Double Exposure: Baldwin Coolidge and William Sumner Appleton

ELLIE REICHLIN

here is no longer, as there was in ted by a self-acknowledged “omnivorous earlier days, a Baldwin Coolidge appetite for anything and everything relat- T Room in the library of the Society ing to New England pictures,“’ Appleton for the Preservation of New England An- saw the alternative to Coolidge’s gift to be tiquities. Nor does the photographer’s be- the sale ofthe negatives“ for old glass,” for nignly elegant portrait look down from its which the photographer might have re- walls, breathing life into the surrounding ceived a few cents apiece: memorabilia of his Civil War service- This happens every year to thousands of Coolidge’s last ration of tobacco, a final negatives which would be in the best piece of hardtack, his white belt and gloves, interests of New England to preserve. and the bone napkin ring made at Fort The problem of securing the best of these Delaware for Lucy Ann Plumer, who later must be a perennial one for such a society as ours. To preserve the likeness of an became his wife. The absence of these object is often the best way to preserve icons in no way diminishes the lasting sig- the knowledge of it, and may be the only nificance which Baldwin Coolidge has had way in which it can be preserved at all for the development of the society’s photo- . . . . But photography has never yet been classed a lucrative business, and accord- graphic collections, however, nor does it ingly the greater part of photographers minimize his achievements as an outstand- are by no means in a position to give away ing documentary photographer of New their negatives during their lifetimes or to England life. bequeath them on their death. There must Over a hundred years have passedsince be many, however who. . . are inclined to do so [and] it is to be hoped that Mr. he first set up shop as a photographer on Coolidges’ generous conduct will rouse Tremont St., Boston in 1878,and over sixty others to emulate the example he has set. since he donated a remarkable series of He has built for himself. . . an enduring more than 2,000 glassplate negativesto the monument and for posterity agoodly her- itage.” society in 1918, doubling the size of its photographicholdings within a single year Not content with rhetoric--even his own-Appleton characteristically began to and setting the course for subsequent track down every possible lead that would additions. These now make its collections insure the documentary authenticity of the of photographic prints and negatives Coolidge collection. Thus began a warm, among the nation’s largest, and probably and often wryly amusing, correspondence the most specialized with respect to re- between the ailing and eventually invalided gional architectural views. If Coolidge’s photographer,who after a lifetime in New work set a high standard for quality, England had resettled in Pasadena, William Sumner Appleton, the society’s California, and the far younger Appleton, founder and long its corresponding secre- who since the time he was a boy had ad- tary, deserves equal credit for pioneering the use of photography as a documentary Ellie Reichlin, SPNEA librarian, holds graduate source, and for meticulously pursuing degrees from the University of Rochester and every lead that would maximize its infor- Simmons College. Her work on photographic mation value. Led by a sure instinct, abet- collections has appeared in American Heritage.

34 Double Exposure 35

BALDWIN COOLIDGE. This picture was taken by John Garo, whom Coolidge considered the foremost portrait photographerof his day; the time is before Coolidge’s move to California in 1917. (SPNEA archives.) mired Coolidge and his work. At stake was towns. Included among the photographer’s the correct identification of 1,546eight-by- subjects were scenes in Oak Bluffs, Nan- ten, 500 five-by-eight, and four fourteen- tucket, and Woods Hole, as well as pastoral by-seventeen glassplate negatives(approx- and marine views taken in Windham, N.H. imately one tenth of the 20,000 negatives and Biddeford Pool, Maine, besides hun- Coolidge had made during his career), de- dreds of studies made from portraiture in picting scores of streets and buildings the Museum of Fine Arts, where he had throughout Boston and its surrounding been a staff photographerfor thirty years. Old- Time New England

Other than Coolidge’s failing memory, to have struck oil and are helping accord- and the information provided by his long- ingly.” Even with this amount, “this won’t time assistant, Marie Howe, the recordsof give us the collection mounted, but . . . is his business were few, and those which the first step,” he predicted.6 Luckily the were accessible were in a chaotic state. buck stopped here, in spite of Appleton’s “Mr. Coolidge,” according to Mrs. Howe, confident predictions, saving the prints who knew him from twenty years’ experi- from what would almost certainly have ence, “personally was very careless in been the damagingeffects of acid mounting small details, and as, until I went there, he papers and chemically unstable adhesives had many changes in help, I found many then in use. negatives packed away in cardboard boxes Coolidge was understandably concerned that had never received a number.“3 Or, if about the quality of processing, though they had been numbered, Coolidge stead- “truly delighted” with the successof Ap- fastly refusedto allow them to be.classified pleton’s appeal. “Now a new fear haunts by subject, preferring a questionable sys- me,” he noted. “What kind of workman is tem of listing them serially. This caused no to do the printing? Again, how will he end of difficulties in the functioning of his mount them? I sincerely hope not with business, “on [whose] details his ideas common aqueous paste, so that the were very vague,‘14 and hampered Apple- mounted prints will curl up. IF ONLY I ton’s efforts to produce a reliably dated WERE HOME,” he emphasized, “the subject catalogue of his work. The Rosetta mounting would be done IN A PERFECT Stone for deciphering his numbering sys- WAY,” adding anxiously, “Do you blame tem was a much-worn record book, which me?“’ peregrinated periodically from Mrs. Howe Responsibility for making the finished to Appleton to Coolidge, and has now been prints was in the hands of Samuel Wood of lost sight of. Appleton’s persistent efforts Cornhill, who made a calculated effort to to enlist Mrs. Howe’s aid in decoding duplicate the mellow brown tones and Coolidge’s system were frustrated by her matte finish typical of the “Aristo Com- new employer, the proprietor of mercial” printing-out papers which Babbidge’s Busy Candy Store in Melrose, Coolidge had generally employed, even Massachusetts, who misanthropically though the newer developing papers were “frowned on any conversation, even with superior “in giving black and white tones customers and [presumably would regard] . . . and better results in detail and con- a telephone call as an unpardonable sin.“s trast.” Developing papers also made sun- Despite these obstacles, Appleton eventu- light unnecessary for obtaining a printed ally succeededin identifying the majority image, making them understandably popu- of Coolidge’s glass plates, though their lar among “the majority of photographers precise dating seems to remain uncon- because it makes them independent of the firmed. weather.” However, Coolidge “disliked” With the catalogue nearly complete, them, wrote Mrs. Howe, because they there began several years of equally persis- lacked the “permanency” of Aristo papers tent negotiations to insure that the nega- and required unusual care in handling to tives would be printed and stored in a man- avoid staining. Unlike many professionals, ner consistent with Coolidge’s original ar- who hired technicians to do their process- tistic and technical standards. With his cus- ing, Coolidge apparently did his own work, tomary zeal, Appleton succeededin raising except for occasionalorders requesting the almost $7,000 for this purpose by 1920, the use of developing papers which were sent result of an enthusiastic appeal to the soci- to a woman identified as Miss Holt to be ety’s membership, someof whom “seemed printed.* Double Exposure 37

The photographer’s high regard for props and lighting. While this makes them “permanency” in technical matters finds a eminently readable as factual documents, visual equivalent in Coolidge’s apparent as subjective documents which reveal preference for such photographic subjects Coolidges’ emotional response to his sub- as buildings and landscapes, whose sub- jects they are puzzling and curiously unre- stantial forms expressed his devotion to vealing. This opaquenessmay be partially “New England Antiquity” and his pride in due to the fact that much of his work was having shared its long heritage. Coolidge commissioned, rather than inspired by per- traced his descent from the Mayflower’s sonal choice, working as he did for “many Elder Brewster; his great-great-grand- noted organizations and individuals,” such father was Loammi Baldwin, whose 1661 as the Museum of Fine Arts, several of the mansion adjoined the Coolidge Farm (ca. Boston Hospitals and the Boston Public 1750) in Wobum. Born there to Benjamin Library, “while on his books were the and Mary (Manning) Coolidge, in July, names of eminent physicians, surgeons, 1845, he lived at the farm for many years architects, painters, sculptors and mem- until 1917, when he moved to “the loneli- bers of Boston’s oldest families.“‘0 ness and homesickness of this sunshiny As an artist-photographer,rather than a and flowery land of murders, divorces and commercial photographer,Coolidge can be burglars” that was Cahfomia.9 most truly glimpsed from his studies of Like his ancestor Colonel Loammi Cape Cod, where he maintained a summer Baldwin, engineer-designer of the Middle- home and studio at Cottage City, as well as sex Canal which linked Lowell to Boston, the work resulting from his excursions to Coolidge practiced engineering before Maine, New Hampshire, and even the Bos- turning to art and photography, serving as ton waterfront, the mood of which, to the first city engineer of Lawrence, Massa- these eyes at least, is more delicate, more chusetts until the opening of his studio in sensitive to atmosphere and emotional 1878. Possibly his engineering background possibilities than the general run of his influenced his preference for architectural photographs,though resembling them in a subjects, as well as his photographicstyle, striking clarity of detail. which focusedon the rich minutae of struc- “The right person” to make known the tural and decorative details to the near ex- “very interesting story of his life” has yet clusion of romantic or impressionistic to be found,’ I nor are its full dimensions yet effects. known. At Coolidge’s death in 1928,Apple- In Coolidge’s handling of landscape and ton appealed to the taciturn Mrs. Howe for occasional human subjects, the same just such an account, which she summarily “straight” and primarily documentary declined to write, stating merely that emphasis prevails, though with occasional “There are many notable names on his exceptions, such as his studies of Wind- family tree with great achievementsto their ham, New Hampshire whose subdued credit; while he, himself, had been success- sentimentality tells a good deal about his ful in two other occupations before taking evident feeling for a fast-vanishing rural up photography. I am not the one to write way of life. There is about much of his work such an article, even if you wished so full a somethingoddly surreal, not uncommon to history.“‘2 Because of her reluctance to nineteenth-century photographygenerally, serve as his biographer,a few details about in which the subjects seem frozen and dis- Coolidge’s life may be worth mentioning connected from time, their very ordinari- here, on which the ‘right person” may ness made extraordinary by being captured eventually build a more solid edifice. with an unsparingly sharpfocus and steady Some, like his ties to Wobum, have been lens, without the softeningeffects of studio mentioned in passing. Besides these, he 38 Old- Time New England

RESIDENTS OF THE TlDD HOME, WOBURN, MASS., 1894. The home is still in existence. (SPNEA archives.)

THE TIDD HOME, ELM ST., WOBURN, MASS., 1894. (SPNEA archives.) Double Exposure 39

WINDHAM, N.H. IN THE 1890s. This was the locale of many romantic Coolidge studies. (SPNEA archives.) .Old- Time New England

GAY HEAD LIGHTHOUSE, 1887. (SPNEA archives.)

DENTAL CLINIC, TUFTS UNIVERSITY DENTAL SCHOOL, HUNTINGTON AVE., 1909. The source of one of Coolidge’s many institutional commissions, the school has since moved to Washington St. (SPNEA archives.) Double Exposure 41

THE AMES BUILDING, MAY 4, 1891. The Old State House is at the left in this street scene, one of a series of urban studies Coolidge made in the vicinity of his studio at 410A Boylston St. (SPNEA archives.) 42 Old- Time New England

had substantial ties to Lawrence, where he sion, Coolidge was commissioned to married Lucy Ann Plumer in February, photograph an Appleton family portrait. 1866,shortly after his dischargefrom Com- Possibly these youthful contacts stimu- pany K of the Sixth Massachusetts Regi- lated the development of Appleton’s ment of the Light Artillery, of which he was “omnivorous appetite” for New England a life member. I3 photography; certainly they provided an After moving to Boston in 1878to set up outstanding standard for his own not in- the photography shop at 147 Tremont considerable efforts as an architectural Street, he lived in various rooms until fi- photographer, as well as a model for his nally returning to the family homestead in photographic collecting. Wobum in 1888, presumably with his wife, From his early encounters Appleton also and their only child, Marie, later Mrs. retained a curious memory of a “wonderful Joseph Henry. Of some interest is the fact collection of strands of hair,” which hung that from 1879-1883Coolidge listed himself among the many wall decorations in in the Boston City Directory as an artist, Coolidge’s shop on Boylston Street. After rather than a photographer,and this may be Coolidge’s departure for California, Apple- the other of his two successful careers to ton regretfully noted that the hairs had been which Mrs. Howe alluded. (He evidently “placed too far away to see,“16 the change taught clay modelling, counting among his somehowdepriving him of a significant and pupils “his old physician, Dr. Samuel Rob- strangely powerful image of their personal inson” who later left Boston for Santa relationship. Eleven years later, Appleton Barbara, California, where he and still remembered the display vividly Coolidge would meet in 1920.)14After 1883 enough to write about its whereabouts to he is regularly listed as a photographer, Coolidge’s daughter, in a letter dated two operating from various addresseson Tre- days before Coolidge’s death, almost as if mont Street. Four years after his wife’s the recollection anticipated the breaking death in 1904,he moved to his final studio at strands of their long friendship. “Mr. 410A Boylston Street, where he worked Coolidge,” he wrote, “had, I remember, a and lived until failing health and mounting number of interesting things in his posses- expenses made the move to his daughter’s sion, but I imagine that most of them have home in Pasadena essential. While in been given away by this time in the same California, he seems to have returned to way as his collection of negatives and sketching and watercolors, rather than photographs was broken up. I remember, photography, though he made generous however,that he had an extremely interest- gifts of over a thousand photographs to ing collection of strandsof hair, arranged in public libraries in Pasadena, Santa gradations of color and that this collection Barbara, and Los Angeles, possibly with filled many especially made cardboard other papersof biographicalinterest. At his boxes. It seems to me that this collection death he was cremated, and his ashes re- which Mr. Coolidge made in the course of turned for burial in Woburn. his photographic work would be an in- Coolidge’s ties to William Sumner Ap- teresting addition to the collection we shall pleton, and through him to the society eventually have related to the general sub- which Appleton founded (and which ject of hair and allied subjects.“17 Whether elected him a patron), were long-standing, their “disposition” was finally settled in though they provide relatively few clues to Appleton’s favor is not certain, nor does it the still untold story of his life. Appleton really matter. Far more substantial strands recalled coming to the Coolidge studio to remained to connect Coolidge to Appleton, buy prints, both “as a boy and later as a through the society which they both young man,“ls and on at least one occa- nourished, and which perpetuates their Double Exposure

mutually far-sighted recognition of the role photographic collections. whose strong of photography in preserving the history of ’ foundation was their joint achievement. New England in the form of its present

NOTES

1. William Sumner Appleton to Baldwin Photography in America; The Formative Years Coolidge, 8 March 1918. This and subsequent 1839-1900 (New York: Thomas Crowell, 1978). reference material from the SPNEA microfilm 9. Baldwin Coolidgeto William Sumner Apple- files, unless otherwise noted. ton, 7 May 1920. 2. William Sumner Appleton, incomplete 10. Marie Howe to William Sumner Appleton, 9 manuscript account of Baldwin Coolidges’ life January 1929. and work. Il. Ibid. 3. Marie Howe to William Sumner Appleton, 12. Ibid. 20 November 1918. 13. Obituary on file with the Wobum Public 4. Ibid. Library, Woburn, Mass. 5. Marie Howe to William Sumner Appleton, 3 14. Baldwin Coolidge to William Sumner Apple- December 1918. ton, 11 May 1920. 6. William Sumner Appleton to Baldwin 15. William Sumner Appleton to Ralph T. Howe Coolidge, 3 February 1920. [son of Marie Howe], 4 February 1941. 7. Baldwin Coolidge to William Sumner Apple- 16. William Sumner Appleton to Baldwin ton [Pasadena], II February 1920. Coolidge, 8 March 1918. 8. Marie Howe to William Sumner Appleton, 3 17. William Sumner Appleton to Mrs. J.H. December 1918. For details on the professional Henry, II December 1928. debate surrounding the use of printing-out ver- sus developing-out papers, see William Welling,