Period Pictures of Phonographs?

[TinfoilPhono]

One-stop shopping in 1906 at Frank & Carrie's emporium: Columbia, Edison, or Victor. Take your pick. And what's behind the door on the back wall marked 'entrance'? A movie screen, perhaps?

I assume the long tube from the BC leads to a horn mounted above the front door. I bet that was a real draw for people passing by!

[NEFaurora]

I noticed that the picture with the "little lord" with the Edison Standard phonograph and cylinders has to be Mid 1906 or shortly afterwards seeing that the Edison Standard in the photo has the Edison "Script" decal which came out in the summer of 1906. Prior to the summer of 1906 the Edison Standard had the Banner decal.

The photo was dated 1904 which is impossible. It has to be 1906 or later...!


Tony K.

[pughphonos]

I'm a little slow to comment, but JohnM, I must say I will never read the phrase "undulating groove" quite the same way again. I was starting to think that folk were too stodgy on this forum.

[briankeith]

From shorpy.com (OF COURSE!!)

[rodpickett]

I have previously shared this photo, but will again in context with this thread.

This photo was taken circa 1918 / 1919 in the farmyard of the Jesse Pitman homestead in Daviess County, Indiana.

Pictured with the Edison Fireside are siblings of my paternal grandmother, Martha Pitman Pickett. The girl is her sister Jewell Pitman and the infant is her brother Edwin Pitman.

Obviously, they jerked the Kodak Brownie camera as they took the photo. As they likely had no flash attachment, they took their prized possession outside to photograph and placed it on top of the Singer sewing machine.

As they were dirt-poor framers, we have no idea how they could afford such a luxury, but we speculate they could have traded livestock or crops to acquire it.

To me, it remains the most valuable part of my collection. 

[JohnM]

That doesn't appear to be a sewing machine, Rod. Looks like a Victorian table.

[briankeith]

Hummmm, I have an old treddle Singer belt-driven machine and that base sure looks likes like the one that I own. Maybe photo-shop could sharpen up the original photo? But it is a lovely family treasure, just adorable.

[JohnM]

I'm seeing four wooden legs at 45-degree angles to the tabletop, a large (certainly) square tabletop, and a center decorative spindle . . . doesn't look like any sewing machine I've ever seen!

[rodpickett]

Good observation on the table. The sewing machine story was one which was relayed by my grandmother. Perhaps she was mistaken. She passed away about 35 years ago, long before I had any interest, or money, for collecting phonographs.

An interesting story about that Fireside. The infant in the photo, Edwin, kept that phonograph into his adult life, but had no interest in it and stored it in his barn on a farm in Shelbyville, Indiana. About 60 years ago my father was driving through Shelbyville and decided to visit his uncle.

During his visit a couple of Edwin’s boys dug the Fireside out of the barn and were about to tear it apart so that they could use the motor to drive a toy boat they had built for the pond. My dad knew nothing about it, or its value, but instinctively knew it had value as an antique and asked his uncle Edwin if he could have it before the boys destroyed it.

My grandmother, Martha, was still living at that time and remembered the phonograph and had the photo of it in her scrapbook, aka shoebox. She did not remember how her father, Edwin, had acquired it.

[Jerry B.]

Rod, What a treasure to have a family piece as well as the photo. It would mean so much to me to have anything similar and the photo would be icing on the cake. You are a fortunate collector. Jerry Blais