Although I’m in such a busy period that I can’t work on genealogy, I do have my daughter’s help right now to scan some old photos, so I will post some of them while I am too busy for research.
On the back of this photo it says Frank Tazelaar (near Whistle Stop).
So I looked up Frank Tazelaar on my family tree. Sure enough, he’s on there. He was born January 17, 1876 in the Netherlands, to Pieter Tazelaar and Adriana Bek. The family immigrated to the United States when he was 12, in 1888. On July 9, 1906, he married Genevieve Remine in Chicago. Genevieve was my first cousin 3x removed. Frank died in 1950.
So what is “Whistle Stop”? It’s the train station. But when I tried to figure out if it was the same Whistle Stop where my friends and I used to go to eat and drink (and a building that my father owned) or if it was the other train depot (where we owned a concession stand with my father), I discovered that there were actually seven train stations in Kalamazoo. Here is a fascinating article that says that Kalamazoo may have had more train depots than any other city. I am going to tentatively assume that this photo was taken near what I knew as the Whistle Stop.
Here is a painting my mother-in-law did of the Whistle Stop. I apologize for the flaws in my copies on the computer for the next two photos.
And here is one she painted of the other train depot:
OK, dad correct me if I made any mistakes!
Is the date 2, 15 ’14? I read this post and realized that I think I didn’t reply to your last email. Sorry! It sounds like you got the details on TIFF vs. JPEG. Interesting photo. The building seems more consistent with the painting of The Whistle Stop. I hope your dad can shed a little light on this photo for you.
I figured out how to do the .tif, although it takes an extra step or two in scanning–more time involved. Thanks so much for all your help!
You are welcome!
When I looked at this photo yesterday, I was caught up in all the details; it’s such a cool photograph! This morning when it appeared on my screen, I immediately thought, “Oh for heaven’s sake, the photographer wrote his camera settings on the front of the picture just like my Dad used to do. (Thank goodness for Photoshop!)
Could it be that the photographer used gas lights and was a certain distance or the lights were set at a certain height from the subject when he took the picture and he jotted down those details? Just a thought…
Laura, really?! Because it looked like 1/4 to me and not a screw-up of the date. Would that be a camera setting? What a really really good idea you have!
Great photo. I was going to say it says 14 until I read Laura’s comment above. I don’t know anything about camera settings so could that be 1/4?
Frank was definitely of a different class than the workmen on the roof. Could that pole be to help them get up or down from the roof??
I wonder if Laura can be right. It’s such an exciting idea. Because somebody who bothered to carefully make a note on the front isn’t likely to mess up how to write a date, right?
I think Ivan (below) might be right. When you blow up the photo it does look as if it’s the whip from the buggy as it seems attached to the rig.
A whip–that makes sense!
Isn’t it amazing (and fun) to see how much information we can get from one photograph?
I know, Amy!
Neat information! I know both the buildings in your photos. Regarding the article on depots, I used to take yoga classes in the remodeled Interurban Depot at 179 Portage Street. It smelled a bit moldy but was otherwise suitable for yoga. When I first started teaching classes for older adults — 1994 — an elderly woman wrote about taking the Interurban from Augusta to Kalamazoo.I remembered wishing there was still an Interurban,
WJ, what a wonderful little story about Kalamazoo. Thank you so much for adding it here! I loved reading it.
I would assume that “pole” is the whip set into its holder, not something coming down from the roof. Is that plausible?
Ivan, brilliant. I blew up the photo and it seems clear that it is attached to the rig and must indeed be a whip in its holder!!!! Thank you . . .
My pleasure.
Wonderful photo, Luanne! Okay, now you’ve got me curious. Is tif better than jpg for scanning and storing these photos and for use on the net?
Linda, first Amberly (at Genealogy Girl) told me .tif is what to use for best quality for these old photos. Then yesterday another blogger who is a photographer told me that .jpg files actually lose quality every time they are opened and closed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now I am worried about everything I’ve scanned into JPEG. I guess the idea is to scan into TIFF and then after a photo is edited (if you are doing so) to make a copy in JPEG to use online on WordPress, Flickr, etc. Of course, the TIFF files takes up a lot more room on your computer as they are larger.
Sigh… How is that possible? I mean the part about losing quality on the computer every time it’s opened. Oh, well. Maybe I’ll figure out some of my older ones and try to save them as .tif on my external drive or something. Thanks, Luanne!
I have not corroborated her comment, but it certainly gave me pause. Very distressing.
It states on the pic ture of the horse & Buggy near the whistle stop 2.15 1/4
not sure what that means. I’m sending an email to you luanne, hope you like it.
Paula, I got your email and am so excited! Did you mean to attach them? Please read my reply!
When I hear the term Whistle Stop–I think of a small train station that the train doesn’t normally stop at, so it needs to be flagged down if there is someone at the station.