VT.]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “More about Saltpetre – Light in the Dark Room, &c.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 9:23 (Apr. 1, 1858): 358-359. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: I was somewhat alarmed on reading your correspondent C. G.’s paper, in No. 22 of your Journal, in regard to the combustible nature of the drippings from the silver bath. As the table where I keep my hath had become thoroughly saturated with silver, I chipped off a small piece to try it, as C. G. proposed, placed it at a respectable distance from the dangerous table, and proceeded with a palpitating heart to try a match. I beg C. G.’s pardon, but it was no go—not the match, but the chip. I then supplied myself with a pail of water and proceeded to touch off the table, fully expecting that it would blow up notwithstanding the chip did not. Here, however, I was as sadly disappointed as in the other case, for it would not go off “no-how.” Astonished at this, I sat down and reflected that, perhaps, my table had none of that “double elective affinity” that C. G. tells about, and that that was the reason it would not explode. Perhaps some of my brethren may be more fortunate, and not find so much difficulty in blowing up when they try the experiment. C. G., however, had better keep an eye to his gun-cotton and collodion. I will wager that he can blow them up, at any time, without much extra trouble I will guarantee, also, that pine tables are not one-half as dangerously explosive. I speak from experience, as I was blown up by the vapor of collodion not long since, whereby my favorite beard (only 12 ½ inches long), eye-brows, and hair were most woefully singed. I advise every one not to fulfill that passage of Scripture which says: “Go thou and do likewise,” as it might be a little dangerous if over-done. C. G. speaks of dark-rooms. For my part, I have no taste for dark-rooms, and have nothing of the kind about my establishment. I silver and develop my pictures under a skylight, where it is so light that you may see to read the finest print, or even a watchmaker could clean and put up watches without the least difficulty. One thickness of lemon yellow paper (about the thickness of that upon which Humphrey’s Journal is printed) is all that I use to change the light. This sheet is placed over the window so as to exclude all the white light. The light coming through this sheet tinges everything yellow, but still leaves it so light that you can see the picture grow up under the developer with as much certainty as one can desire. The paper should be of a lemon yellow color; orange yellow would not do as well. We have used yellow light for nearly two years past for developing, silvering, toning, and all such purposes, and would not go back to the lamp for “heaps of money.” I have a photographic tent, for field-work, made of yellow cloth, which works well, of which I may say more hereafter. O, ye sons of light, that toil in darkness! throw your gas and fluid lamps to the dogs—take the daylight into your dark-room, through a yellow curtain, and you never will repent the day you removed such a “stumbling-block” from your establishments. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Dark Room again – Lemon-yellow,” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 9:24 (Apr. 15, 1858): 371.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Effect of Light upon White Lead and Ivory Black.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 9:24 (Apr. 15, 1858): 371.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Remedy for Foggy Nitrate Baths.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:1 (May 1, 1858): 3-5.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Adaptation.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:3 (June 1, 1858): 36-37.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Theory of the Negative Process.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:4 (June 15, 1858): 49-51.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Quick versus Slow Processes; their comparative Merits.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:5 (July 1, 1858): 65-66.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Foggy Baths Again.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:5 (July 1, 1858): 68.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Cleaning Glass.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:5 (July 1, 1858): 68-69.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Washing Prints.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:6 (July 15, 1858): 83-84. [To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: There is a great deal written in foreign journals, and by foreign writers, about long soaking of prints after they come from the toning-bath. One recommends passing them through three or four dishes of water, changing the water and dishes continually for five or six hours, and then let them soak for twenty-four hours longer. Another is strongly in favor of sponging, which is sure to perform the cure and leave them freed of chemicals. One soaks (them in a running stream for one or two days; another soaks them twenty-four hours and then finishes with boiling water. Thus any amount of ignorance and folly is displayed by these writers, who seem more anxious to see their names in print, attached to some “darling conceit of their own,” than to suggest anything really beneficial to the art. The farther they get from what common sense would dictate, the better they seem pleased and the more glory they take to themselves therefore. There is so much wrangling among them about who was the inventor of the honey process, who used (sulphate of irons first, and a hundred other equally useless points, that it is almost impossible for them to find time to do anything else but wrap their neighbors’ knuckles and call hard names. It seems an easy thing to determine what is the best manner of cleansing prints of the excess of chemicals. A running stream is certainly not to be excelled by any other process, if the stream is large enough to change the water rapidly. The stream should be large enough to free the print from soda in one hour, and never, under any consideration, more than three hours. This soaking the prints until the soda is all out, and then soaking them till the sizing is all gone, and still longer, until the organic matter in the water penetrates the pores of the paper and commences a decomposition of its tissues, is “all bosh.” How would our ambrotypes look if soaked two or three days in dead, dirty water? Would it be likely to improve the whites? Half of the smutty prints in vogue are owing to the half-rotten state they are in from long soaking. The beauty of a print, after one or two hours’ washing, begins rapidly to diminish, caused by the decomposition and softening of the sizing. The amount of chemicals that are left in the print after two hours good cleansing, in a running stream of water, is not half as likely to fade the print as the organic matter, deposited from the water, and the sizing are. This not only seems reasonable, but it is corroborated by experience and observation. I have noticed that prints soaked in a strong running stream for not more than three hours, have invariably proved brighter and more durable than those that have soaked twenty-four hours. Those that have remained in two days have lost all their beauty, and in three days were entirely ruined. Prints should be soaked in small lots and not piled in and allowed to mat together. If the water is very cold, or the paper uncommonly thick, it may need a longer time. Every one must use his own judgment in these matters. Therefore I say, “Photos,” don’t try to do your work so the roughly as to overdo and spoil it. Overdone beef-steak is horrible, and an over-soaked print is in exactly the same category. If it seems that one or two hours’ soaking is better than twenty-four, try it and note the result. Don’t take my word, nor any one’s, for your own standard, but use your own common sense, and you will arrive at some definite time for the cleaning. This is a progressive world, and old customs and opinions are of no value only so far as they are founded on truth. The plow-share of experiment must break through them, while observation stands by to note the result—to retain the good and reject the bad. The man that has a monstrous veneration for old customs or opinions, or anything that smacks of antiquity will never succeed in this new art. His ever-busy competitor, Experiment, is enthusiastically going ahead and will leave him so far in the rear, that ruin is sure to follow from which there is no escape. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Keeping Collodion Plates Sensitive.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:6 (July 15, 1858): 84-86. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: In your notices to correspondents, in a late No. of your Journal, you call upon me to give my views of the best method to keep plates sensitive for field use, and also my opinion as to what is the best way to build a tent for the same purpose. In regard to keeping plates sensitive for field-work, I think it is entirely useless to try any dry process unless you are willing to be satisfied with inferior results. It is chemically impossible to get as good results on a dry film as on a wet one; for the freshly silvered plate, when just removed from the nitrate bath and exposed to light, is in the best possible condition to receive the developing and produce the desired results. The dry processes are all, except, perhaps the albumen) in my opinion, sheer humbugs, and are just fit for English amateurs, who have nothing else to do, to quarrel over. Having tried them the roughly, I am convinced of their demerits. All the preservative mixtures are also mere vexation; they are an element not needed and not to be admitted if you are determined to seek the greatest degree of artistic perfection. But if you are fond of streaks, stains, fogs, and scums, you can daub your plate with honey, oxymel, gelatine, or any other kind of adstickitiveness (I did not get that word from Webster) that happens to suit your individual fancy, and I will warrant that you will produce these effects with but little trouble. It is very singular that Taupenot never produced anything but the most perfect results with Taupeuot’s process. Barnes always gets splendid impressions with Barnes’ process. Shadbolt never made a poor impression with Shadbolt’s process. Maxwell Lyte never fails with Lyte’s process; and so it goes through almost the whole catalogue of foreign writers, each one claiming his own darling process as infallible, and condemning all others as not giving as good results as his own. It is equally singular also, that none but the originators of these respective processes can work them and get good results. The publication of every new process brings out a whole army of amateurs who besiege the journals for months with their troubles and inquiries. Thus it is almost impossible to put any reliance upon these crazy-headed enthusiasts, who are by far too near perfection (in their own opinion) to improve. The only process for keeping plates sensitive that I have found worthy of adoption is, to sensitize and use them as soon as possible while wet, and the sooner they are used the better; every minute they are allowed to remain out of the bath, before developing, deteriorates and destroys more or less of the good qualities of the resulting negative.
Tent for Field Use.
My tent for field use is made of two thicknesses of black cambric and two of yellow calico, stretched over three hoops, made of white oak, 5 feet in diameter. These hoops are placed two feet apart, and the tent when raised is about five and a half feet high, with a cone roof of two feet above that. A strong cord is attached to the top of the cone for the purpose of suspending the tent from the limb of a tree or any other convenient object. When we wish to operate inside we lift one edge of the bottom and stoop down so as to go under it, and when done we return in the same way. This plan operates quite well, but I shall build another soon which I can recommend as being far better for that purpose. Make a light frame about three feet wide by four and a half or five feet long, and high enough to stand up in. This should have as light a floor as can be made and be of the required strength to sustain the operator. Cover the whole with the cloth as described for the other tent. This tent should be mounted on two light wheels—”horsecart-fashion”—so that the artist can pack in apparatus and materials and go where and when he chooses. A door in the end will admit the operator and a yellow oil-cloth window will let in as much light as is needed to operate. When you arrive at a place where you wish to take an impression, it is but an instant’s work to take the wheels off your cart; your house then stands on the ground, and you can proceed with all the coolness of a May morning to take your picture. When done, the wheels are returned and you are in a rolling condition again. In this way you need no assistant and are your own “boss and hired hands,” which is not only the cheapest but most certain plan. Such a tent as this, with good chemicals, will “give fits” to any dry process. I will guarantee your correspondents that they will get ten gems with this arrangement where they would get none from any dry process ever yet originated. In a trip of one week to the White Mountains last year we had excellent success, although very high winds prevailed at the time, so as to injure all foliage in the foreground. The tent system is the only one, therefore, that I can recommend to others as worthy of their time and attention.
It is not to be understood by my remarks on foreign writers, that I condemn them as a class or on all points. But on the subject of dry collodion they seem entirely to have thrown common sense aside, and to have run crazy after something that will produce the best results with but little labor. I prefer, however, to lay out more labor if the results are anything better, as they are never too good at the best. Ours is a noble and difficult art, and only patience, perseverance, and toil can conquer it. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Backgrounds, &c.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:7 (Aug. 1, 1858): 102-104. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: The question is often asked—if it requires much study, skill and experience to make a good daguerreotypist or photographist. The opinion seems to prevail, that any man that is capable enough to focus the image of the camera, or coat a plate, is competent to do the business; because it is merely mechanical, composed of a certain amount of manipulations that will necessarily produce artistic results. This idea leads men into the business that are more of a disgrace to the community, to the art, and to themselves, than they are aware of. Men who are so gifted as to aspire to take a copy of the “human face divine,” for the sum of twenty-live cents, are likely to astonish the public with flaming circulars and wonderfully new processes that were discovered somewhere in the regions, of their own brains. Such men will flourish until the community takes them by the windpipe and forcibly stops the incoming and outgoing of their photographic breath. The community will do this only as it becomes educated by the works of the true artist, and learns to distinguish the difference between a picture that is a mere inexpressive images and one where every lineament seems to possess the breathing life and spirit of the friend from whom it was taken, and who now, perhaps,
Lies sleeping in that dreamless sleep
That knows no waking;
in which case the work of the real artist becomes a precious jewel that no price can purchase, while the other is only a source of regret that a better one had not been obtained while living. An incident in my experience will illustrate this point: — Not long ago a lady in deep mourning entered my reception-room. I saw at a glance that she was in deep trouble. Handing me a one-ninth ambrotype, she asked: “Can you do anything to make that look better?” Glancing at it I saw that it was an ambrotype on a single glass, that the black varnish had cracked, and had cracked the image at the same time. More than this, the whole picture had that peculiar yellow cast of an over-toned photograph, caused by the fixing not being well washed out before being finished. I replied, that I feared that it was beyond remedy. I saw the tears start into her eyes instantly, and she said: “That is a picture of my only daughter; we were in Boston last year, and I got that taken at one of the cheap establishments. It never looked much like her, and I have thought every day that I would get a better one taken; but I neglected it, and now she is gone, and that is all there is left of her. I would give anything if I could get as good a likeness of her as some you have here (pointing to some specimens), but it is too late now.” While she was speaking I was looking at the ambrotype, and I fancied it bore a certain resemblance to a person I had seen before. Not being certain, however, I carelessly remarked: “You will find a likeness of a beautiful lady in the gilt frame at the other end of the room; will you step there and look at it?” The picture referred to was a favorite daguerreotype specimen, made some four or five years before, and was a perfect embodiment of soul. Stepping forward she looked at it, and the instant her eyes took in the image she exclaimed: “Oh, dear!” and dropped into a chair, too much overcome to move or speak for several minutes. It was a likeness of her daughter, and one of uncommon beauty and perfection. I had taken it for a specimen, having kept it four years or more. The mother had never known or had forgotten it, and it was only through a good Providence that its existence was thus brought to her knowledge. The mother purchased the picture, was so well pleased with it that ten copies were taken and distributed among her friends, and I received the assurance that that family would never again patronize a cheap establishment on account of cheapness. But I have wandered from my subject; let me return. The study of backgrounds for sun-pictures is a seven years’ study, and a lifetime is not too long to master it. But how many there are that have no backgrounds to their pictures, and consequently no relief to the image. One operator uses a piece of blue cotton cloth hung as a curtain behind the sitter, so near as to be in focus of the instrument. His pictures are taken “beautifully white all over,” and are wedged in between the folds of the aforesaid blue cambric, that being the only thing about them that is not flat; he would be angry enough to astonish you if you were to suggest a different one. Who is going to tell him anything? Hasn’t he been in the business three months, and don’t he know what he is about? This is only one of a thousand who are in just the same category. My friend Veteran, however, is a different man. Veteran has been in the business ten years. Veteran has a taste for pictures—an eye for the beautiful. Veteran beautifies all he touches if he can have his way. But Veteran cannot always have his taste exercised, and Veteran is sometimes sorely puzzled to know what background to use to produce the most, artistic effect. Let us illustrate. Let us give you a pen-photograph of a scene in Veteran’s gallery. A fashionably-dressed young lady walks into Veteran’s reception-room. Veteran is there, and is as polite and attentive as ever. Young lady wants a picture, and wants it made very beautiful; takes off her bonnet and shawl, and proceeds to “prim.” Veteran ventures one look at her person from head to foot, and then runs his eye over his numerous backgrounds and talks to himself in this wise: Background No. 1 will give the best effect to that lady’s head, but it will not harmonize with her dress. No. 2 is too light. No. 3 is too dark. No. 4 is not just the thing. No. 5 is too gaudy. No. 6 is too gloomy for such a cheerful face;” and so he goes through the whole list of backgrounds, and then turns away disappointed, and asks young lady if she will not have a crayon head on No. 1. Lady says no decidedly. Veteran then suggests that perhaps she may have a shawl, or some other outer garment, to throw around her, that will “harmonize with the rest of the figure.” Lady has just got a new dress—made the latest fashion by Madam So-and-So. Lady is indignant—Iooks daggers at Veteran and says: “She don’t care anything about the harmony; all she wants is a good picture” (likeness). Veteran proceeds to despatch one; gets the impression about half taken, and lady says: “I want to look right straight forward, so that both of my ear-jewels will show.” Veteran don’t swear, but he thinks swear, which is just as profane, though not so noisy. Veteran jerks the plate-holder out of the camera, puts in another plate, and has, the picture in a twinkling; it is soon completed. Lady looks at it: “Oh, my! how handsome it is; how plain my dress shows, and only just see how fine the jewelry looks and how red my cheeks are!” Veteran shrugs his shoulders and says: “Beautiful, beautiful!” but ventures only one more look of disgust while pocketing the change. Lady whips on her shawl and bonnet, and is off in a twinkling to show her friends “Oh, such a love of a picture!” but which, in reality, is as far as possible removed from anything like beauty and harmony. Veteran is an enthusiastic admirer of a good picture and equally detests a poor one. Veteran, therefore, sits down in a fit of the blues after the lady has gone; he wishes he was anything but a “picture-taker,” Half an hour passes and he is no better. Suddenly the door opens and a stranger enters. He glances at the pictures for an instant, and then mutters: “Very good, very good!” half to himself and half to Veteran; then takes his hat off abruptly, turns to Veteran and says: “I will sit.” Veteran ventures one glance at his physiognomy and sees he is a splendid subject—chief among ten thousand. “What kind of picture will you have?” inquires Veteran. “As perfect a picture as the Art will produce, and just such a one as you would make if I were your best friend and you intended to keep the picture.” Veteran is in his glory now; how his eyes brighten! That man will leave Veteran’s gallery with a gem; everything will harmonize—background, figure, attitude, expression, and tone, will all blend so as to produce a harmonious whole. Veteran would rather spend an entire day than have one blemish, and he will do it. The beauty of a background is that it shall be distinctly indistinct, or rather that it shall represent nothing and represent fit distinctly. Anything that attracts the eye away from the subject is not in the best of taste. The background should be such that we shall not be conscious, while looking at the picture, that it possesses any background, unless our attention is particularly called to the fact. Such an effect is what the true artist will strive to attain, and which will be belter appreciated alter the frenzy of the cheap picture fever has subsided. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “The Saltpetre Subject again.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:8 (Aug. 15, 1858): 117-118.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Positive Collodion Process.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:10 (Sept. 15, 1858): 145-146.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “The Saltpetre subject again.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:10 (Sept. 15, 1858): 150.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Photographic Trip to Memphremagog Lake.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:12-14 (Oct. 15 -Nov. 15, 1858): 179-181, 192-195, 211-213. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal. While you have been rusticating in the regions of game, we have been having a different experience. We were seated in our reception-room, watching the progress of business and events, and feeling the luxury of being able to sit up after illness, when a boy entered and handed us a note addressed to Messrs. Gage & Rowell. We opened it without any expectation of finding more than a quack photographic circular, when out dropped a neat card upon which was printed and written as follows:
Pass Messrs. Gage and Rowell, photographers, to Owl’s Head and back. Geo. A. Merrill, Supt. C. & P. R. R.
Here was a mystery indeed! We had made no application for a pass to Owl’s Head. We had seen owls of all descriptions, and had no desire to renew our acquaintance with that kind of ”quadruped.” What could it mean? Thus we cogitated for perhaps half an hour, and had arrived at no solution of the matter, when another boy entered and deposited another note, which was in this wise:
Owl’s Head Mountain House, Aug. 20, 1858. Messrs. Gage & Rowell. The Supt. C. & P. R. R. will pass you to this place and back. The best accommodations of my house are at your service (without charge) as long as you choose to stay, provided you bring your photographing Implements with you and that you will photograph some of our beautiful scenery. Come, by all means, as soon as portable. Truly yours, A. O. Jennings, Proprietor of the Mountain House.
Here was a solution of the mystery, then. “As long as you choose to stay without charge;” how that sounded in our ears, and how tempting to a poor worn-out photographer to rest and rusticate. But, how were we to go? We were but two days up from a dangerous illness; exposure might bring on a relapse, and we were not yet strong enough to think of photographing. Our partner here came to our aid by saying: “I can do the work while you rusticate and enjoy yourself.” Here, then, was a temptation; “rusticate and enjoy yourself” sounded like the music of a dream; and before we were well aware of it, we stood in the presence of that awe-inspiring personage, the family physician, and proceeded to ask his advice. “Well,” said the doctor, after we had explained the case, “we’ll see about that;” whereupon he folded his hands, turned round facing ourself, and looked us steadily in the eye for a whole minute without moving a muscle. Then he burst out with a hearty laugh and said: “Yes, go; only be prudent. Do not expose yourself, and the ride will do you good.”
Our next business was to make a sample of collodion as follows:
Ether (concentrated) 7½ ounces
Alcohol 6 ounces
Iodide of potassium* [*After many experiments I find that I prefer iodide of potassium for views, as it gives more strength and is sufficiently fine for that purpose. The above formula is only a modification of the formula published in the first edition of Humphrey’s Collodion Manual, and is the best formula I have ever used for views.]
53 grains.
Bromide of ammonium 27 grains.
Gun cotton (French) 90 grains.
Saturated solution of iodine in alcohol 3 drops.
Hydrobromic acid (Humphrey’s) 2 drops
Our bath was made in the usual way, 35 grains of silver to the ounce, slightly acidified with glacial acetic acid.
Developing.
Water 1 ounce.
Sulphate of iron (pure) 45 grains.
Acetic acid, No. 8 2 drachms.
Our next business was to collect our apparatus, which consisted of the conical tent described in Humphrey’s Journal, vol. X, page 85, and other necessary articles. Besides the collodion prepared for the occasion, we took a half pound made after the same formula, but which had stood about eight weeks and had become insensitive and useless. Our time was thus fully occupied until the arrival of the train, when we took the cars for Barton, 24 miles, where we arrived at 7 o’clock, p. m. Here we took the stage to Newport, distant 14 miles, and rode that distance through a heavy thunder-storm and almost total darkness, not a very pleasant trip for an invalid, nor an available subject for a photographer. We remained over night, and next morning took the steamer Mountain Maid down the lake, to the Owl’s Head Mountain House. The heavy masses of clouds trailed down the mountains and across the lake as the south wind swept them slowly along, and we had but a limited glimpse of the lake and scenery until we arrived at the Mountain House, when a sudden current of north wind swept the clouds away, and we beheld one of the most enchanting views that the world possesses. We spent the day at the Mountain House; Mr. Rowell, in the meantime, by invitation of Capt. Fogg, continued down the lake to look out more points of interest for pictures. The next day we took out our camera and took two or three near views, using the old collodion, to each ounce of which was added one drop of concentrated ammonia.* [*Since writing the above I see that Mr. Mathiot recommends the use of caustic potash in collodion which has become insensitive. The effect is the same in both cases, but it will not remedy collodion that is too old.] which restored it to working order. The negatives appeared good, but when we printed some, to try their qualities, we were not very well pleased with them, and concluded the collodion was too far gone to admit of producing good results. We accordingly threw it away as the readiest way to dispose of it. The next day we took two negatives of the Mountain House, the new collodion working to our satisfaction. The house being elevated from the wharf, we were obliged to raise the camera nearly 20 feet to get the right angle. If the camera had stood on the ground, the building, in the picture, would have the appearance of leaning back; therefore we built a platform, and the resulting pictures appear upright and not canted in any direction. We find it necessary to elevate the camera nearly one half the height of the building to produce the best effect. Our next attempt was a picture of Sherman’s Bay. The bay and boats are in the foreground, and the mountain behind shooting 3,000 feet into the air, its inaccessible sides covered with rocks and trees nearly to its summit. We secured two negatives of this location, by which time the Mountain Maid appeared in sight, on her way up the lake, and we prepared to take a negative of her on her arrival at the wharf. The camera was set so as to take in the end of the wharf and boat. The moment the boat touched the landing a plate was immersed in the bath. There was a strong breeze blowing and we had no hope of getting a good impression; .but as the captain of the boat was confident that he could lash her up so tight that she would not rock, we took one to show him he had miscalculated his abilities in that respect, and that he was not only out of his latitude, but in a Fogg indeed. As we expected, the impression proved an entire failure, the boat having lurched just in time to give two distinct images. On her trip up the next day, however, she was lashed more tightly to the wharf than before. Mr. Howell and the proprietor of the Mountain House exercised their Yankee ingenuity by placing a plank over the edge of the wharf and under the guard of the boat, so as to pry her off and steady her as much as possible, while I proceeded to expose the plate. The wind was blowing harder than the day previous and we were fearful of a failure. The exposure was 15 seconds with a four-fourth Holmes, Booth & Haydens’ camera, the back lens being removed and a one-third inch diaphragm inserted. The plate was removed to the house and developed; it proved an entire success. The boat was crowded with passengers fore and aft and the wharf lined with spectators, as you will see by the print before you.* [*At the close of these papers the editor of Humphrey’s Journal will examine a print from each of these negatives, with the privilege of criticizing them for the benefit of his readers.”] Capt. Fogg stands upon one of the paddle-boxes pointing to the summit of the mountain. A large share of the figures are recognizable, and your readers can form some idea of the sharpness of this picture from the fact that the captain’s watch-guard and seal, when magnified three diameters, are plainly discernible. (To be continued.)
[HJ 10:13 (Nov. 1, 1858): 193-195.] [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: The next day we crossed the lake to Skinner’s Island and took a view of Owl’s Head from that point, a mile and a half off. Pictures taken at that distance lack sharpness on account of the atmospheric effect. We took a picture of Sugar Loaf Mountain from this point, and then rowed to Long Island to get a picture of Balance Rock. This rock lies upon a point of ledge that runs out into the lake in such a way that it seems as if a child might topple it off. A pine tree leans over it in a manner which gives a picturesque effect. How this massive granite boulder was placed in this position is a matter of great conjecture. We found it impossible to get a good view from the land side. We look an impression, however, and from that point resolved to make another attempt. Your humble servant was taken sick with an attack of pleurisy on his return to the Mountain House, and had it not been for the prompt attention of the people of the House, this paper would never have been written. The next morning Mr. Rowell and an attendant crossed the lake again, prepared to make another trial. They took soundings, and found the water 23 feet deep where they had wished to place the camera. Their next operation was to cut three poles of the required length .and nail boards on to form a stand; this stand or chair was then floated out to the spot, and after a great deal of trouble they succeeded in sinking it, and piled stones on to keep it down. The weather was very rough, and rather than “run the risk of losing the camera, they attached a strong cord to it and fastened it to the shore. The camera being placed on the stand, a new difficulty arose on trying to focus. The sun shone into the camera tube and rendered it impossible to operate; and it would be three hours or more before they would get a good light. Not disheartened at this they rowed to Skinner’s Island and took two fine impressions of the Palisades, after which they returned and look two of the rock which were very satisfactory. The next day was devoted to taking a picture of the Smuggler’s Cave, on Skinner’s Island. The cave is in a ledge and on a level with the lake, so that the water flows in and out at times. They endeavored to get far enough away to take in the massive ledge above the entrance of the cave, but found it impossible. Thirty-five feet from the entrance the water is from five to ten feet deep. Ten feet farther out the ledge shoots down fifty or sixty feet. To place the camera on the edge of this submarine precipice, and take a picture, required some nerve and not a little discretion. A chair was made as the day previous, but it was found impossible to locate it from the boat, on account of the shelving rock and the constant motion of the boat. The word fail was not to be found in their dictionary; and a council of war was held accordingly, after which they stripped off their garments and went at it with a will. One plunged into the water up to his chin and located the chair, placed the camera on it, focussed it, and kept it there while the other sensitized a plate, waded out and exposed it, and then returned in the same way to develop it. Two fine impressions were taken in this way. The only thing to be regretted is that they did not take another picture to be entitled “Photographing under Difficulties,” as it might have been interesting to the fraternity, as showing the amount of pluck sometimes necessary to secure a good negative. If any of your readers have got the idea that there is no work in photographing, let them try it and see. Let them make a few trials of climbing mountains, carrying their apparatus; let them row across the lakes in all kinds of weather; and, finally, let them try photographing, a la nude, under water, and they will not be long getting over their false notions. Having recovered so as to be able to ride I returned home, leaving Mr. Rowell to finish the work. Three good negatives were made of the Mountain Maid, two of Capt, Fogg’s residence at Georgeville, two of Round Island from the Mountain House, which I think is one of the most beautiful natural combinations for a picture that I have ever seen; two distant views of the lake were taken, and some other interesting nooks. These were printed on Canson’s paper as follows:
Common salt 120 grains.
Water 60 ounces.
The sheets were immersed in this and then dried.
Nitrate of silver 240 grains.
Water 5 ounces.
This is made into ammonio-nitrate in the usual way. No acid is added, as it destroys the life of the shadows.
Hyposulphite of soda 8 ounces.
Water 16 ounces.
Nitrate of silver 32 grains.
Chloride of gold solution* [*Dissolve one gold dollar, or its equivalent. In nitre muriatic acid; after the gold is dissolved, add an ounce and a-half of pulverized chloride of sodium (common salt); evaporate the acid in a sand-bath. Now dissolve the dry chloride of gold in 5 ounces of water; test it with litmus-paper; if it turns the paper red, add aqua ammonia, a drop at a time, and shake well; continue to do so until it is neutral, and then use as directed in the formula. The sand-bath is made by placing a small quantity of sand in a sheet iron dish; a porcelain saucer is placed on the sand, in which the gold is dissolved by the aid of a spirit lamp placed underneath. It should be done only in the open air, as the fumes are very destructive to life.]
1 fluid oz.
They were toned only until the chloride of silver was removed. This is the only secret of obtaining a good toning. The artist should study to keep the gold and soda in such proportions that the print will arrive at the proper color at the same moment that the chloride of silver is all removed. If not enough chloride of gold is used, the print will have a ghastly red when the chloride of silver is all removed from the paper, and will dry out a dead cold tone. If, on the contrary, there is too much gold, the shades will assume too deep a black before the chloride of silver is all removed, and the print will be equally as dead and smutty as in the former case. Thus, if the photographer will only remember that the soda is simply the cleaning element, and that the gold is the agent to give the color, he will soon arrive, by experiment at a point where he can get the right color at the moment the cleaning is completed, and thus ensure permanent prints. If the toning of the print is thus properly done, and the washing quickly performed in a strong running stream of water, I have no-doubts but the print will be as permanent as any sun picture, if not as lasting as an engraving. I am now at Springfield, Vt., having come 100 miles to take a negative of the Falls in this village; you will hear with what success in my next. (To be continued)”]
[HJ 10:14 (Nov. 15, 1858): 211-213.] [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: My last letter was mailed to you from Springfield, Vt., where I went for the purpose of taking negatives of the Falls of Black River, at that place. This is a village of about 1,500 inhabitants, the river dividing the village in the center. The river is broad and still above the village, but as it approaches it grows more turbulent until it reaches the center of the village, where it takes its final plunge of one hundred feet, nearly perpendicular, making a fall of about two hundred and fifty feet in a quarter of a mile. The cliffs on each side, just below the main fall, are about one hundred and fifty feet high. The bridge that connects the two portions of the village (about sixty feet long) rests upon the cliffs directly over the main fall. Standing upon the bridge, you may look at the rushing waters above, and the roaring cataract below, while the cloud of spray that rushes up from the narrow gorge ascends even to the tops of the tall poplars that line its banks. This is undoubtedly one of the wildest and most romantic falls in this country, combined with one of the neatest of New England villages. Mr. Powers, the ambrotypist at this place, gave me permission to use his laboratory, and I was soon fitted up and in working order. The first impression was a view of the upper falls, as seen from the bridge; it proved to be satisfactory. Two more negatives were taken of points below; but it was found impossible to get at the main fall and bridge without building a temporary bridge across the stream, as the camera could only be placed in the middle of the narrow chasm, where the waters rushed down with the speed of a mill-race. With some difficulty I found a man who was willing to undertake the job. The fire-wardens kindly volunteered the use of their fire-ladders, and by noon the next day, with the help of two assistants, he had bridged a narrow point of rocks in the bed of the stream, so that I could place my camera there and get the desired point of view. While this was doing I had not been idle. I had climbed to the roof of a barn that was built on the very edge of the cliff, several rods below the bridge. Here I contrived to fasten the camera so as to take in the bridge, a portion of the main fall under it, and all the fall above, with the buildings lining its banks. I think this makes the wildest natural view that I have ever seen. The Devil’s Fall, in this picture, is as great a curiosity as the Old Man of the Mountain at Franconia. This is formed by the water pouring over the rocks, and it certainly looks more human than many cheap ambrotypes that I have seen. This negative being taken, I climbed down the cliff and placed my camera on the bridge of ladders, and took a negative of the main fall and bridge. By climbing along the ledges I succeeded in finding two other points of interest, of which I took negatives that were satisfactory. The next day was spent in taking a view of the village and a view of Black River Hotel, with some other good scenes, making ten good negatives in all. I was sorry that other matters compelled so short a stay, as there were many other points of interest, perhaps enough in this place to keep a photographer busy for a month. My friend. Mr. Powers, had his patience put to the test by the crowded visitors who thronged his gallery, as much perhaps to see the man with the long beard, as to examine the prints which I had printed out and hung up as specimens. However, as the orders for prints flowed in abundantly, I was willing to be considered the “day’s talk and wonder.” I presume there was not a child four years old in the village but knew who I was, where I came from, what I was there for, and when I was going away. There is nothing that will create a crowd in a country village like a photographer with his “yellow tent and “camera.” Mr. Powers has long been a veteran daguerreotypist (He takes Humphrey’s Journal), and is a good artist; and it is only to be regretted that he has been taken down with the cheap picture fever; but as he is recovering, and has resolved to be wiser and not expose himself to that terrible disease again, it is to be hoped that his fraternal shadow will never be less. Leaving Springfield, I took a trip to the little village of New York, to see if any improvements could be picked up in that quiet little place, an account of which may perhaps be found in a future No. of the Journal. Here I procured an orthoscopic view camera, with folding bellows-box for plates 15 by 15 inches. As these cameras are reputed to give better perspective and render distances better, I resolved to try one and note the result. The tube is fixed with an ingenious diaphragm that opens and shuts like the human eye; all the operator has to do is to move a small knob on the outside of the tube to get any size of opening that he chooses at an instant’s notice. A scale, with figures, is placed alongside the knob, that gives the different sizes of opening from one-fourth to one inch. The tube was manufactured by C. C. Harrison; the box by the Scoville Manufacturing Co. On my return I took several views of the scenery at Westminster, Vt., and Walpole, N. H., and then visited Lebanon, N. H., where my former partner, Mr. F. Rowell, has located his business. Several views were taken here, after which I returned well rewarded for the trouble and hard labor necessary to secure the negatives which I brought home with me. While operating at Westminster I found nearly one-fourth of my bath precipitated by the use of impure glacial acetic acid. This acid I find the most difficult of any to procure in a pure state. There is not one dealer in twenty who sells an article that is fit to use. Most of it is put up in bottles with cork stoppers, and is nothing more than a poor sample of No. 8, having a dull, putrid, sickening smell. The pure article has a sharp sour smell, with none of the “putrid flavor.” The French is the only reliable article that I know of (Wittmann & Poulenc), which comes in glass stoppered bottles. I have had more trouble in procuring this article than in all the other chemicals I use. Many a good sample of silver has been condemned, when made into a bath, on account of the acid which has been added to it.
Erratum.—In the note at the foot of page 194, in the recipe for making chloride of gold, it should read—one half ounce of pulverized chloride of sodium, Instead of “an ounce and a-half,” as rendered by the printer.—F. B. G.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Cleaning Glass.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:15 (Dec. 1, 1858): 225. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: It has been found very difficult to clean glass for negatives so the roughly as to leave no organic matter on the surface to cause fogginess and streaks. I have tried nearly all the various methods I have seen proposed, and have never been quite satisfied until I adopted the method I am now using. New glasses should first be immersed in nitric acid and water (1 part acid to 20 of water), and rubbed the roughly and then rinsed in clean water, after which it is to be wiped dry on a clean linen towel.* [*The towels should be Washed in a solution of sal soda, and rinsed in several clean waters to remove all greasiness. Soap is not fit for that purpose.] Now lay the glass on a clean sheet of paper or in a clean vice, and drop on a few drops of burning fluid which is to be briskly rubbed off with a clean tuft of cotton flannel until the surface is dry and smooth. I believe this ensures a chemically clean surface, or as near as is attainable. This would not at first be thought a cleaning element; but, on second thought, there appears a plausible theory “thereunto belonging,” as the lawyers say. The turpentine in the fluid has a certain amount of adhesiveness. When placed on a glass it adheres to the organic matter on the glass. The cotton absorbs the fluid and gathers up the organic matter at the same time. Try it, photographers, and see if you are not pleased with its effect. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “To Transfer Ambrotypes.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:15 (Dec. 1, 1858): 225. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: The picture should be taken on a heavy film, and a trifle lighter than for the ambrotype. Dry it in the usual way, after which pour on a solution composed of 30 or 40 drops of nitric acid in 2 oz. of alcohol; let it remain on the plate while you clean the paper or other black surface, which can be done by rubbing it with pulverized starch or fine flour until it is perfectly clean. Then apply the cleaned surface to the picture immediately, and remove all air-bubbles by gently rubbing the back of the paper or other material, after which a weight is applied to keep the surfaces together until the alcohol has evaporated, when the picture will peel off the glass without any trouble. The time required to perform the operation is from 10 minutes to half an hour, according to the temperature of the room at the time. Care should be taken to have no powdery silver on the surface, as that would prevent a perfect adhesion of the surfaces. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Poisonous Effects of Cyanide of Potassium.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:16 (Dec. 15, 1858): 241-242. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal:, At various times it has been asserted in Humphrey’s Journal, and other publications devoted to the photographic art, that cyanide of potassium is a dangerous poison, and that it should never be used. On the other hand, it has been equally as strongly urged that this is only a whim, and that the fumes of the potassium are harmless. Still others have qualified the statement by saying that it is poisonous to some, and not to others. Having had my attention called to this matter by sudden and unaccountable inflammation of the throat and mouth, accompanied with dizziness and “great difficulty of breathing, I instituted a series of experiments and inquiries to ascertain if the sickness was caused by this chemical. After my recovery I laid the potassium aside for four weeks, using hyposulphite of soda instead. Having occasion to make a picture extremely white, l tried the cyanide of potassium for fixing the impression. Although not exposed more than one minute of time to the weak fumes, I felt an immediate return to the symptoms of the dizziness and inflamination. One subsequent trial,-Three weeks after, produced the same effect; and I have since fully resolved not to use it at all in future. I then commenced making inquiries of other operators; and, out of twenty, I found five who had been extremely sick with the same description of disease. Ten more, of the twenty, had felt the symptoms I describe; the other five did not know whether they had experienced any bad effects from its use, as they had not been long in the business, and never had thought about it. On one occasion a lady accidentally got a silver stain on her finger, and I gave her a lump of the potassium to remove it with. The fumes produced such instantaneous and extreme prostration that she had to be carried from the room. I have been accustomed to fix my pictures where my customers could watch the operation as a matter of curiosity, and I recollect many instances where they’ spoke of feeling queer from the effect of the fumes. Considering all these facts, in connection with what has been previously published, I think there need be no doubt that it is poisonous to all, and that its use is to be avoided in all cases. The appearance of the symptoms of poison from its fumes is only a matter of time, and not of certainty. The symptoms may appear instantaneously, as in the case of the lady referred to ‘above; or they maybe delayed months, as in my own case; or even for years, as in another case which I have seen. The length of time that it takes to make its appearance is governed by the susceptibility of the individual; but the result will be just as certain and just as destructive in one case as the other. Even if it be delayed until the eleventh hour, it will come. I am better pleased with the results which I obtain, both positive and negative, by the hypo than by the cyanide. With the collodion, the recipe for which I shall give in a future communication, the most unsurpassable whites are obtained in ambrotypes, thereby rendering the use of the cyanide entirely unnecessary.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Albumen Printing.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:16 (Dec. 15, 1858): 242. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: It is amusing to see how little reliance can be placed in a large share of what is published in foreign journals relating to improvements in the photographic art. I have been very much surprised at this, and, after making all due allowances for climate and different manipulations, I am compelled to think that much is published for the sake of publishing, and not for the benefit of the art. In a late No. of Humphrey’s Journal, in an extract from a French publication, it is stated that albumenized sheets are readily coagulated by floating them, back down, on the surface of boiling water; and that sheets so treated will not discolor the nitrate bath in sensitizing. Now I had long been in search of some such process whereby the stability of the bath might be preserved. I have laid awake nights and dreamed, with my eyes open, of some means to accomplish this desirable end; but have never been able to attain it. When, therefore, this process appeared I was eager to try its virtue; but, not being in a condition to do so for several days, I built air-castles during that time of beautiful albumen prints and never-failing baths of colorless nitrate of silver. When the time arrived I floated the sheets as directed, and then proceeded to printing: for two days the bath worked beautifully, and I was in ecstasies. At the end of three days, however, the creeping death began to show itself, and at the end of a week the bath was as black as the visage of a real African, and the prints were spoiled. The discoloring of the bath was not remedied in the least—only delayed. Thus my air-castles and beautiful process were demolished at once, and the latter pronounced not half as good as it purported to be?. Who is the lucky man that will tell us of some process to render the albumen bath permanent? F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Photolithographs.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:19 (Feb. 1, 1859): 290-291. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal. I was very much surprised to receive from you several prints of this new style of picture from a negative by my late partner, Mr. RowelI. Judging from these specimens, the process is being very much improved and will, no doubt, claim the attention of our operators. For many purposes they are already supplanting the photograph, and I think are yet destined to rank high, I know nothing of the details of the process—whether it will be generally practicable, or whether it will be confined to a few; but I am very much pleased with the results already produced, and hope to hear and see more…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Enlarging Photographs.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:19 (Feb. 1, 1859): 292-294.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Improved Negative and Positive Process.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:20 (Feb. 15, 1859): 306-307. [“To make Absolute Photographic Alcohol. To 1 gallon of Atwood’s or other alcohol, in a tall open-mouthed bottle, add 3 lbs. of unslaked lime in lumps; shake it occasionally for ten or twelve days, or as long as the lime continues to slack, keeping it well corked. At the end of that time it may be filtered through filtering paper, from the superabundance of lime, into another tall bottle, where it should be allowed to settle until it is free from all appearance of lime, when it is ready for use.
Ambrotype Collodion.
Formula.—
Absolute alcohol (as above) 4 ounces.
Ether (concentrated) 1 ounces.
Iodide of cadmium 25 grains.
Bromide of cadmium 17 grains.
Gun-cotton enough to give a heavy film. It will probably take double the amount generally used. Before using, add film-condensing solution according to directions.* [*If the film-condensing solution is not procurable, one drop of hydrobromic acid may be used in each oz. of collodion to prevent fogging. Or, better still; add one part of glacial acetic acid to 7 parts of absolute alcohol. From 4 to 8 drops of this to each oz. of collodion will keep back the high lights and insure a better-toned negative. If there is any water present in this collodion, it will produce a reticulated film; if free from water; it will flow like oil and produce a beautiful glossy film free from ridges and any imperfections.]
Negative Collodion.
Formula.—Absolute alcohol (as above) 4 ounces.
Ether (concentrated) 1 ounce.
Iodide of cadmium 20 grams.
Bromide of cadmium 10 grams.
Enough cotton to give a heavy film. Film-condensing solution according to directions.
Nitrate Bath, 45 grains to the ounce of water.
Developing.
Formula.–Sulphate of iron 3 ounces.
Water 1 quart
Acetic acid, No. 8 6 ounces.
Adaptation of the Developing. The strength of the bath is all the time changing, and the developing that will work well to-day may not work at all to-morrow. If you cannot procure satisfactory delineations, weaken the developer with water until they suit you. I adapt my developing every day or two, and can tell in an instant what change need be made. Make your collodion and bath by the formulae, and then don’t tamper with them, as any desired result may be produced by changing the strength of the developing. Too strong developing destroys the delineations, too weak gives smutty lights. After being in use some weeks there will be an accumulation of alcohol in the bath when this collodion is used, so that the developing will not flow over it and develop the negative evenly. This “crawling” of the developing can only be remedied by evaporating the alcohol from the bath; it can be done by placing the solution in a strong open-mouthed bottle: place the bottle in an iron or earthen vessel containing water, and heat it gradually until the alcohol is evaporated. This operation is attended with some little trouble, but after becoming accustomed to it I find this process has many advantages which repay more than ten times over this one drawback on its practicability. The alcohol can be evaporated after the day’s work, and the bath will be ready to use in the morning after filtering. Alcohol should never be used in developing, as it precipitates the iron out of the solution, and is the cause of many of the holes in the skies so generally complained of.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Enlarging Photographs.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:21 (Mar. 1, 1859): 323-325. [(Includes a letter from A. A. Thayer (Jefferson, OH) and a letter from D. A. Woodward, inventor of the solar camera.) “To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: Since the publication of my process for enlarging photographs I have received sundry letters on that subject, which I can best answer through your pages, as they contain or require information important to many of your subscribers. I quote the following from a letter from D. A. Woodward, inventor of the solar camera: — “The great length of time you require cannot be accounted for, in my mind, unless you are making use of a small camera. If this is the case, it would have been proper for you to have stated it. You must be aware that the time required for a small-sized solar camera to do its work is much greater than that required by a large one, not only on account of the quantity of sunlight passed through the large condensers of the large size being so much greater, but also on account of the operator being able to use negatives much larger, say two-thirds instead of one-fourth. Now the time of printing is diminished just in proportion to the decrease of the magnifying. Consequently, a one-half or two-thirds image will print quicker than a one-fourth. Another cause would be the use of negatives over-developed, or of too dense a structure. I have been astonished sometimes at the result of a negative with no intensity whatever. I use a largo-sized camera and negatives on one-half or four-fourth plates; in the latter case the image must be reduced to about a two third. Or a better rule, is to make the image on the glass plate as large as possible, at the same time not too large for the condensing lent to cover. In taking the negative, to ensure sharpness, I diaphragm the tube and focus with a strong magnifying eye-glass. The time for printing a life-size, say 18 x 22, never exceeds one hour, oftener not over 40 minutes. My paper is prepared as follows: Float it or immerse it in a bath of muriate of ammonia, 10 grs. to the oz., 1 ½ gr. of pure gelatine, ammonio-nitrate brushed carefully on, 100 grs. to the oz. I hope you will excuse me for trespassing on your time; but I fear your letter might deter many from adopting the process merely on account of the apparent time consumed. Where time is an object, it would certainly be economical to use one of the large size.”
I should judge from Mr. Woodward’s letter that he is not aware that the process published by me was given in answer to letters inquiring how certain pictures, now on exhibition in New York, were produced. I confined myself entirely to giving that process, intending to resume the subject again and give other processes by which different results and different time is obtained. I use the small-size camera, and have made albumen prints in one hour; ammonio-nitrate in one hour and a-half with some negatives. The best results are not obtainable, however, with negatives of this class. In the printing-frame a negative should be opaque enough in the shadows, so that, when it is placed over the sheet, nothing, or scarcely anything, while can be seen through the negative. The lights of the negative should possess just enough more opacity to render the highest lights perfectly white when the shadows are sufficiently printed with suitable gradations between the highest lights and deepest shades. The same principles hold good in making a negative for the solar camera, only the whole structure need not be so dense. The deepest shadows should be dense enough to possess delineations, and the highest lights should be just enough more dense to leave the print perfectly white. Any departure from this will produce inferior results; and if the time be shortened, it is at the loss of some good quality which the picture should possess. Mr. Woodward remarks:
“I have been astonished sometimes at the result of a negative with no intensity whatever.” Mr. Woodward scarcely meant to convey the meaning which his words do here convey, because an ambrotype or positive picture possesses more or less intensity, and a negative with no intensity whatever would give no contrast of light and shade in a print. I rather understand him to mean, that some negatives which appear exceedingly transparent will produce much better results than could be expected of them. I have noticed the same thing. This results from the color of the negative in connection with the fineness of the particles of silver which compose it. Such negatives do not apparently possess as much density, but if the contrasts in the prints are produced, it is apparent that they do possess the intensity of others apparently more intense. In regard to the comparative time of printing in the different sizes of instruments I am not prepared to judge, as I have only used the small size. The less the print is magnified, the more rapid the printing, consequently the large size will print quicker than the other—how much quicker I am not able to state. I am inclined to believe that the smaller instruments will produce the best results as far as delicacy is concerned, though I may be in error on this point.
A. A. Thayer, of Jefferson, Ohio, writes:—
“I, being one among the many readers and subscribers of Humphrey’s Journal who look eagerly for articles from the pen of F. B. Gage, and having waited (it seemed) a long while for the promised article on enlarging photographs, to ascertain the kind of instrument used, I now take the liberty to address you, though a stranger, asking your opinion of the megascopic camera, if it will do all it is said to do. The solar camera costs so much that, if the megascopic camera will do the work as well, I will buy that.” In reply to Mr. Thayer I can only tell him how I managed to procure my solar camera. It is an old motto that “A singed cat dreads the fire,” and having been singed in small matters in former years, I have learned to trust nobody’s eyes but my own in matters of this description. When the solar camera was first advertised I placed the price of a camera in the hands of the Express Co. in this place, receiving their receipt for the same. This receipt I forwarded to the agent who advertised the camera, telling him that he might send on an instrument, and if it proved what it purported to be, I would keep it and the Express Co. would send him the money. If it was not what it purported to be, the Express Co. would return his instrument and deliver the money to me. The instrument was sent and proved satisfactory, and continues so to this day. Let Mr. Thayer procure both instruments by this means, and try them side by side, and he will soon see the difference between a real invention and a pretended one. There are several megascopic cameras about here, but I have neither seen or heard of an ammonio-nitrate print being made with them.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Apparatus for freezing Alcohol from Water.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 10:24 (Apr. 15, 1859): 371-372.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Iodizing and Bromizing Solution.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:1 (May 1, 1859): 4-5.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Improved Toning Bath for the Ammonio-Nitrate Process.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:4 (June 15, 1859): 49-50.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Apparatus for Distilling Water.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:4 (June15, 1859): 53-54. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: Some time ago a correspondent in your Journal gave a description of an apparatus for distilling water. Having improved the construction so as to render it more efficient, I give a description of it here that all may cheaply avail themselves of this necessary article in the photographic laboratory. A tin band is made to fit tightly to the top of a tea-kettle, or any other convenient kettle for the purpose. To the top of this band is soldered a disk or base 15 inches in diameter, with a hole 1½ inch in diameter in the middle, for the steam to rise up through. The upper side of this base or disk is made slightly convex, so that the liquid may run towards the outer edge. A rim, 1 inch high, is soldered to the outer edge of the base, and a tin cone, 18 inches high, is fitted tightly to the inside of this band or rim. A pipe at the outer edge of the base conveys the condensed water off into an earthen or glass vessel. The steam, rising through the hole in the center of the base, condenses on the under surface of the cone, runs down until it reaches the base, and is then conducted off through the pipe. The cone would soon become too warm to condense all the steam. To remedy this, a rim of tin, 8 inches or more high, is soldered to the lower edge of the cone, thus forming a vessel outside the cone, which is filled with cold water. The cone, being surrounded by this body of cold water, will condense for several hours. When the water outside the cone becomes too hot, it is draws off through the faucet…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Photography on Wheels.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:7 (Aug. 1, 1859): 97-99. [(F. B. Gage made stereo views which, presumably, E. & T. H. Anthony distributed.) “No. 1.” “Ours is a progressive art. Photography, like all kindred arts, must pass through its infancy before it can arrive at a riper age. The first stage of its existence is already past. What at first seemed only designed for amusement, has grown into utilitarian proportions. The demand for its aid in many branches of business has led to the adoption of various improvements for carrying it on, and one of these will be here described under the guise of Photography on Wheels. The first stage of photography was essentially a stage of photography on foot—a slow and uncertain method of progression. Photography on foot, with dry plates and dry results, was the peculiarity of the first stage. But photography on foot was often disappointed at the end of its journey to find that the exposed plates had not been properly exposed, or that they would not develop at all, or, if properly exposed, streaks and stains were found to be the only recompense of many a hard day’s labor. Then again, after the plate had been properly exposed and developed into a good negative, photography on foot often saw it slip entirely from the plate in the operation of fixing, thus at the last moment eluding the baffled amateur, and blasting in an instant his fondest anticipations.
Then there was photography on foot with wet plates and its tent and other consequent inconveniences. Photography in this guise was laborious photography, with immense satisfaction and but little pay. Then there is photography with its dark camera-box and calico sleeves, through which the harnessed operator can manipulate about as comfortably and conveniently as a diver could swim in a shirt of mail. But these things have had their beginning, and, although it is hoped their end is far distant, yet their novelty is past, and they must yield the palm to their new competitor, photography on wheels.
Having been applied to, by a firm in New York, to furnish them with a set of stereoscope negatives, and having formed a contract to that end, I conceived the idea of placing photography on wheels, for its more rapid and convenient transportation from place to place. For this purpose I applied to a carriage-maker and gave him a plan of a chemical room on wheels. This plan was pronounced available, and the construction of the carriage was immediately commenced; in a short time it stood at my door complete and ready to receive its supplies. The following is a description of this carriage complete:
The running part is nothing more than what is usually found is a common one-horse buggy, made light but strong. On this running part rests the body supported by steel elliptic springs. The body part is 5½ feet long inside, 2 feet 10 inches wide inside, boarded tightly all around to the height of 16 inches. At the height of 16 inches from the floor the body it made to project 7 inches on each side. From the outer edge of this projection is raised a light elastic framework of wood which is coveted with black enameled cloth. The height inside, from the floor to the roof, is 6 feet 4 inches. A door at the rear end affords ingress and egress. An adjustable stairs is attached by hooks, so that it can be removed and placed inside at a moment’s notice. At the forward end is the seat of the driver, which, like Goldsmith’s drawers, is so contrived ” a double debt to pay,” that when we are about to take a view it suddenly expands: and is as suddenly transformed from a seat outside into a sink and shelf inside, making a convenient table for our bottles and to work on.
A row of cases, inside at the bottom of the carriage, is contrived to hold a share of the necessary bottles; and all those which we are using daily are suspended in leather sockets at the side of the carriage, all duly labeled so that any one can be found in a moment, used, and returned to its proper place. 29X11 yellow glass windows supply the inside with light. These windows are so buttoned in that they can be removed in a moment and a free ventilation effected.
Thus we have a room, when closed up for travelling, which measures only 4 feet 2 inches long by 4 feet wide, but when operating it expands to 6 feet 4 inches long by 4 feet wide, and 6 feet 4 inches high. The sink is 16 inches wide by 2 feet in inches long, with table of the same dimensions.
This forms a laboratory of sufficient size to enable us to work with certainty and despatch, and we find it very convenient. The inside is painted yellow, so that if any light should happen to get through the enameled cloth it is colored and loses actinic force before it reaches the sensitive plate. Thus armed and equipped with the necessary chemicals and apparatus, we attach the faithful horse, mount the box, and drive where our views are to be made. The horse is taken from the carriage, a pail of water is procured, the camera taken out, and in a few minutes the plate is sensitized and the view taken and developed. If the negative is not just what is wanted it is known at once, and another taken to supply its place.
If the sun shines very hot we usually contrive to get in the shade of some tree or building, which we can generally do. But if the day be cool, the sun shining on the black surface of the carriage helps to keep up a good temperature inside. When the view is secured, the horse is attached, and we are off for another point of interest. If perchance the view lies beyond the reach of our carriage, we take out the tent which we carry inside and descend from photography on wheels to photography on foot. We drive as near the spot as we can, and then proceed to our task with the tent. Or, if we choose, we can immediately prepare a dry plate, take only our camera, and climb the crags or wade the swamps as we like.
In our excursions we carry a stereoscopic camera, of C. C. Harrison’s make, for instantaneous views; also an orthoscopic lens, same maker, for plates 15 x by 15 inches. We have three baths, one for instantaneous views—the composition of the solution being unknown to us as it was furnished by the firm for whom we travel: these baths all have water-tight covers. The solution in the large bath is made with 30 grains of silver to the ounce, neutralized with caustic potash, and then rendered sufficiently acid, with chemically pure nitric acid, to ensure results free from fogginess. The third bath is made in the same manner and with the same proportions, and is kept in the best possible condition for stereoscopic views. We have different collodions always present. One sample is made as follows:
Ether 10 ounces.
Alcohol, 95 per cent 12 ounces.
Iodide of potassium 5 and a-half grs. to each oz
Gun cotton 6 and a-half grs. to each oz
Another sample is made in the same manner, only that 2 oz. of absolute alcohol are used to each oz. of ether. Another sample is made like the last, with the addition of one grain of bromide of ammonium to each oz. For developing agents we carry both the iron and pyrogallic acid, and use each as occasion seems to require. Before starting on a trip our glass is thoroughly cleaned and packed away in grooved boxes, ready to be drawn out and coated at any time; nevertheless we carry the cleaning materials with us, as we may exhaust our stock before we return. The glass is first immersed in nitric acid, 1 part to 10 of water, and wiped dry with a clean towel, after which it is polished with burning fluid and Canton flannel. The commercial fluids are frequently contaminated with gummy matter; therefore it is better to make it, which is easily done:
Rectified spirits of turpentine 1 ounce.
Atwood’s alcohol 4 ounces.
Half an ounce of ether may be added if preferred, but it is not important. I have the assurance of many experienced artists who have used it, that this method is the best ever devised for removing all impurities from the surface which are not inherent in the glass. We are about starting on a trip, and the readers of this Journal may hear from Photography on Wheels in a future number.”]
[HJ (Nov. 15, 1859): 209-210.] [(*Note.—Mr. Gage writes us that he was unable to send the above account sooner, in consequence of a severe illness caused by being thrown from his carriage by the viciousness of his horse.”)
“No. 2.” “Tip-Top House, Mount Washington, Sept., 1859. To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: Having made several trips in my photographic carriage, and found it very convenient and satisfactory, I propose to give you an account of the .present excursion to this elevated and stormy region. We left St. Johnsbury on the 10th of August. A ride of thirty miles brought us to the famous Franconia Notch of the mountains. This is a narrow pass, through which we ride for eight or ten miles, with rugged cliffs rising on each side to the height of three or four thousand feet from the road. At the entrance to this pass is the Profile House, now filled with its hundreds of fashionable boarders. It derives its name from a profile on one of the cliffs about a quarter of a mile from the House. This cliff rises to the height of more than two thousand from the road, and almost at its summit are several sharp projections of rock that form a fine profile. As we stand on the road and focus our stereoscopic camera on this profile, the image on the ground glass appears about one-eighth of an inch long; the profile is, however, eighty feet long from the top of the forehead to the chin. From this some idea can be formed of the rock.
On two previous occasions we made an attempt to take a good negative of this profile, our chemicals being each time in fine working order; strange to say, however, we made an entire failure, the impressions being unaccountably foggy. After a great deal of conjecture as to the cause, we at last concluded that it could only be produced by the water of the lake which we used to reduce the strength of our developing. The water appeared to be very clear and pure, and we had no thought of its being the cause of the fogging until it was found to smell putrid of fish, and, night being near, the attempt had to be abandoned.
On the present occasion, however, we expected to succeed to our liking. We arrived on the ground in the morning, but the smoky atmosphere obliged us to give up at once all hope of getting a good negative on that day. We, therefore, continued our journey down to the Flume House. From here we drove half a mile into the woods, taking our tent and other necessary apparatus; after a walk of another half mile we were in the celebrated “Flume.” This is a narrow and deep passage, formed by a small stream in the rocks, varying from ten to thirty feet in width and from thirty to one hundred and fifty feet in depth. These perpendicular walls of wild broken rock, dripping with water, are overhung with trees, so that in the deepest part it is at least two hundred feet from the bottom of the rocks to the tops of the trees. The weather being cloudy, we found it impossible to get light enough to work; to after stowing our traps under a shelving rock, we adjourned to the Flume House to wait a change of weather.
A two-days’ storm came on, not wild and dreary, but warm and drizzling, which kept us from our photographic labors. On the rooming of the third day we were favored with a bright sun and clear sky, and at once repaired to the spot to take the “flume;” as it is half a mile long, we could only take detached views, and our first trial was of the “hanging rock.” This is a large granite boulder weighing several tons, which had rolled from the top and lodged about half way down, the cliffs being too narrow to admit of its falling further. Here it hangs, about forty feet above our heads as we walk up the flume, and as we pass directly under it we instinctively quicken our steps, dreading lest the enormous mass should come thundering down and crush us beneath it.
In a short time our tent was raised, and we prepared and exposed a plate with the full aperture; we exposed it three minutes, and on development it proved much under-exposed. Another trial of six minutes proved it to be the right exposure and developed a fine negative. This exposure of six minutes was 120 times longer than we would have exposed in the open country, from which you can imagine the depth and gloom of the place. Securing three other negatives of the flume and cascade above it, we returned to the Profile House. The next morning we rode to Echo Lake, half a mile distant, a sheet of water about half a mile in diameter, famous for its wonderful echo. Here in the deep woods, at its edge, we found an Indian and his squaw who had migrated from Oregon. We took a negative of them in their Indian costume, as they stood before their wigwam. There being nothing more of interest to take, we went up to the summit of Mount Cannon, a trifling climb of 3,500 feel from the Profile House. We were above vegetation when we arrived at the top, the wind sweeping over the desolate rocks. Mount Lafayette seemed not more than a mile oft, but in reality its summit was nearly three miles distant, it being 1,200 foot higher than Mount Cannon. This mountain is named from two massive rocks, so thrown together as to resemble a mounted cannon when seen from the road at its feet. The resemblance is perfect enough to terrify a hostile army who might attempt to pass through the notch below, unless previously aware of its true character. We descended the mountain, remained over night in the Profile House, and in the morning started for the Crawford or White Mountain Notch. A three days’ rain convinced us that between the wind and the weather there is not much comfort or profit for photographers in this changeable region.
The wind was very high on the fourth day, but nevertheless we took our tent out and climbed the ravine west of the house for half a mile, where we found four successive cascades of the wildest and most picturesque nature imaginable. They have only been discovered within this year, and the deep gloom which the overhanging forest throws down upon them adds to the cool pleasantness of the place. Here in this deep forest of trees hundreds of years old there was not a breath of wind to stir the branches, although we could hear it roar on the mountain above and through the open country below. We erected the tent, and succeeded during the day in making negatives of four of these cascades, the best day’s work of the season. The exposure in the stereoscopic camera, with half-inch aperture, would average one and a-half minute, which was thirty or forty times longer than it would require to take the interior of many buildings. The negatives proved to possess the most gratifying qualities, and are considered by ourselves the best things we have yet done. That night we slept at the Crawford House to dream of our proposed ascension to Mount Washington. F. B. Gage. (To be continued.)”]
[HJ (Dec. 15, 1859): 241-243.] [“No. 2.—Concluded.” “Tip-Top House, Mount Washington, Sept, 1959.” “To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal. We were up early and proceeded to pack our chemicals, camera, and fixtures in two compact bundles, to be taken along with us. At nine o’clock we were mounted on Canadian ponies, each having a bundle weighing about twenty-five pounds before us in the saddle, where we held it during the journey up the mountain. Then, with a company of thirty-four others, we struck off into the bridle path. Nine miles of such horseback riding as that was no very pleasurable job while encumbered with glass ware, as we were. Up, up, through woods and clouds, winding around and climbing the rocks, on the verge of chasms and ravines, we held our way for four hours, until we arrived at the summit.
The day was beautifully warm, the mountain was enveloped in clouds as we ascended, and occasionally we got glimpses of the glorious valleys below, as the clouds for a few moments opened and closed again. There was no vegetation for the last four miles; the only thing to be seen was the granite rock in fragments of all sizes, from the pebble stone up to those weighing thousands of tons!
How is it possible for horses to climb over these rocks, hurled together in the wildest disorder, is more than I can comprehend; yet they do it, and seldom injure themselves or their riders.
Arrived at the Tip-Top House, we proceeded to occupy apartments previously engaged there. After dinner we took out the camera to take a view of the rude stone-house and its granite surroundings. A plate was sensitized and exposed with an unsatisfactory result; another, and then another followed with the same result. We were thunderstruck and completely puzzled, that our bath and collodion — the same which worked so splendidly only the day before – should now refuse to produce even an indifferent negative. But even the skies would not develop, by any device, and there was a want of intensity that betokened trouble ahead.
Mr. Anderson, an amateur, from Pennsylvania, who travels with and assists me for his own amusement, began to get discouraged at the prospect and thought there was not much use in attempting anything further. Although ignorant of the cause, I differed with him in opinion. I knew that nothing had got into the bath to do the mischief. What, then, was the cause? I went out on the edge of the mountain, seated myself on the edge of a massive rock, and began to cogitate, as it is better to study out the trouble before tampering with anything.
I was not long in arriving at a conclusion, after which I returned to the house, coated two stereoscopic plates, and introduced them into the bath, where I let them remain for two hours. On withdrawing them from the bath, at the end of that time, they had a honey-comb appearance, the iodide being entirely eaten away in spots. Other plates were immediately coated to replace those taken out, so that the bath might become saturated with iodide of silver. On the next morning our bath was again in working order, but a terrific storm had set in, so that we could not use it. During the latter part of the night we had been enveloped in a thunder-cloud, the lightning playing beneath us and the thunder rumbling at our feet. The cloud continued to envelop us all day, the atmosphere hourly growing colder.
The next morning the moisture in the cloud had congealed on the rocks of the summit until they were white with ice. The instrument—furnished and kept for the Smithsonian Institute—gave the velocity of the wind at 40 miles per hour. Any one but an experienced mountaineer would be instantly prostrated by such a gale as this, so we wisely did not venture out. Thus for three days the storm raged unabated. On the evening of the third day, just at sunset, the cloud disappeared, and our eyes beheld the great panorama of mountain, lake, and river. The ice on the summit, in many places, was fully eighteen inches thick, glaring white and desolate-looking in the sun, while the valleys below were smiling in their summer greenness. The next morning the sun rose clear, and the air was calm and still. Ninety miles away we saw the ocean with the naked eye. Myriads of vessels could be seen with the glass dotting its surface. Mountains upon mountains extended upon the other hand, villages, lakes, and rivers, the whole range of the Green Mountains, making a circumference of more than six hundred miles. There was just enough cloud and just enough sunlight to make it one of the most glorious visions that eyes ever beheld. Our host of the Tip-Top House assured us that it was the finest view of the season, and we felt well repaid for our imprisonment. We were early at work, but found it too icy to take views with comfort until nearly noon, when the party of travellers from the Glen House had arrived. We secured a capital negative of that party around the Tip-Top House. The party from the Crawford House arriving soon after, we secured two other negatives equally good. The ice had melted just enough to produce a fine effect in the pictures, and we thought it a fortunate addition. The bath and chemicals worked as finely as we could wish for. We discovered that the trouble with the bath was a lack of iodizing—a trouble that causes more poor results than a majority of artists would dream of.
A bath should never be fully saturated with iodide of silver if a collodion containing only iodide is used. The skies will surely be full of holes. If, on the contrary, bromides are used in connection with iodide, the bath should be kept thoroughly saturated. In making negatives or positives, coat a plate, put it in the bath, and let it remain over night after each day’s work, that the iodide consumed during the day may be replaced for the next day’s work.
Having secured all the negatives that we could, we packed up our apparatus and descended the mountain. When we reached the Crawford House—where we now are—we found ourselves very tired. We shall take our carriage and ride to the White Mountain House, five miles off, where we will remain over night.
We append the bill of our expenses for the benefit of all who may be inclined to try photographing in this expensive region:
Two ponies to ascend the Mountain. $6.
Ditto to return. $6.
Board at the Tip-Top House for two, at $4 each per day, five days. $40.
Envelopes, guides’ fees, etc. $3.
Total. $55.
Only fifty-five dollars for five days at Mount Washington; but, as this is the regular charge, we are not disposed to complain.
From the White Mountain House we return home tomorrow to St. Johnsbury. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Temperature of Toning Bath.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:10 (Sept. 15, 1859): 146-147. [“In toning all kinds of prints the temperature of the toning-bath should be carefully attended to. It should always be as high as 60 degrees, and will generally work quicker and better as high as 150 degrees. This fact will be sure to manifest itself to all who make a trial of it, and is of great importance to those who desire uniform results. With a cold bath it will be found very difficult to obtain good blacks, when the bath is below 60°, in a reasonable time, and if the print lies for a long time in the bath, in a nearly inactive stale, the print will be sure to suffer in its keeping qualities….”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Ammonio-Nitrate Toning Baths.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:11 (Oct. 1, 1859): 163-164. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: The toning bath for ammonio-nitrate prints, given by me at page 49, current volume, of this Journal, being constructed to act in a different manner from those in general use, I have thought fit to make some further remarks on its peculiarities. Let it be promised, therefore, in the beginning, that there is no toning bath free from objectionable points, and none but what there will be some objectionable results produced in sometimes. The process during the winter gave, in my hands, very fine results; but on the approach of warm weather there seemed, in several instances, a tendency to yellowness in the high lights. They did not seem to be evenly distributed all over the print, but were in the form of large yellow stains. The beauty of the pictures produced by the bath led me to continue its use and to seek a remedy for the yellow stains. It was readily found, but not without impairing, to a certain extent, the beauty of the prints. The remedy is, to add a few grains of hyposulphite of soda to the gold, just enough to dissolve the precipitate that forms in the bath. Thus, if the fixing be going on in the slightest degree, the precipitate will not form and the yellow stains will not appear….” “… Sometimes with such negatives it is necessary to double and even treble the quantity of salt required for negatives of equal density made with collodion containing bromine. Very frequently different lots of paper from the same maker, of apparently the same quality, will require different treatment. The only true way to arrive at the quantity of salt best suited to any lot of paper, is to try different quantities until the first point is reached. Actual experiment is the only true test. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “New Toning Agent.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:15 (Dec. 1, 1859): 228-229.
COALE, GEORGE BUCHANAN. (1819-1887) (USA)
Coale, Geo. B. “Le Gray’s Toning Process – A New Formula.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:16 (Dec. 15, 1859): 243. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: This is, perhaps, the “New Toning Agent” sought by Mr. Gage in his communication in the last No. of Humphrey’s Journal. It is extremely simple and beautiful in its results. I give it as received from my friend C. G. of Philadelphia: (C. G. would be the amateur Constance Guillou.)
— Put about half a drachm of chloride of lime in a pint bottle and fill it up with water; shake it well and filter about 8 or 10 ounces of the solution; add to this from 2 to 5 grains of chloride of gold. Exactness in quantity is not material. Print very deeply; more so than for the ordinary gold toning bath. As the prints come from the negative throw them into a vessel of clean water, of course protected from the light, and allow them to remain until all free nitrate of silver is dissolved from the paper. This is the one important point in the management of this process. The removal of the nitrate of silver may perhaps be more surely effected by laying the prints, face downwards, in water in which you have thrown a handful of salt—and the silver saved thereby. When properly washed, immerse the prints, one at a time, in the toning bath. The dingy red of an albumen print changes, in from 5 to 10 seconds, to a delicious dark purple. Prints on plain paper, with ammonio-nitrate, change in 1 or 2 seconds to a rich velvety black. Fix in a fresh solution of hypo, strong enough to do its work in 5 minutes, say 4 oz. in 10 oz. of water. Not only is the tone of prints made by this process a very beautiful one, but they have none of the flatness which is so often caused by the prolonged immersion in old hypo. The process was given to me for albumen paper only, but I find it answers equally well with plain paper. The bath still retains its quality at the end of a week. There is every reason to believe that a more permanent picture results from it than from the ordinary toning bath. Geo. B. Coale. Baltimore, Dec. 8, 1859.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “The New Toning Process.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:16 (Dec. 15, 1859): 243-244. [“St. Johnsbury, Vt, Dec. 10, 1859. To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: Enclosed pleased find two prints toned by the new process. I think they are very fine. They are said to be toned instantaneously. How do you like them? F. B. Gage.
We like them very much indeed; they equal anything we ever saw. There is a richness of tone about them that is hard to beat. These specimens are on albumenised paper, which accounts in a measure for their exquisite fineness and delicacy. Our friend Gage will notice that in this No. of the Journal we publish a communication, from that sterling friend of the art, George B. Coale, Esq., of Baltimore, containing “Le Gray’s New Toning Process,” which Mr. Coale presumes to be the same as that alluded to by Mr. Gage in our last No. Is this so? We think not. In No. 9, Vol. XI., of Humphrey’s Journal we published, under the head of “Photography in Paris,” Le Gray’s new process for toning and fixing positives, which is altogether different from the formula sent to us by Mr. Coale and published in this No. Since the publication of Le Gray’s process, above-referred to, he has probably made new discoveries, which our friend Guillou, of Philadelphia, has got hold of and communicates to Mr. Coale. Mr. Gage says distinctly, in his last article, that he is almost daily in receipt of prints from two able photographers who claim to have discovered a new process. We think it cannot be the same as Le Gray’s.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “The New Toning Agent.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:17 (Jan. 1, 1860): 259-260.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “More about the New Toning Agent.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:18 (Jan. 15, 1860): 275-276.
GAGE, F. B.
Gage, F. B. “Old Processes Analyzed, Criticized, and Systemized. The Positive Collodion Process. – No. 1.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 11:19 – 21 (Feb. 1 – Mar. 1, 1860): 289-290, 307-309, 321-323.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Cleaning Glass with Burning Fluid.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:1 (May 1, 1860): 3. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: During one of my photographic trips last summer I fell in with an amateur photographer, who told me that he had tried my plan of cleaning glass, as recommended in your Journal some months since, and failed. Since then I have met with others who have failed to make it work uniformly well, and therefore I would add a few words for the benefit of all who have tried it. If they have all failed it is not from any defect in the process, but from not rightly using it, and from not comprehending the theory of its action.
In the first place let it be premised that it is not possible to rightly clean a glass in a cold damp atmosphere, as the moisture condenses on the surface faster than it can be removed. When, therefore, I wish to clean a glass I first immerse it in dilute nitric acid, then wash it in clean water, and dry it off by wiping on a clean linen towel; or it may be hung up on nails and allowed to drain and dry, if the operator chooses. It is then warmed over a stove or spirit lamp until it is considerably warmer than the temperature of the room. If it be a glass of the stereoscope size, 3½ by 6 it is placed in a clean vice, and one drop of burning fluid is dropped on the middle. This one drop is instantly and smartly polished off with, a small ball of cotton, or, what is still better, clean tissue paper. It requires but a few moments’ rubbing to collect all the organic matter on the surface, after which it is of no avail to rub longer. One half-minute will clean a glass in this way, and do it thoroughly.
The points of importance are, that the glass be warmed (if the room be not well warmed) not so as to be what is called hot, but a few degrees above ordinary summer temperature. It is necessary also that there be not an excess of fluid used, not more than one or two drops for a stereoscope glass, or more than two or three for a four-fourth size. I have practiced this process through the summer; and wish for nothing better. In a private letter, received from Mr. George B. Coale some time since, he says: “since the publication of your method I find that it is not such a horrid bore to clean glass as it used to be.” From this I infer that he has found its operation satisfactory, which all will do if they will use it rightly. F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Vegetable and Mineral Photography.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:2 (May 15, 1860): 23-24.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN.
“More from the Opposition.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:6 (July 15, 1860): 81-82. [“We publish in this number what purports to be a reply to Mr. Fitzgibbon, but which is, in reality, a full endorsement of the position taken by that gentleman. Mr. Gage, as is generally known, belongs to the class of A 1 operators, and is down on cheap map-takers. He is decidedly bitter and pungent in his irony, and we trust feels relieved by the discharge. We are sorry that the cheap picture mania has reached to the utmost recesses of the Green Mountains, and hope, with our friend “Mr. Assistance,” that Mr. Gage will endeavor to elevate the art he so truly adorns.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN.
Gage, F. B. “The Patent Case. – Reply to Mr. Fitzgibbon.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:6 (July 15, 1860): 84-85. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: I noticed an article in a late number of your Journal, from the pen of Mr. Fitzgibbon, on the subject of the Cutting Patents, which seems to be very much at variance with the Fund movement in your city. Now, although I have an abundance of respect for Mr. Fitzgibbon, I cannot endorse his article on account of its not being sufficiently philanthropic. In fact, Mr. Editor, there is a great want of philanthropy in the photographic ranks. There is an exclusiveness among the first operators which, to the undiscriminating, seems very remarkable. As you remark in the Journal of June 15: “The better class of operators, such as Brady, Gurney, Fredricks, etc., think they know as much about taking pictures as anybody, in this country at least, can teach them. They also are men who are doing a lucrative business, and who have no time or inclination to devote to going to school. They are posted; they have learned the ropes, and are not going to impart their information to greenhorns either for money or love of their profession.” It is noticeable that almost every good operator has his mouth eternally sealed as far as the art is concerned, and he has also conceived the idea that he never learned to use the pen. Now, you see, if there was a proper degree of public spirit and interest in the welfare of the art, these first-class operators would put all their dodges in the Journal and reveal them to the Photographical Society; they would also generously go across the street and detail the particulars to the rival artist, who is taking pictures superior to any in town at one-fourth the charge in other galleries. It has not cost these first-class operators anything to obtain this ascendency. No! they were born lucky. No toil, no money, no hard study. Nature showered success upon them in such abundance that they have only to float; never to wade. But, on account of this great want of philanthropy, they are not disposed to help the less favored.
Now, if these operators of the first class would only consent to reveal to the second class, then the latter would be very grateful, and forthwith sink the price of pictures from five cents, down to two and a-half cents; and, if they thought this was not compensation enough, they would make up the balance in slandering and lying about class 1.
I would like to know what right this Mr. Fitzgibbon has to wish to obtain an honest, honorable livelihood? Does he not know that he might do a vast amount of good by divulging his knowledge of the art and assisting the five cent class, who never take a journal, and never will, provided they have to pay for it? Even if Mr. Fitzgibbon has children to feed and clothe, he should show his philanthropy though he lets them starve. More than ten cents, for a photograph as large as a barn door is rank extortion. No matter whether they are good or bad, all pictures should be the same price per square yard! I have no doubt that Mr. Fitzgibbon could give any honorable competitors fits, or, at least, he could Fitz-gib-um. But then he should be philanthropic; he should look to the good of the art!
There is another set of extortioners; these are the stock dealers. Some of them are actually making enough to pay their way, which should be looked to at once. They should be made to work for something less than their board. The old Bible standard, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” is changed to “Love thy neighbor and hate thyself.” This is designed to apply only to the best class of operators and journalists. Now, why not publish the Journal for one dollar a-year? This would enable the five-cent class to make pictures about half a cent cheaper per square yard, as one dollar a year would be saved from their actual expenses, provided they were to take the Journal.
I can cite an individual case of this exclusiveness. There is a Mr. Gage, living somewhere up in Vermont, who has written more or less for this Journal. There is also another operator, born very near where this Mr. Gage originated, who is at present taking pictures in the same State. Although friends in boyhood and at the present time separated by more than a hundred miles, and having no interests that clash, this artist has grown very unfriendly to Mr. Gage. He acknowledges that Mr. Gage is a good operator, but says that he “publishes all he knows, and more too.”
The probable reason of his unfriendliness is, that his own reputation has not extended beyond his native State, while Mr. Gage’s having become somewhat more extended, he evidently feels envious; he looks upon every one more successful than himself as his enemy, and treats him accordingly. Mr. Gage, however, could inform this same operator that, although he has published some things, he has not yet published all he knows, neither has he published the best he knows. There is one process that Mr. Gage possesses, which he has worked out within the last three months, the secret of which neither this operator, nor any other cheap operator, could purchase for five hundred dollars, unless they would give satisfactory bonds not to degrade the price of pictures made by this process.
Here you find, Mr. Editor, a case of want of philanthropy and the good of the art. Mr. Gage, however, says that he “would be pleased to publish the process in full in your Journal, but as long as the assassin stands at his door he chooses not to lend him his choicest weapons.
“If there was only an honorable competition at uniform prices, every operator of credit in the land would be willing to publish his best process in the Journal at once. If that were the case, you would see the art progress. Until then you will see it developing only under the exclusive order. The man who sincerely thinks the art is going to advance in the least under the cheap operators is more than a fool.”
Well, Mr. Editor, you see by the above what Gage thinks about the matter, and, as he unblushingly asserts that he has none of the philanthropic spirit, and does not publish the best he knows, I advise you not to print any more of his productions. I also advise all cheap operators, and several in particular, not to steal certain copies of Humphrey’s Journal and read its articles in secret, being too stingy and miserably mean to pay for them.
If Mr. Fitzgibbon should happen to see this communication, I hope he will feel pretty nearly used up. Let him study the new translation of scripture: “Love thy neighbor; hate thyself.” Truly yours, F. B. Gage.
P. S.—The Editor of H. J. may have a chance ere long to see some of the pictures taken by the process mentioned above.”]
CUTTING, JAMES AMBROSE. (1814-1867) (USA)
“The Fredricks’ Fund. Reply to Mr. Gage. – Mr. Fitzgibbon looked after.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTSAND SCIENCES 12:8 (Aug. 15, 1860): 113-114.
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “The Cutting Patents. – Another Item from Mr. Gage.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:8 (Aug. 15, 1860): 115-116. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: In your issue of July 15, in your editorial article, you comment, on page 90, as follows:-—”Mr. Fitzgibbon and Mr. Gage are both entirely wrong. Their course is utterly indefensible and can never be carried out. … Mr. Gage and Mr. Fitzgibbon must take pictures that, by their superior expedience shall command their prices, and not endeavor to put up prices by supporting unjust patents.”
Your language places Mr. Fitzgibbon and myself in an entirely wrong light, which I propose to correct, after which I shall probably leave the subject and also the “map-makers.” I do not admit that the patent is unjust, or that I am supporting an unjust patent. All patents are supposed to be just until proved otherwise. Cutting’s patent has not been proved so. Assertion is not admissible in a court of justice, and the photographic fraternity have, as a body, never have had any better proof than assertion. When the Supreme Court of the United States declares it to be unjust, it will then be soon enough for them to talk of unjust patents. Even then the patent may be just, and the decision unjust. Many innocent persons have been proved guilty and hung. Cutting’s patent may suffer the same kind of martyrdom. Because Mr. Fitzgibbon and myself are not willing to give a liberal sum to pay for trumping up proof to overthrow what we consider a just patent, we are accused of supporting on unjust one. The plea, that the discovery of the use of bromine in combination with collodion was made in Europe, is certainly a dubious one. Even at this time the great body of European photographers are almost entirely ignorant of the benefit resulting from using bromine in collodion, so much so, that F. Hardwich and T. Sutton, two of the most accomplished photographers in Europe, neither use or recommend it. Almost all the European views that come to this country bear positive proof that no bromine is used in making them. If some European photographer did publish the suggestion, that perhaps bromine might be used in collodion, it did not result in anything until it was factually made available and patented by Mr. Cutting. The instant it was patented there were hundreds ready to suck the blood of the patent, and declare that it had been done before. As no such results were shown before as were shown when the patent was issued, it is evident that Mr. Cutting made the thing generally available and generally valuable, and he deserved the patent for this, if for no other reason.
On account of these facts I infer that the patent is just, and that all just men would sooner pay money to sustain that justice than, to overthrow it.
When, therefore, you find me paying money to overthrow this patent, merely to gratify a grasping class of operators, you may reasonably conclude that I am insane.
“It will be a burning shame” if Mr. Fredricks does not get his fingers singed to his regret, after which he can talk of unjust patents with propriety. The very fact, that so little money is subscribed outside of New York proves conclusively that the fund movement is unpopular among the better class of country operators. F. B. Gage.”]
FITZGIBBON, JOHN H. (ca. 1817-1882) (USA)
Fitzgibbon, J. H. “A Reply from Mr. Fitzgibbon to `Assistance.'” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:8 (Aug. 15, 1860): 116-117. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: ”Assistance” forces me to reply to his communication in your issue of July 15. “For the sake of the cause in which Mr. Fredricks is (not) so deeply engaged,” I had hoped that, after “Assistance” had been advised of the fact, which I wished him distinctly to understand, namely, that I am decidedly opposed to either money or subscriptions flowing into the treasury of the Fredricks’ Fund, he would have rested easy. I do not profess to write any literary, or enter into any scientific controversy on any subject appertaining to our profession; but I can assure him that these labored articles he speaks of come quite natural to me, and I should never tire when I felt I had really the good of the art at Heart. “Assistance” doesn’t know me if he thinks that I would relinquish this controversy in the manner he mentions; no, sir! I will Gib-bum-Fitz as long as I have a hand to wield a pen or a tongue with which to talk.
As there are no points whatever in “Assistance’s” letter requiring an answer, permit me to walk slightly into your affections, Mr. Editor:— In your editorial of July 1st, after giving me a very flattering notice (you know we are all susceptible of flattery), you say: “As to Mr. F., he reasons altogether from wrong premises; he takes the ground that Mr. Cutting has a moral as well as a legal title to the bromide patents, which is the reverse of what is true.” Strong words these, Mr. Editor. In the English language, both Webster and Walker define “the reverse of what is true.” to be a l-i-e. Now, I cannot think you intended to be interpreted that way, although you said it. At all events, let us hear from you on that subject again.
In your editorial of the 15th ult. you say: “Mr. Fitzgibbon and Mr. Gage are both wrong entirely, and their course is utterly indefensible, and their plans can never be carried out.” Now, Sir, I contend that you, as Editor of a Journal devoted to the whole art, ought not to use such definite language when a subject is being discussed. If you cannot remain neutral, why be as neutral as you can; at least do not be so definite as to say we are “entirely wrong and utterly indefensible.” You ought to have added, “in your opinion.”
I will en-Gage with such pens as the one that has just proved itself not a very green-Gage to do that, Mr. Editor, which you seem to think it impossible to do, viz., “to purify and elevate our art,”‘ so that all who wished might be honorably engaged in following a profession which is now so much abused and ill-used. J. H. Fitzgibbon.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Portrait of Mr. F. B. Gage.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:8 (Aug. 15, 1860): 117-118. [“Some great men display a certain peculiarity of dress or personal appearance. A distinguished politician of Iowa is described as wearing a checked shirt, an old slouched hat, seedy cotton pants, an old shoe down at the heel on one foot, and an antiquated boot with a two-inch slit in the instep on the other; no coat or vest: this is his warm weather rig. A well known physician of this city, who makes a certain disease his specialty, is seen going down Broadway any fine day dressed in the style of the English gentleman of a century ago. Breeches made very tight, silk stockings, round-toed shoes with massive silver buckles, a long waistcoat with big flaps, an enormous coat with expansive skirts, a white choker unaccompanied by a collar, a low-crowned and wide-brimmed beaver hat, cocked up on three sides, and a gold-headed cane completes his attire. Of course every one looks after him as he walks along, and inquires: “Who in the world is that chap?” then we have Howe, of sewing machine notoriety, wearing his brown hair in long flowing curls like a young girl of sixteen summers; said hair surmounted with a peculiarly shaped Quaker-like hat having a brim a foot in width. Every one says: “That’s Howe, the famous sewing-machine man!” Then we have Greely, whose comical white coat reaching down to his heels, an old white hat caved in on one side, with his pantaloons ten or twelve inches too short, and one leg of them resting on the top of his boot, is familiar to many. Then there is Walt. Whitman, the eccentric poet, with a black Kossuth hat a foot or so in hight, with the crown rounded off to a semi-globular shape, and his shirt collar turned over on the collar of his coat, his shirt open in front exposing the greater part of his ample chest and an ample grizzled beard; if once seen he is not soon forgotten. We might mention several more similar geniuses, but the above must suffice.
As other arts and sciences have their eccentric-looking characters, so Photography has hers. As we reached our sanctum the other morning, we noticed a stranger sitting and occupied in reading the news. He came forward as we entered, and introduced himself as F. B. Gage, of Vermont; of course we were glad to see him. Mr. Gage has written several articles for Humphrey’s Journal, and has also edited a work on Photography. We had heard much of him, and had some correspondence with him, but had never before seen the gentleman, and must say that we were struck with his appearance. Imagine a man of about thirty-five years of age or thereabouts, dressed in a suit of coarse New England black cloth, with a low-crowned black felt hat, light complexion, blue eyes, a whitey-brown beard like that formerly worn by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, reaching down to his waist, a rather closely trimmed mustache, long hair, hands stained all over with nitrate of silver solution and black as the ace of spades, Heavy cow-hide boots with soles an inch thick, and you have some idea of the personel of Mr. Gage.
In his manner he is quite reserved, talks very little, and that in the genuine dialect of a Vermont Yankee, occupying himself at the same time with combing his flowing beard with his fingers, in the same manner as you have seen a man running his digits through the mane of a horse.
Mr. Gage has taken very good pictures, and we have seen some of them which do credit to his native State. His work on Photography has sold, we believe, very well, and his writings in the Journal have been generally acceptable. We trust he will live long enough to obtain eminence in his profession, and “publish the best he knows.”]
GALLOWAY, T. K.
Galloway, T. K. “Ammonio-Nitrate.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:9 (Sept. 1, 1860): 131-132. [“To the Editor of Humphrey’s Journal: I am much pleased with your Journal; I think it equal to any published in America or Europe. I am thoroughly hungry for each number to come. I read each article and try most of the processes and experiments proposed. I presume a better corps of correspondents than you have cannot be found under the wings of the spread eagle; but there is more truth than poetry in that article of one of them where he says: “We do not publish the best we know,” or to that effect [see F. B. Gage’s article in the July 15th number of the Journal], their books are no better.
For instance, they all say: ” to prepare ammonio-nitrate, pour off one quarter of the silver solution, and add ammonia, drop by drop, to the three-quarters until a precipitate is formed and redissolved; then return the other quarter, and filter.” But if the first part of these directions is followed, others will have to be more successful than I have been if the remaining one-fourth ever can be added; for I have poured in the ammonia equal in amount to the silver solution without dissolving the sediment, or any prospect of it.
No doubt many of your correspondents have, like myself, found the above a failure, and would be pleased to have the pen of some one, through the medium of your Journal, to help them out of the fog.
If you can tell me how to make a fixing solution that will not bleach out and destroy the beauty which prints have when they leave the toning bath, I will store up a thousand thanks for you.
But send on the Journal anyhow; we cannot do without it. We must know how our brother operators get along, and what they say. Enclosed please find $3, which I believe pays up to the end of the present volume. Yours respectfully, T. K. Galloway.
[Ans.— 1., As to your first trouble, it is with your ammonia, which is good for nothing, that’s sure; if it was, you would have no such difficulty as you speak of. You need not look for success as an operator unless you have first-rate chemicals.
2. You must overprint and overtone a little, and when the prints come from the fixing solution they will have the proper degree of intensity. You can tell by experimenting what degree of overtoning is necessary. The prints will lose some of their beauty in the fixing solution, and fade more or less.—Ed.)”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, F. B. “Tent for Field Use.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:11 (Oct. 1, 1860): 166. [“In volume X., page 65, of Humphrey’s Journal, we published a description of a tent suitable for field use. Recently we have had so many calls for that number by subscribers and others who are in want of such a tent, that we have determined to publish the article, which is over the signature of Mr. F. B. Gage:—
“My tent for field use is made of two thicknesses of black cambric and two of yellow calico, stretched over three hoops, made of white oak, 6 feet in diameter. These hoops are placed two feet apart, and the tent when raised is about five and a haft feet high, with a cone roof of two feet above that. A strong cord is attached to the top of the cone for the purpose of suspending the tent from the limb of a tree or any other convenient object. When we wish to operate inside we lift one edge of the bottom and stoop down so as to go under it, and when done we return in the same way. This plan operates quite well, but I shall build another soon which I can recommend as being far better for that purpose. Make a light frame about three feet wide by four and a half or five feet long, and high enough to stand up in. This should have as light a floor as can be made and be of the required strength to sustain the operator. Cover the whole with the cloth as described for the other tent. This tent should be mounted on two light wheels—‘Horse-cart fashion’—so that the artist can pack in apparatus and materials, and go where and when he chooses. A door in the end will admit the operator, and a yellow oil-cloth window will let in as much light as is needed to operate. When you arrive at a place where you wish to take an impression, it is but an instant’s work to take the wheels off your cart; your house then stands on the ground, and you can proceed with all the coolness of a May morning to take your picture. When done, the wheels are returned and you are in a rolling condition again. In this way you need no assistant and are your own ‘boss and hired hands,’ which is not only the cheapest but most certain plan. Such a tent as this, with good chemicals, will ‘give fits’ to any dry process. I will guarantee your correspondents that they will get ten gems with this arrangement where they would get none from any dry process ever yet originated.”]
KENT, WILLIAM.
Kent, William. “Hints to Authors.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 12:20 (Feb. 15, 1861): 306-307. [(Actually, sort of a review of F. B. Gage’s and Ch. Waldack’s books. The editor’s snide remark is curious, as it was Humphrey’s press that published Gage’s book in 1859. But they may have fallen out over the Cutting patent issue, but, in any case, I’m not certain that Gage published any more articles in Humphrey’s Journal after this.)] “It seems to me that much more value would attach to photographic productions if each author would confine himself exclusively to his own process in the production of pictures, and give the details in full, so that a beginner with ordinary study could readily understand it. The formation of the bath, its working qualities, and its peculiarities, if any, under given circumstances should be accurately described; the developer should be given with the same particularity. If a writer is not a careful, observing, rigid experimenter, he has no right to impose his productions on the public; and if he is such an experimenter, we want to know what process he has found the best in his own practice. We do not care a fig what others think, but we wish to know what he has found by demonstration to be the best within the range of his own experience. If some master-artist would do for Positives what Gage has done for Negatives, he would confer no small favor on the artistic fraternity. Out of more than fifty processes, Gage has selected what he has found by rigid experiment to be the best.* [*Mr. Kent forgets that Mr. Gage, in No. 6 of the present volume of Humphrey’s Journal, declared that he did not publish “the best he knows!— Ed.] We thank him for this, but it does appear, in the publication of his work; that his thoughts were concentrated most unrighteously upon his pocket, or he would have given us a full index, which he could have done, and then have been abundantly well paid for his skill. There can be but one best positive process; and if the many processes claiming this character were subject to the rigid ordeal of experiment, by some]
ORGANIZATIONS. USA. AMERICAN INSTITUTE, PHOTOGRAPHIC SECTION: 1867.
“Photographic Section of the American Institute, Reported for Humphrey’s Journal.” HUMPHREY’S JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES 19:16 (Dec. 15, 1867): 247-248. [Hull showed his own prints and photographs by B. F. Gage (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) Books illustrated by the American Photo-Lithographic Co. were displayed by Mr. Mason. Anthony, Hull, Chapman, Newton, Prof. Tillman discussed issues.]
KANSAS HERALD OF FREEDOM. (WAKARUSA, KAN. TERRITORY)
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Acknowledgment.” THE KANSAS HERALD OF FREEDOM. (WAKARUSA, KAN. TERRITORY) (Nov. 22, 1856): 3. [“Of Receipts for subscriptions to the Herald of Freedom, from Aug. 25th, to Nov. 5th, 1856.” (This is followed by a list of more than fifty subscribers from around the country, the majority from New England, including “…F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Vt.; $2.00.” Kansas was an often violent battleground arena between slavery and anti-slavery advocates before the Civil War.)]
MILAN EXCHANGE. (MILAN, GIBSON COUNTY, TN.)
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
Gage, Franklin B. “Some Adventures with Catamounts.” THE MILAN EXCHANGE. (MILAN, GIBSON COUNTY, TN.) (Sept. 17, 1874): 1. [“It is doubtful if any specimens of the catamount, or panther, once the terror of our forests, now survive in the State of Vermont; but as late as in 1857 two of these animals were killed in different parts of the State. In the autumn of that year a fox-hunter, near the foot of Ascuntney, Mountain, in Weathersfield, Vt., had a valuable hound mysteriously killed. All his efforts were vain to trace the cause of the animal’s death. The mangled remains found showed that the dog had received terribly rough usage, but what sort of antagonist had done the deed, the hunter could not even guess; for it was not supposed that there was any wild animal in the vicinity capable of killing a fox-hound. Some time afterwards, several children on their way to school one day, met a strange animal in the road. It did not seem inclined to turn out for them. On the contrary, it faced them with so ferocious an appearance that they turned and fled. Most fortunately the animal did not pursue them. When they reached home and told what they had seen, their parents could not believe the story. The description given by the children answered to that of a catamount, but as no such creature had been seen in that thickly settled region for nearly forty years, it was decided that the young people must have been frightened by a dog. On the 30th of January, however, a hunter by the name of Venight struck the track of some strange animal, and feeling curious to learn what had made it, followed the footprints to the top of Pine Hill about one mile south of Downer’s Hotel. There he found the tracks led into a den. Night was approaching and he could not stay to investigate. He could hear a low growling in the den, and this convinced him that some dangerous animal was hidden there. Finding materials near at hand, he stopped up the hole as near as he could, and went home. The next morning, in company with several other men who were armed with guns and had shovels also with them, he re paired to the spot again. He found that his prisoner had not escaped. The only way of reaching him in safely seemed to be to dig down to the den from above. After two hours of labor they cleared the earth from the rocks over the cave, and found a small hole through the roof. Then procuring a rail, they thrust it down through this aperture, and immediately a fierce snarl came up from the darkness below. The next moment the end of the rail was spitefully seized, and held so firmly, that the man who stood at the opening could not pull it away. Several other men took hold with him, and drew the rail up by main strength, bringing the animal along with it. As soon as the creature’s head appeared above the rocks, a ball was fired into it. The catamount (for the men were certain now it was a catamount) relinquished his hold, and dropped to the bottom of the cave again. This operation had to be twice repeated before the fierce animal was killed. When he was dragged from the cave he measured, from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, seven feet and nine inches. He was thirty-two inches high and weighed one hundred and twenty-one and one-half pounds. The skin was stuffed by Prof. Hagan, formerly State Geologist, and is now on exhibition at Downer’s Hotel, Weathersfield, near the foot of Ascutney Mountain. The same year, on the 18th of December, a man by the name of Gomen, living in the town of Johnson, on the Lamoille River, was going through a piece of woods to the house of a distant neighbor. On his way he saw in the snow the tracks of a large animal with which he was not acquainted. He followed the footprints, and, after some time, the creature itself started up from a clump of bushes, and confronted him. It was a full-sized catamount. One glance at his long, lithe body, his fiery eyes and merciless teeth was sufficient to remind Mr. Gomen that discretion is the better part of valor at least to a person unarmed and he incontinently took to his heels. Going home, he soon collected thirteen men with guns and three good dogs, and with this force he returned to the woods. Dividing here, one party went around and stationed themselves where they could head off the catamount should he attempt to escape. The other party with the dogs followed up the track. They had not gone halt a mile before the catamount showed himself on the other side of the woods, where the first party lay in wait for him. One of the hunters fired, and wounded him in the hip. At this, the dogs being close upon him, the animal turned, and with an enormous leap plunged into the undergrowth. The ground was level here, and it is asserted that this single leap of the huge cat measured from twenty-five to thirty feet. After tearing his way through the thickets for ten or eleven rods, hotly pursued by the dogs, he sprang into a tree, and commenced jumping from one tree to another. Finally, reaching a large spruce, he curled himself upon a limb, nearly forty feet from the ground, and faced his enemies. The hunters were close upon him. Several shots were fired, most of them taking effect, and one ball brought him to the ground. The dogs rushed upon him, but wounded as he was. they soon found that they were no match for the fierce animal in a close fight. They would have paid dearly for their rashness had not a rifle-ball put a speedy end to his struggles. This catamount was eight feet and a half-inch long, and two feet seven inches high. His weight was one hundred and two pounds. He was very lean, and when his skin was stripped off, the cause of his leanness was discovered. His head and shoulders were filled with porcupine’s quills. One or more of them had passed entirely through his head, and many others were half way through, showing that at some time he had made rather sorry work of trying to devour this small but formidable kind of prev. Had he been in good flesh he would have weighed much more, and in that case, too, it is likely he would have sold his life much more dearly than he did. Franklin B. Gage, in Youth’s Companion.”]
PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Correspondence.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 2:17 (May 1865): 80-81. [(Letter from F. B. Gage of St. Johnsbury, VT, including stereos of eighteen landscapes taken five years earlier.) “Allow me to present for criticism in the Philadelphia Photographer, a package of stereograms, the negatives of which were made five years since, at which time the rebellion drove me out of viewmaking into portraiture. It was my endeavor to reproduce these wild nooks among our mountain streams in such a manner as to convince you, while you were looking at them in the stereoscope, that the water in our highlands is really water, — such water as you would not relish falling into, if you were not able to swim….”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA) “Correspondence.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOCRAPHER 2, no. 19 (July 1865): 111-112. [Long letter with technical discussion about proper lenses for landscape work.]
FITZGIBBON, JOHN H. (ca. 1817-1882) (USA)
[Fitzgibbon, John H.] Justice. “Failures and their Causes.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 3:27 (Mar. 1866): 87-88. [“To the Editor Phila. Photographer. A few thoughts have suggested themselves to my mind after reading your Prospectus for 1866. In olden times most of the articles for the journals were written by the practical operators of the day, and were more to the point and easier understood. The various processes and styles of manipulation that the journals are now filled with, I must say, are generally very indefinite and unsatisfactory. Now, Mr. Editor, by your kindness, and through your Journal, the fraternity at large get the benefit of the practical knowledge of the professor or amateur…. …I recollect the first photographs exhibited at the Crystal Palace by Whipple & Black, under the name of the Talbotype; nothing like the difficulty that is experienced at the present day was experienced by those gentlemen then, or by the fraternity for I might say ten years afterwards, for it is only a few years since new formulas have been given in the journals, and fresh inquiries by different artists of the causes of the many failures which they are constantly troubled with. Now, I ask what is the cause of those failures? …is it, Mr. Editor, caused by the innumerable processes, formulae, or important improvements, that we see crowding the journals of the present day, chiefly from the pens and brains of amateurs and professors, arid not the sayings and doings of the real practical photographers of the present time? Let the operator of the present period look back into Humphrey’s Journal, Snelling’s, Dr. Burges’s, and Waldack’s books, and they will find processes there that will not give them half the trouble that those published at the present day do. I do not attempt to deny that there are many good and valuable articles written by professors and amateurs, but theoretical practice should not be palmed off on the profession as practical experience. Let us hear, as of old, from such men as Whipple, Black, Gurney, Fredericks, Bogardus, Davie, Williamson, O’Neal, Turner, Fitzgibbon, Gage, Webster, Germon, Faris, Root, mostly old contributors to the Journals, and hundreds of others that could give some good beneficial articles to the fraternity at large, and in such plain language that it would neither break your jaw to pronounce the big words of many writers, or need an interpreter to understand, or the last resort, a Webster’s dictionary, to explain what they are talking about.”]
GAGE. F. B. (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT)
“Paper Turning Yellow.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 3:34 (Oct. 1866): 296-297. [“Editor Philadelphia Photographer: In the August number of The Photographer, page 253, you give, under the head of “Paper Turning Yellow,” some hints, and various precautions, to be observed to prevent the same. As the article does not state or explain the cause of the “turning,” the remedy is only partial, and many times of no avail. Having prepared my own albumen-paper ever since it was first used in the art, I was for a long time troubled with it turning yellow, measles striking through to the back of the paper, and all the category of calamities incident thereto. Various and numberless were the expedients resorted to dislodge this enemy from his position; but all my endeavors were of only partial avail. At last, however, I became convinced that the yellow stains were caused by fermented acid in the albumen used; but I found Mr. Acid so strongly entrenched in his stronghold that I was unsuccessful in my attempts to rout him by any direct attack. As a last resort, I concluded to flank him, “ate Grant,” and take him in the rear. For that purpose, I prepared a solution, as follows: Water, 20 ounces. Sal soda (washing soda), 60 grains. Chloride of ammonium, 120. I floated the paper, back down, on this solution five minutes, or until the paper laid flat, and the albumen surface became moist and soft. I then hung it up to dry, after which it was silvered, fumed, printed, and toned as usual. In that way, the sal soda neutralized the acid, and the paper would keep some days very white, unless it was very hot. There is some work in this, but a good return is made in the quality of the prints and the paper saved. Of course, it is necessary to use some care, and not to allow the neutralizing solution to come in contact with the albumen, as it immediately washes it off. If the paper is already heavily salted, the ammonium can be omitted from the neutralizing solution. All albumen-paper before silvering should be smartly rubbed on the albumen face with a clean piece of cotton flannel. The flannel will absorb and convey away a thin film of animal oil, which deters the silver from taking readily. Any of your subscribers who are troubled with the yellows, by adopting this “dodge,” will very soon discover the fact that their old enemy is really dead and buried.
After fourteen years’ successful practice in my old gallery, I have just moved into a new one. I occupy one entire floor, forty-two by seventy-two feet. My skylight-room is twenty-eight feet square. I can operate on three sides of the light, east, south, and west, and I get a fine light at all hours, rain or shine. Several “well-posted” photographers, who have seen it, have expressed the conviction that I have made a strike, not exactly in oil, but in light. My own opinion is, that it is not excelled. I can give you a description, and perhaps a drawing of it, if desirable. The cause of the paper turning yellow is fermented acid. Lest any one should fall into error in regard to the soda, I would say that the amount given in my formula is not to be taken as the amount that is best at all times, and with all papers. The amount of fermented acid is very different in different samples of paper. Sometimes one grain of soda to the ounce of water is enough to prevent the yellowing; sometimes five or eight is none too much. Enough to neutralize the acid is necessary. I have been using, for a long time, a sample of paper that required only three grains of soda to each ounce of water. To-day I am getting some choice results with another sample, using a twelve-grain solution….” “…Nearly all plain papers are sized with sizing containing more or less fermented acid. The same treatment will prove beneficial in keeping the lights pure while printing. A knowledge of the course and remedy for paper turning yellow, is of great importance to the practical photographer, as it gives him control of his printing, and is a means of getting very much better effects. You may hear from me again, now I am getting settled. F. B. Gage. St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Mr. Gage is well known to many of our readers, and his papers are always fresh, valuable, and welcome to our pages. — Ed.”]
GAGE, F. B. (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT)
“Coagulating Albumen Paper.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 3:35 (Nov. 1866): 341-343. [“Editor Philadelphia Photographer: In a late number of The Photographer, I saw a few words in regard to the coagulating of albumen-paper by the use of alcohol. It occurred to me that, at the present price of alcohol, it must be rather an expensive business; and as I have had some experience in the matter, I send an account of it for the edification of your subscribers. For some years I have practised coagulating my paper previous to silvering….” “There is a great field of undiscovered possible uses to which albumen may be put when its treatment has become better understood. I fancy that it may yet attain to an importance, and play a part, not yet dreamed of at this time by our fraternity. Truly yours, F. B. Gage. St. Johnsbury, Vt., Oct. 8, 1866.”]
BY COUNTRY: USA: 1867.
“Editor’s Table: The New Size.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:39 (Mar. 1867): 95-96. [“The New Size, we are convinced, is going to become popular. Elegant specimens are coming to us from all directions. Each enterprising man seems to be trying how good he can make them. It has so awakened and revived some of the callous ones, that they have already expended hundreds of dollars in preparing to make these new pictures. Some of the most excellent examples we have received, …Mr. George H. Fennemore, with Mr. F. S. Keeler, …Messrs. Wenderoth, Taylor & Brown have also sent us some…. In New York, Messrs. Bendann Brothers, ….Messrs. J. Gurney & Son, ….Mr. H. Benedict, of Seville, Ohio,…. Mr. F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, has sent us some specimens which are not only new in size, but entirely new in style. They are bust pictures from what he calls “vignetted negatives.” The “vignetting” process gives a very pretty clouded effect around the whole or parts of the figure, as the taste may require, and by proper care, very good results may be secured. Some of the specimens are certainly very pretty, while in others the vignetting is too decided; but this, Mr. Gage says, is owing to the haste with which the backgrounds were made. This we can readily see is easy to manage. Mr. Gage has applied for a patent for his process. His improvement may be applied to any size. Let the style be varied, and the entire get-up of the new size be as distinct as possible from the old styles. Be careful not to begin at too low a price. As we seek to improve the business and the art in one direction, do not let us degrade it by low prices and inferior productions.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B. (ST. JOHNSBURY, VT)
“Editor’s Table.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:42 (June 1867): 194. [“In our last issue we announced that a subscriber had informed us that he had discovered a plan by which the admission of light upon the negative or positive picture would cause astonishing developments. Since then we have had an interview with the discoverer, who is Mr. Franklin B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Vermont. He described his process to us, which is so simple and so easy as to seem almost ridiculous, but we were privileged to see some specimens which evinced the most soft and beautiful blending of light and shade, and yet wonderful vigor and strength. Only the severe illness of Mr. Gage, prevents the publication of his specifications and claim for patent in this issue. That the process is simple, practicable and certain, we are convinced. American and Foreign Patents have been applied for, and in our next we hope to give fuller information concerning Mr. Gage’s method. While we would not say too much, we feel that it is going to work somewhat of a revolution in Photography.”]
GAGE, F. B.
“Editor’s Table.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:43 (July 1867): 233. [“Mr. Gage’s Discovery. — As promised in our last we hoped to have received Mr. Gage’s specifications in time to publish in this issue, but have not yet done so. However, as we heard them read before he applied for his patent, and, as a patent has been granted him both here and in England, we will briefly describe his method now, and have more to say hereafter. He calls it “partial development by light in the camera,” by which he submits the sensitized plate to a certain amount of diffused light while in the camera, claiming thus to illuminate the shadows and harmonize the lights and shades of the photographic impression. He proceeds as follows: having exposed the plate, the lens is turned towards any dark surface for a short time, so that the plate is subjected to the weak radiations reflected from the dark dead surface. Mr. Gage accomplishes this by using a screen about eighteen inches square, covered with black cloth or velvet, and provided with a handle. This he keeps in motion before the lens for a longer or shorter time, and this is his plan. We shall describe it more minutely in our next, but would add here that we have received a number of prints from negatives thus “illuminated,” from Mr. Gage, and, while they possess great vigor, there is an entire absence of hardness and strong contrast of light and shade. More anon.”]
GAGE, F. B.
“Gage’s Process for Making Negatives and Positives in the Camera.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:44 (Aug. 1867): 260-261. [“Below we give further details of Mr. F. B. Gage’s process, briefly described and commented upon in our last. In his specifications, he says: “I proceed to take a photographic impression in the manner usually employed. Then I place some plain, dark, dead surface in front of the camera, the sensitive surface still remaining in the camera. I then remove the covering from the lens-tube and expose the sensitive surface, on which the impression has been formed, to the light reflected from the dark surface, while the dark surface is kept in gentle motion, so as to prevent the sensitive surface from taking an impression of any wrinkles or other variations on the surface from which the light is reflected. The time of this exposure must be varied according to the amount of light reflected, and the effect it is desirable to produce. The usual amount of time occupied in this exposure will be from one-fourth to double the time employed in taking the invisible impression. But in some cases it can be extended much beyond this time. for a dark, dead surface I usually use a piece of thick, black woollen cloth, about eighteen inches square, attached by one edge to a stick about two feet long, which I hold horizontally, and gently move in front of the camera with the left hand, while I uncover the lens-tube with the right hand. It is not absolutely essential that this dark surface be kept in motion, but it is safer. This exposure of the sensitive surface to light reflected from a dark dead surface apparently leaves the lightest portions of the impression but little changed, while it effects a much greater change in the darkest portions of the same, and thus harmonizes and properly blends the two, giving to the whole an atmospheric effect never before realized in photographic impressions. It also renders it less difficult to obtain the necessary intensity in negatives. It will be understood that my invention applies equally well and is operated in the same manner in taking positives or negatives in the camera. I believe that the best results are produced when the dead surface is as strongly lighted as possible without sunlight, using a diaphragm to reduce the aperture of the lens to prevent the development being so rapid as to become unmanageable. I have produced excellent results with a silver bath of twenty grains of nitrate of silver to the ounce of water, being about one-half the usual strength in use, the sensitizing of the collodion being proportionally reduced. I believe it will effect a great saving of expense for this reason. I believe my invention also removes the most important obstacle to the production of dry-plate impressions by harmonizing the lights and shades, which have heretofore usually been hard and inartistic. Exposing the sensitive surface in the manner described, before the impression has been formed, has less tendency to blend the lights and shades than when done afterwards, but I believe it gives a different and peculiar tone to the impression, which, in some cases, is very desirable, especially in negatives. When the object to be impressed is strongly lighted, accompanied with deep, heavy shadows, it is found advisable to illuminate, in the manner described, the sensitive surface, both before and after the impression is formed. This is effected by moving the black cloth before the camera a short time, before as well as after, and operating otherwise in the same manner as before described. Light dead surfaces may be used to produce a similar result, but their use is attended with greater hazard; and I believe the result obtained from dark surfaces is always to be preferred. I believe, also, that some glossy surfaces even may be used for this purpose, but require greater care to insure desirable effects. I believe that some good effect may be produced by admitting transmitted light upon the sensitive surface, or again, light reflected from yellow, and even red, and other colored surfaces, either before or after, or both before and after the photographic impression has been formed, but I believe that the reflection from a dark dead surface is much to be preferred, and have described a method of operating which I have found perfectly convenient and practical for use. The dead surface may be placed in the exact focus of the lens if the surface be kept in motion, so as to produce no distinct impression of its porous structure and inequalities, but it is neither as safe nor convenient as when the surface is out of focus. Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters-Patent, is as follows: I claim in photography the employment of diffused light, under the conditions herein specified, so as to render visible slight gradations of shade, both in the light and dark parts of the pictures, and to unite softness with strength, as herein explained and set forth.”]
SEUTTED, E. V. (RAYMOND, MS)
“Voices from the Craft. Gage’s Patent.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:45 (Sept. 1867): 300-301. [“— In 1854 I was making Daguerreotypes in Raymond, Mississippi. An individual, whose name I can give, called upon me, and offered to instruct me how to detect counterfeit notes and how to take children quickly, for $5. I “bit,” and the following was his process for the latter accomplishment: Expose the plate in the camera a few seconds to a black velvet background. As mine was a swinging one, I used it that way, and before exposing the plate to the sitter. If this is not the same thing that Mr. Gage has a patent for, I am much mistaken. E. V. Seutted.
LETTS, J. M. (DUNDEE, YATES CO., NY)
“Voices from the Craft. Gage’s Patent.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:45 (Sept. 1867): 301. [“I see by your last number of the Photographer, that Mr. F. B. Gage’s great intention of development by diffused light, is nothing more than an old dodge that I have made use of for seven years, and have abandoned for a much better plan, to effect the same thing, and upon which there is no patent now, but there is no certainty but that some inventive genius may reinvent it and obtain a patent. I proceed as follows:…”]
BY COUNTRY: GERMANY: 1867.
Vogel, Dr. H. “German Correspondence.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:46 (Oct. 1867): 327-329. [“American Photographs — Osborne’s Process — Zentmayer’ s Lens — The German Photographic Society — Photographs in Colors — Consumption of Silver and Collodion in the Negative Process — Prevention of the Reflection of the Sun in the Atelier — Collodion Experiments — Action of Bromide. “Bathing-place, Misdroy, September 1st, 1867. My dear Mr. Wilson: Rarely have I experienced so much pleasure as was given me by the receipt of your parcel containing American photographs. The collection proved all the more interesting to me, as I obtained by it a more thorough, perfect, and favorable impression of the capabilities of American photographers, than I had formed at the Paris Exposition, where the few American pictures exhibited seemed lost among the thousand and one other things, and part of them were hung very unfavorably…. I have mentioned already in my report on the Exposition. I had read in your Journal, the interesting processes of Meinerth and Gage for obtaining good half-tones. Meinerth had sent me specimens before yours came, which I laid before the Berlin Photographic Society, whose members admired them greatly. His method is best adapted to ladies’ heads; for gentlemen it is barely marked enough. Gage’s method I shall try as soon as I return to Berlin….” For years I have been occupied with the study of the negative process….” Truly yours. Dr. H. Vogel.”]
GAGE, F. B.
“Voices from the Craft.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:46 (Oct. 1867): 335-336. [“Mr. Editor: In your last number of the Photographer, your correspondent, J. M. Letts, after asserting that he had used the process which I have patented, for seven years, then goes on to say that he has abandoned it for another that there ” is no patent on.” If Mr. Letts had carefully read my specifications he would have discovered that his new dodge is patented. In those specifications he will find these words: “Good effect may be produced by admitting transmitted light upon the sensitive surface.” Now it makes no difference what Mr. Letts transmits his light through, whether ground, red, or yellow glass, or cloth, or other medium, it is just as much an infringement of the patent as the use of the cloth for reflecting the light. Mr. Letts also tells us that Professor Towler claims to have published something concerning this process “some years ago.” If the Professor had, indeed, published what he says he has, he would probably be able to give a more definite date. However well, Mr. Editor, “some years ago” may look in print, it is very much too indefinite to allow any interested parties to refer to it. Truly yours, F. B. Gage.
ORGANIZATIONS: USA: NEW YORK PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY: 1867.
Hull, C. Wager. “New York Correspondence.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 4:48 (Dec. 1867): 388-389. [“The stated monthly meeting of the Photographic Section of the American Institute, was held on Monday, November 11, 1867, Mr. H. J. Newton in the chair. I regret exceedingly to note the absence of Mr. Rutherfurd and Professor Rood, both having been seriously ill, but now removed from danger, and improving … Mr. Hull exhibited a series of pictures made by F. B. Gage, which were made by his patented process, described in a recent issue of your Journal. A committee was appointed to make experiments as directed by Mr. Gage, and, until their report and specimens are handed to the Society, it is not worth while to argue upon the merits of his discovery….”
BY COUNTRY: USA: 1869.
“Editor’s Table.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 6:63 (Mar. 1869): 94-96. [“Mr. F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, has sent us a number of stereos of snow scenes, from dry plates, which are exceedingly fine. Although such subjects are a very hard test for that process, there is not a harsh spot in any one of these. They are admirable in every way. “The Model Snow-storm” is very peculiar looking, as if a blinding storm was going on, hiding almost every object, and yet, in the stereoscope, the effect is fine and beautiful.” p. 96.]
BY COUNTRY. USA. 1869.
“Editor’s Table. Photographs Received.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 6:64 (Apr. 1869): 136. [“…Mr. F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, has favored us with some more of his beautiful winter views from dry plates. Nothing could be much more perfect than they are. Mr. Gage advertises them for sale in Specialties.” (This copy bound without advertising supplement.)]
BY COUNTRY. USA. 1869.
“Editor’s Table.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 6:69 (Sept. 1869): 323-324. [“From Mr. F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury. Vt., some stereos from dry-plates, possessing a great deal of merit. Mr. Gage is continually working upon a process which he has not yet made known, but which he thinks must be fully equal to the wet process in every way.” p. 324.]
GAGE, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. (1824-1874) (USA)
“Obituary – A Veteran Gone.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 11:130 (Oct. 1874): 318. [“We regret to be called upon to announce the death of one of the veterans of photography, Mr. F. B. Gage, of St. Johnsbury, Vt., which occurred on the 23d of August, 1874. From Mr. Gage’s family we learn that he was born July 29th, 1824. He learned daguerreotyping when about twenty-two years of age, and in 1850 started the photograph business in St. Johnsbury, where he continued to conduct it for a period of twenty-four years, or up to the time of his death. Mr. Gage enjoyed a good reputation as an artist, and was one of the most industrious experimentalists in the business. To him the fraternity owes much of the progress that has been made in the various photographic processes. In July, 1869, he patented in the United States, Great Britain, and France, a process for using diffused light in the camera for the purpose of giving detail “so as to render visible slight gradations of shade, both in the light and dark parts of the picture, and to unite softness and strength.” We well remember meeting Mr. Gage in New York, by his request, to examine the merits of this invention, and how we were almost sworn to secrecy before he ventured to reveal the principle on which his claim was based. Previous to this he also patented an improvement in photographic cameras. He was a man of more than ordinary genius, and somewhat eccentric withal, was always inventing and trying new processes. It is said he “hardly ever finished two sets of pictures by the same process.” Mr. Gage possessed a good deal of literary talent, was a frequent contributor to local publications of current literature, as well as to this journal on the various processes of photography, in which he always manifested a deep interest. It is sad to see the pioneers of our art passing away from us, and when such men as Mr. Gage go, they leave a vacancy that is not easily filled, and their memory is cherished by those who are benefited by the results of their lifelong efforts.”]
WALDACK, CHARLES.
Waldack, Charles. “Belgian Correspondence.” PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER 11:132 (Dec. 1874): 375-378. [“Ghent, November 2d, 1874. Editor Philadelphia Photographer. According to promise, I will endeavor to give you occasionally a brief account of whatever observations I may make here, which can be profitable or of interest to your readers. The first question that a photographer coming back from Europe would be likely to be asked by one of his brethren would certainly be: What do you think of our art in Europe? This question I will also try to answer briefly. …” “….I must not conclude without giving a few lines to a subject which is of great importance to photographers. I refer to the reduction of exposure obtained by the use of colored glasses to admit light in the camera or by other similar means. The colored light is supposed to continue the action of the white light. It is contended, however, and with very good reason, that this action is due to the imperfect opacity to the actinic rays possessed by the glass which is used. In daguerreotype times, Blanquart Evrard proposed to paste white paper inside the camera, seven or eight years ago. Mr. Gage proposed to reflect the light from his focussing cloth in the camera, by keeping it for some seconds in front of the object-glass. It has been contended that the only effect of all such means was to fog the plate slightly, thus giving a picture which was less hard than one which was under-exposed, but still devoid of details in the shadows….” p. 377.]
PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ARTS JOURNAL
GAGE & ROWELL.
Gage & Rowell. “How Is It?” PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL 10:9 (Sept. 1857): 281.
GAGE & ROWELL.
Gage & Rowell. “Humbugs vs. Anti-Humbugs.” PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL 10:9 (Sept. 1857): 287.
GAGE, F. B.
“The Solar Camera – Printing Process – Glass Cleaning.” PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL 11:4 (Apr. 1858): 105. [“Mr. Snelling,—I use the Solar Camera which some of your contemporaries stigmatise as a “poor concern.” I beg leave to say that I differ from these august sentiments. After using it six months, I grow more astonished daily to see the results which I produce. I have printed by the Calotype, the Albumen, the Ammonio-nitrate, and the Wenderoth Processes. The ammonia-nitrate and albumen process please me the best, as I have the time to print the limited number that I make. With the right kind of negative, from two to three hours will print a half-length portrait.
I use in salting—
Chloride of ammonium 2 grains.
Water 1 oz.
I have tried every amount from one grain to ten, and prefer the two grain solution as giving the best results.
Nitrate of silver 30 grains.
Water 1 oz.
Made into common nitrate in the usual way, and one drop c.p. nitric acid added to each four ounces of solution. Toning bath as laid down in the Moulton process. The Wenderoth process works rapidly, and produces fine results in my hands, but is more expensive and requires much more care, when only a small number of prints are made. In large establishments where hundreds are made a week, its value is not to be told.
For all our silver solutions, I melt clean snow in an earthen ware vessel, and use it in place of distilled water, as it produces better results than Croton, bottled (labelled distilled water), and sold for fifty cents per gallon. Those who have never tried it can easily save their fifty cents per gallon, and have a better solution in the bargain.
The most pleasing pictures that I have printed in the printing frame, were made by a process for calotypes, by Mr. Sutton, but which I modified as follows:
Water 1 oz.
Pure white gelatine 6 grains.
Common salt 4 grains.
Put the ingredients into the water while cold, and warm it gently until they are all dissolved (care being taken not to get it boiling hot); filter it through a sponge while warm, and it is ready for use. This should be kept in a warm place, and the paper floated on it two or three minutes and then dried.
For silvering I use—
Water 1 oz.
Nitrate of silver 35 grs.
Lemon juice 1 or two drops.
Float the paper five or six minutes, as the thick body of the gelatine will require that time to soften, so as to absorb a sufficient amount of silver.
Print a very little darker than you want, and tone in the Moulton toning bath; or the bath used for toning your illustrations, which is nearly the same.
The superiority of this process lies in the fact, that the gelatine keeps the picture on the surface of the paper, and the lemon juice gives the print a very warm violet tint when properly toned. Mr. Sutton says,— “No one that has not tried it, can have any idea of the wonderful brilliancy imparted to a print by the mucelage contained in lemon juice.”
These remarks were made in reference to prints developed by gallic acid: but I find they are equally applicable to those printed without development. In the prints that I have made by this method, the details are equal to the very best albumen prints. The gelatine having a very fine grain, the surface of the print has not a certain half-glassy, haIf-scaly appearance, which all albumen prints have on close examination. Moreover, the lights, when properly printed and toned, are absolutely pure; which, combined with the other superior quality, make them the most deservable prints I have made. It is like all good things, more work to print a given number of copies by this process, than by the ammonia-nitrate, when the solution is spread with cotton, but the better quality will repay the extra trouble. In spreading the ammonio-nitrate over the paper, I use cotton flannel, after having washed it thoroughly in a weak solution of sal-soda, rinsed and dried. Cut a patch to the desired shape and place it on the paper, nap side down; then lay a small ball of cotton wool on the middle of the patch, gather up the corners so as to enclose the cotton, and proceed to spread the solution, and you will seldom be troubled with greasy streaks which often occur when using the prepared cotton wool.
I have tried many ways to clean glass when negatives were varnished with any of the spirit varnishes, and have never succeeded to my liking until of late. I now make a saturated solution of sal-soda in water, lay the glass in this, and in a few hours the varnish will contract so as to detach the film from the glass. I then rub them over carefully with rotten stone or Norton’s cleaning powder; wash it off and the glass is ready for another picture.
I use the soda for cleaning all my glass now, and succeed in getting better results than ever before. Respectfully yours, F. B. Gage.”]
GAGE, F. B.
“Personal & Art Intelligence.” PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL 11:4 (Apr. 1858): 126-127. [“Having had a great number of inquiries, lately, respecting the “Solar Camera.” The paper on that instrument by Mr. Gage, will prove highly advantageous to those who use, or contemplate using it. Whatever may be said as to the merits or demerits of Mr. Woodward’s patent, one thing is certain ; there is no better instrument, for the purpose, made. It accomplishes all that is claimed for it, and it does its work well. There is no necessity for purchasing the large size, as the small one will answer the same purpose and is more portable, although for large galleries the 4-4 size may be found more stable. We have seen life-size pictures that were printed by a new process, discovered by Mr. Woodward, in four and five minutes without development. This is certainly quick enough, and if Mr. Woodward consults his own interests as well as those of his brother artists, he will give it to the public immediately. In the formula for printing by Mr. Gage, on page 105, we are desired by him to make a correction. The salting solution should be as follows:
Water 1 ounce.
Pure gelatine 4 grains.
Common salt 8 grains.
The solution as previously given will not flow well when cold.”]
GAGE, F. B.
“Personal & Art Intelligence.” PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL 11:6 (June 1858): 190-192. [“Mr. Gage, of St. Johnsbury, Vt., has sent us a charming little lot of portraits and views, some of which are exquisite. The portrait of the Rev. B. F. Hall is unsurpassable either by the camera of the photographer or the pencil of the painter. It almost speaks; every portion of the picture within the focal reach of the camera is delightfully round, exquisitely shaded, and minute in detail. That of Dr. Newton is of different style of finish, but equally good, except in position, and in the evident desire of the Doctor to give prominence to a fine pair of bright eyes and large overhanging eyebrows. A little drooping of the eye-lids would have produced a more pleasing result. The views are fair, but a little overtoned. This is a branch of photography in which our American artists have yet much to learn. The manipulations and details of these views are good, but they want perspective and an atmosphere. The best solar camera prints we have yet seen have been executed by Mr. Gage They are not now before us, and we therefore cannot point out their good qualities.
This reminds us of the article we copied last month from Mr. Sutton’s Photographic Notes, on enlarging collodion negatives by Woodward’s Solar Camera. The position therein assumed by Mr. Sutton is not tennable, and had he seen its operations would never have been put forth by him. His objections, suggestions, and speculations are all chimerical, and we can have no better proof — nor would he require better — against his arguments than the portraits sent to Mr. Anthony by Mr. Gage.” p. 192.]
PRACTICAL MECHANIC’S JOURNAL
BY COUNTRY. GREAT BRITAIN. 1867.
“Applications for Provisional Protection for Inventions under the Patent Law Amendment Act.” PRACTICAL MECHANIC’S JOURNAL 20:233 (July 1867): 125-128.
[“22nd May, 1867. 1526. W. E. Newton, Chancery Lane — Portable photographic apparatus. — A com.” p. 127.
“25th May, 1867. 1553. James Simpson. Hulme— Producing photographic pictures.” p. 128.
“29th May, 1867. 1593. F. B. Gage, St. Johnsbury, U. S. — Harmonizing the lights and shades in photographic impressions.” p. 128.
“30th May, 1867. 1603. C. E. Brooman, Fleet Street— Photographic albums — A com.” p. 128.
“7th June, 1867. 1676. J. Petrzwalski, John Street— Photo –megascope.” p. 128.”]
VERMONTER
Dexter, Lorraine. “Gage of St. Johnsbury – Hills and Dales, 1859.” VERMONTER 4, no. 8 (Sept. 1966): 23-29. illus. [This article includes a listing of Edward Anthony’s stereoview series “Hills and Dales of New England,” taken by F. B. Gage. (Nos. 451-480, and c. 580-600.), with a checklist listing the holdings of these cards in several public and private collections. (The earlier Anthony series of views by Gage “The White Hills,” seems to be different from the later “Hills and Dales of New England” series, although some of those images may have been recycled by Anthony in the latter issues.]
YOUTH’S COMPANION
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, F B. “A Sad Story.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 47:8 (Feb. 19, 1874): 59. [“Our readers will rightly pronounce this story a romance, but it is a romance of reality–not only sad, but sadly true. The characters in its brief but bitter tragedy are an aged woman, her daughter Mary, and her grandson Charley, ten years old. The family had once been in comfortable circumstances, but death had taken away their providers and protecters…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, Franklin B. “The Great Wolf Hunt at Seymour Lake.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 47:26 (June 25, 1874): 205. [“Seymour Lake is in the town of Morgan, Vt. Encircled by green hills, there is not a more beautiful body of water in New England. It is some ten miles from Island Pond, a station on the Grand Trunk Railroad. Forty years ago an unbroken wilderness extended from this lake hundreds of miles to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. On the south and west sides of the lake were several farms, which had been under cultivation ten or fifteen years…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, Franklin B. “What Happened at the Swamp.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 47:34 (Aug. 20, 1874): 271.
[“Farmer Stanton was a man of few words. Eating his supper one spring day, he spoke out abruptly,—
“I’ve hired my help for the season.”
“You have?” said his wife. “Who have you hired?”
“David Locke and Jim Thompson.”
“Have you? Well, David Locke is smart enough, but I guess Jim Thompson aint much.”
Fanner Stanton was a shrewd, observing man. Rising from the table he remarked.—
“I’ll wager Jim Thompson is the smartest of the two,” and went out.
Mary Stanton, the farmer’s daughter, sat at the table, and heard the conversation. Mary was a rosy-cheeked girl of sweet sixteen, full of life and animation, and much admired by the young swains of the neighborhood. David Locke and Jim Thompson were both well known to her.
David was a dashing, showy fellow with plenty of conceit. Jim was just the reverse of that. He was very retiring, bashful to a fault, and never disposed to assume any thing. In the presence of young ladies, particularly, Jim always had his “worst foot forward,” and appeared to great disadvantage. Naturally enough, the lively Mary voted him a downright “stupid,” and her mother agreed with her.
A week later found the two boys installed in Farmer Stanton’s family. David and Mary were at once on the best of terms, for Mary was fascinated with his brilliancy and wit. But Jim, although he admired Mary more than any other girl he knew, had not enough assurance to assert himself, and he received but little attention from Mary.
One evening Farmer Stanton and his wife went off to the Green on business, The weather was chilly, and Mary and the two young men sat round the fire. David Locke, as usual, led this conversation, and presently he commenced telling bear adventures, taking care to figure himself in them as the chief actor, and a hero of the first mark.
Jim and Mary listened to his boasts, little thinking how soon the opportunity would come to test him. Still less did David dream of being put to the proof of his courage, even while he was boasting about it. But before he had finished telling his gallant adventures, a great uproar was heard at the barn.
Mary thought very likely some wild animal was about, for the night was dark, and favorable for prowlers. Turning to David, she exclaimed,—
“Take the lantern, David, and go to the barn and see what the matter is.”
To her surprise, instead of hastening to do her bidding, as he always had done, David turned pale, sat still, and forcing a light laugh, said,—
“There’s nothing the matter at the barn, Mary.”
“But I tell yon there is, and you know it,” persisted the young lady, with a meaning look. She was beginning already to see how thin David’s pretentions to courage were.
Turning to Jim, she said,—
“You’ll go, wont you?”
Jim colored to the very roots of his hair, but he replied, firmly,—
“No, David is the man to go, of course. He may have another heroic adventure.”
“Ho, ho; you needn’t ask Jim,” cried David, hastily. “He’s afraid there’s something out there”
“I know that’s the reason why you wont start. ‘Tisn’t my reason by a long shot.”
“Well, why don’t you go, then?”
“If Miss Stanton had asked me first, as she did you, I would have gone.”
“O fol-de-rol for you! You’re a coward, Jim.”
“With flashing eyes, Mary Stanton sprang up and reached for the lantern.
“You are both cowards,” she exclaimed. “I’ll go myself.”
The resolute girt actually lit the lantern, and got herself ready before the young men could so far forget their own quarrel as to notice what she was doing; but just as she opened the door her father drove up.
Taking the lantern from Mary’s hand, he went to the bam, where he found that one of his oxen had broken loose, so it proved the disturbance had not been caused by a wild beast at all.
That little evening episode lowered the two boys greatly in Mary Stanton’s esteem. She had never expected much of Jim, but for David to fall from her good opinion was certainly a disappointment.
Thus matters stood for a long time—a long time to Jim Thompson’s thinking, at least. Both the boys saw by Mary’s changed manner what she thought of them. David didn’t seem to care for her good opinion, but Jim worried considerably in secret, and he more than once regretted his refusal to go to the barn. The foolish pique of a moment had lost him a fine chance to prove his courage— and courage enough Jim certainly had.
One day, after dinner, Farmer Stanton said,—
“Boys, I am going to the Green. While I am gone David will chop at the wood-pile in the door-yard. You, Jim, may hitch the horse into the wagon. After I get off, go down to Neighbor Chamberlain’s, and ask the loan of his inch auger, long enough to mend the harrow. Then come back and work with David till I get home,”
Farmer Stanton and his wife rode away, and Jim started across lots to do the errand, leaving David chopping. Some twenty rods below the house there was a swampy piece of woods to pass through. Jim had scarcely entered the woods when he suddenly came upon a bear; digging dragon root. The bear was backed up to a small tree, with his head down, grubbing away so intently that he did not hear Jim’s approach.
Jim was clear-headed, and knew what to do in a real emergency better than many a more brilliant young man. Besides, he possessed remarkable strength of limb.
Quick as thought, he sprang forward and caught the bear by his hind legs. Jerking his feet from under him, he pulled them backwards, and, in a second, twisted them round the body of the tree, where he held them with the grip of a vice. The astonished bear found himself standing on his fore-paws, with his nose to the ground.
Roaring with rage, he tried to turn round and bite, but as fast as he turned, Jim walked round the trunk, keeping out of the way of his teeth; and thus the two circumnavigated the tree, like a pair of boys balanced on a whirligig.
Mary Stanton had paused a minute in her in-door work, and was just noticing David Locke’s lazy motions at the wood-pile, when the noise of the raving bear in the swamp reached her ear through the open window, and in a moment after Jim’s voice, calling,—
“David, David, come here with your axe. Quick!”
“Run, run, David, run with the axe,” cried Mary. “Perhaps the bear is killing Jim!”
Alas, then, for David’s boasted courage! He heard the outcries in the swamp plainly enough, and a brave man would have needed no second command. Instead of rushing to Jim’s aid, he looked wildly about him, dropped his axe, and went into the house, looking cowed and pale.
Mary did not waste any more time over him. Darting out bareheaded, she seized the axe herself, and was over the door-yard fence in a moment. Rushing into the woods, she followed the sounds to the swamp, where she found Jim and the enraged bear walking round and round the tree.
“Where’s David?” exclaimed Jim, amazed at seeing Mary with the axe.
“In the house, the coward! But I’ll kill the bear if you’ll hold him tight, Jim.”
Jim and Mary were both self-possessed. Jim told her when and how to strike, and a single blow severed the bear’s spine, and laid him dead.
The next day, David Locke left Farmer Stanton’s service. The contempt and taunts of the family made his place too hot for him. “Jim Thompson is worth a dozen such braggadocios,” the farmer said.
And certainly Jim never needed an advocate with the fanner’s daughter after the affair in the swamp. And when Mary, one day, informed him and her mother that she had elected Jim for their son-In law, neither of them offered a single objection. Fortunately, Jim had other good qualities besides courage, and so she made a good choice.”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, Franklin B. “Two Catamount Stories.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 47:36 (Sept. 3, 1874): 287. [“It is doubtful if any specimens of the catamount, or panther, once the terror of our forests, now survive in the State of Vermont; but as late as 1867 two of these animals were killed in different parts of the State. In the autumn of that year a fox hunter, near the foot of the Ascutney Mountain, in Weathersford, had a valuable hound mysteriously killed…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, Franklin B. “Edgar Kibby and His New Gun.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 47:47 (Nov. 19, 1874): 387. [“Edgar Kibby lived in the town of Charleston, Vt., many years ago. At the time of which we write, he was about ten years old, a strong, healthy boy, quite small, but full of life and spirit. He was keen of observation, quick to understand, and handy at any thing he attempted to do. More than this, he possessed wonderful coolness and courage as the sequel will show….”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, F B. “Mrs. Piper’s Bear Story.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 48:1 (Jan. 7, 1875): 3. [“The year we lived on the Bebee Place, said Mrs. Piper, the bears was master thick. The Bebee Place is East Charleston, little more’n a mile out of the village, and six miles from Island Pond. One day, twenty-one year ago come August, I and John (that’s my husband) went to the village to ‘tend the funeral of old Mis’ Snell…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, F B. “Almost a Hug.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 48:16 (Apr 22, 1875): 125. [“The following story of the old “up-country” times, was told me by one of the oldest inhabitants of St. Johnsbury, Vt. About two miles north-east from what is now the “village” of St. Johnsbury, a man named Houghton purchased a piece of land, and established himself in the wilderness. He made a clearing, built him a log house, and settled down to pioneer farming….”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, Franklin B. “A Scare and a Laugh.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 48:47 (Nov. 25, 1875): 391. [“Mr. Harrington lived in the town of St. Johnsbury, Vt., and his neighbor, Zebina Goss, just over the line, in the town of Waterford. Harrington was a tall, loose-jointed, clownish fellow, a great boaster, and an equally great coward. Mr. Goss was, however, quite a small man, and very unpretending, but endowed with more than ordinary courage….”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, Franklin B. “A Desperate Encounter.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 49:6 (Feb. 10, 1876): 45. [“For many years there lived in the town of Brighton, Vt., a man by the name of Seneca Foster. Although a man of no more than medium size, he possessed the most wonderful physical vigor and endurance. No exertion or exposure seemed to impair his health. Mr. Foster’s son Jack inherited much of his father’s strong constitution and elastic frame….”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, Franklin B. “Old Brindle’s Fate.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 50:13 (Mar. 29, 1877): 98. [“Mr. Young entered his log-cabin with an unmistakable glow of satisfaction on his face. Seating himself before the fire, he said, — “Wife, you can’t possibly guess what John Martin just told me.”…”]
GAGE, FRANKLIN B.
Gage, Franklin B. “Foolish George Hogden.” YOUTH’S COMPANION 52:18 (May 1, 1879): 146. [“Foolish George Hogden is not an imaginary character. I believe he is a native of the town of Newport, Vt. People call him “Foolish” George because he is rather weak of intellect.–a little daft, as the Scotch say….”]
vintagephotosjohnson 
This is tremendous. Thank you.
Melody Davis