Maplewood History: Another Batch of Vintage Photographs from Some of the Earliest Photography Studios in St. Louis

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Doug Houser
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Here is the previous image a little sharper.

More images from the collection of Emma Beauvais Thomas Grumley.

This is the thirteenth post in this series.

For those of you who are just coming on board, all of these images are part of a collection that once belonged to young Emma Thomas, daughter of William Lyman and Catherine (Kate) Sutton Thomas.  I assume all were friends, acquaintances or family of Emma’s.  She wrote her name on the back of many of them to identify her as the owner but many have no information to identify the subjects.

Vintage images such as these found in a tag sale or antique store would have only a small amount of value.  These are important because they all belonged to Emma and are a good record of the many people in her life.  She was born on land that once belonged to her grandfather, James C. Sutton.  It is land that would one day become Maplewood.  Emma lived here her entire life. From these images of Emma’s people we can all have a good look at the populous of our neighborhoods many years before any of us came along.

As you may recall I have been going through Emma’s collection in alphabetical order according to the studios that produced the images.  On the last post in this series, we had made into the T,s.

I have file just for this lovely young woman, Tyne Stillwell.

From the back of the previous image.
She even turned up in a search on Newspapers.com. Followers of this blog will recall that Ellendale Home Place was the name given by Emma’s father to their (still extant) home now in downtown Maplewood.
There was just this one image from the Van-Miller studio in Emma’s collection.
The Van-Miller studio had a long working life. I found some evidence of it as late as 1956.  This just in. The picture is Emma’s daughter ( my grandma) Catherine “ Kitty “ Grumley Hayes.
On a side note- my grandma was in one of the first graduating journalism classes at Mizzou. After graduation she traveled in Europe, spending some time in France where she met a man. They communicated upon her return – even after she was married . I just came across all the letters (in French) that were translated years ago by my uncle. It appears she was going to send a letter cutting off the relationship but was not sent? The conclusion was he was killed and the correspondence stopped.
Anyway it just adds a bit to the story!
Chrissie

 

 

In a previous ad they wanted a good boy, here they want a bright one.

This one is useful because it lists these other studios.

Newpapers.com provides a lot of detail that would otherwise be lost.
Emma’s collection contained just two from the Voorhees Studio.
The highly decorated back of the previous image.
This is the only other image from the Voorhees Studio.  He must have taken a partner…Vosburgh.

nts

The last file I have, I titled, White Pebbled Mounts. The mounts are similar but we have no information on the folks in the images.
Same guy and dog adjusted a bit.
These three characters we’ve seen before.  There is a date on this one – July 1896.
No idea who these folks are.
Or him.
Or her.
Or them.
Here is the previous image a little sharper.

 

This brings us to the end of the latest photographic horde that once belonged to Emma Thomas.  Thanks all go to her descendant, Chrissie Hayes McConnell, who I swear just emailed me today that she had located another box of historic images and documents.  This is exciting stuff!  I can’t wait to have a look.

The war in Ukraine drags on, horrible thing that it is.  Those poor folks are suffering terribly all due to the madman, criminal Putin and his gang.  I feel very guilty and lucky to be in the secure, stable place that we are.  There are those who would change that.  We can’t let them.

Summer is the season I enjoy the most.  See you at the pool.

Doug Houser          June 30, 2022