Gaslight News June 2013 Historical Society of Riverton vol. XXXXIII, no. 3 (#152) Founded 1970 Riverton, NJ 08077 Incorporated 1978 Riverton’s Lothrop Photography chronicled our ancestors’ milestones During the 1890s, in an age when photog- Paul’s authoritative findings indicated that raphy as a fine-art was just emerging, a pio- in 1900, thirty year-old Bertha, David’s neering young artist from Riverton exhibit- daughter living in the same house, was also ed children’s portraits at the Photographic a photographer. In 1905, she married Society of Philadelphia, became a success- Frederick W. Radell in Riverton, and by ful advertising photographer, published a the 1910 census had moved with him to Michael Robinson instigated technical pamphlet, and had a studio built Pennsylvania with her mother, suggesting this closer examination of expressly for taking pictures. The surprise? that David had died sometime between Lothrop Photography when he purchased this cabinet A woman named Bertha Lothrop accom- 1900 and 1910. card of an infant Charles plished all these feats. Horace Haines through an In late January 2013, RFL Director, Mr. online auction. Robinson A small item in Mrs. Betty B. Hahle long- Michael Robinson watched a PowerPoint observes that the Haines running signature “Yesterday” column that presentation about the recently digitized family has deep roots in once appeared in this newsletter informed local newspapers that included a small Burlington County. readers in 1984 that “Lothrop’s new Photo- Lothrop Photography newspaper ad from IMAGE CREDIT : Michael Robinson graphic Studio, at 4th & Main, boasted the (Palmyra) Weekly News, July 10, 1897, one of the finest skylights in the state, and the Lothrop photo at lower left. assuring the best and pleasant photos for its patrons.” In 2008, an English professor writing a book about antique photographs of people with their dogs contacted the Society requesting help in dating a cabinet card. HSR member and professional historian Paul W. Schopp responded with his customary thoroughness to her inquiry with With his curiosity clearly piqued about the an email listing five members of the prospect of a historic photography studio Lothrop household residing at 401 Main being within a stone’s throw from the Street according to the 1900 census and an Library, Mr. Robinson soon found an Lothrop Studio photograph account of the 60 year-old head-of- Unidentified subject. online auction for another Lothrop- household’s employment since 1880. stamped portrait. Mr. Robinson writes: Mr. Paul W. Schopp assisted Dr. Ann-Janine Morey of Given the Massachusetts native’s move- “On eBay recently I came across a stu- James Madison University in ments and a Philadelphia business address dio photograph of a magisterial looking dating this cabinet card to about 1890 for her forthcom- from 1863-1882, Mr. Schopp speculated baby named Charles Horace Haines... ing book, Romancing the that David Lothrop may have been “a bit of It was the name that caught my atten- Dog: American Vernacular an itinerant photographer” and that the tion (I know a local Charles Haines, Photography, 1860-1950. “Riverton studio may have been a part-time IMAGE CREDIT: Dr. A.J. Morey operation.” See LOTHROP on 2 ② THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF RIVERTON LOTHROP from 1 delphia meeting on November 7, 1894, and there are Haines all over Burling- at which, ton County), but it was a Riverton con- “…a large audience was assembled to see a nection that influenced me to buy the collection of slides of child studies by photograph. Charles at 5 months is Miss Bertha M. Lothrop of Riverton… Iris and Richard Gaughan live in the home that the 1900 propped up in a chair on a white fur Miss Lothrop's slides constituted an census listed as the Lothrop rug, squinting at the camera and waving exhibit of figure work such as has rarely, residence. Behind it, where his right hand like a Pope issuing a if ever, been equaled at meetings of the the photography studio once blessing. Society, and showed that she possesses stood, now rests the home of Adrienne and Carlos Rogers Michael’s online search turned up Naomi artistic feeling, rare skill in posing at 501 Fourth Street. Old Rosenblum’s A History of Women Pho- children, and a technical knowledge maps, newspaper accounts, altogether admirable.” and census records may hold tographers (Abbeville Press, various edi- the keys to the mysteries of tions), which cites Bertha Lothrop as your home’s history. an example of women photographers PHOTO CREDIT : JMc succeeding in advertising: “In 1901, for IMAGE CREDIT : “Nine miles out of example the So who was the master photographer Philadelphia, at demand for here—father, David, formerly of Massachu- setts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, Riverton, on the advertising im- http://www.piercevaubel.com/cam/index.htm banks of the Dela- ages by one now 56 years old in 1896, or his twenty- ware, lives Miss Bertha M. Lo- something daughter, Bertha, published in Bertha M. Lothrop, throp, a Phila- her field of photography and highly regard- ed by her peers? And from where in River- a young woman delphian who 1886 catalog illustration who... has achieved made this a specialty, was so pressing ton did Lothrop Photography conduct a reputation in her that their overburdened maker claimed business? particular work.” she had little time to join photographic At this point, your Gaslight - The Delineator. Paris; New societies or submit work to exhibi- News editor covers the next York: Butterick Pub. Co. tions... in any magazine one might find part of the course in this v.58:no.5 (1901: Nov.), WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS ‘at least a half dozen pictures which her research relay. AND THEIR WORK. [Lothrop’s] fertile brain has thought In “Women Photographers out. ...Her work was said to have com- and Their Work,” The De- manded comparatively high prices, but lineator, November 1901, the actual figures are unknown.” author Juan C. Abel explains that advertis- Next, Mr. Robinson found a pamphlet ers paid high prices for her photographs authored by Bertha Lothrop in 1896, because, when she was attending the Acad- Indoor Photography and Flash-Light Stud- emy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, she was ies of Child Subjects (available at Google determined to avoid the “stiff, conventional Books). In addition to “Twenty-three poses” of portraits of the day. Copyright Photographs” it includes Miss At a friend’s sug- Lothrop’s observations on the challenges gestion, she ex- and rewards of working with children, her perimented with sources of inspiration, and technical infor- a flash-lamp to mation about lighting, exposure, flash pow- provide the light der, chemicals, and darkroom technique. Title page of Indoor Photog- so that she could raphy and Flash-Light Stud- ies of Child Subjects by Ber- Mr. Robinson follows up with this item in picture “children tha Lothrop. View the entire Photographic Times of December 21, in their various scanned 40-page booklet on 1894, (Google Books) which includes m o o d s a n d Google Books. notice of a Photographic Society of Phila- IMAGE CREDIT : Google Books pranks.” http://books.google.com/books?id=ESwyAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF RIVERTON ③ absolute termination date for the photog- IMAGE CREDIT : raphy studio in Riverton as sometime between 1900 and 1910 and, more closely, FOURTH STREET sometime between 1905 and 1910, given http://library.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/sanborn/burlington/riverton.html the date of Bertha’s marriage. Drilling into the recently digitized local newspaper files available on the HSR web- site and some more research in the ar- chives of genealogybank.com yielded a few more clues regarding our renowned Miss No doubt, Evening Prayer, Pillow Fight, and Playmates Bertha, Lothrop Photographers, and her MAIN STREET typify the innovative flash-light studies of child subjects by husband-to-be. This detail from a 1905 Miss Bertha Lothrop of whom the Photographic Society of Sanborn Insurance Map, Philadelphia found to possess “...artistic feeling, rare skill N ewspa per corner of Fourth & Main, in posing children, and a technical knowledge altogether social and shows the Lothrop residence admirable.” IMAGE CREDIT : The Delineator, November 1901 and Indoor Photography and Flash-Light Studies of Child Subjects gossip col- at 401 Main and adjacent umns of the photography studio. This she tried with great success and then day often re- took up stereoscopic, or 3D, photography. ported on the One maker of pictures for the stereoscope activities of bought practically all she could make. Ber- people within tha Lothrop, “realizing their sub- sufficient to build herself “Riverton.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, scribers’ area, FOURTH STREET a comfortable little studio 27 August 1899: Volume: 141 Issue: so reporting 58, Section: Sunday Magazine, p. 9. out at her home,” could on Miss Ber- “...barely keep pace with tha Lothrop’s comings and goings was not the orders” for her calen- unusual. In 1897, she had just returned dar and advertising work. from two weeks’ visit in Lancaster, in August 1899 she was in Ocean City, and in If the present-day home at 401 Main was MAIN STREET April 1900 she was off visiting friends in the Lothrop residence, what became of the New York City. Think of them as the Face- By 1911, owners added to “comfortable little studio”? 401 Main, but the lot where book status updates of their era. Bertha the photography studio once Historian Paul Schopp used a succession turned 30 in 1900, apparently an accom- stood was vacant. of Sanborn Insurance maps to explain what plished independent career woman. happened. The residence at 401 Main In April 1905, The Philadelphia Inquirer Street and a separate smaller structure reported that a Mr.