Wedding Day: Mumbrauer Studio, Hermann

This lovely wedding portrait by the Robert C. Mumbrauer studio, Hermann, Missouri, came to me through AdoptAPhoto, a site and service, created by Anne White in 2001, that enables people to post photographs that have become separated from families, in hopes that others will find and claim them. It’s a necessary stop for anyone looking for family photographs.

The subdued black card mount and restrained, blind-embossed studio identification mark this photograph as circa 1900 or after.

Following fashion historian Joan Severa’s guidelines, the details that date the bride’s shirtwaist-style gown are the “caplet” on the sleeve shoulder, combined with the “over-puffed front” of the blouse that droops beneath the waistline (Severa, Dressed for the Photographer, 539).

The bride’s  headpiece features whimsical trailing artificial rosebuds; the groom’s jacket sports a matching spray. His creased pants also are a sign of ca. 1900 fashion, an era when the trouser press came into widespread use.

But what truly strikes the viewer in this portrait is the solemn gaze of the bride and groom, who, hand in hand, face the camera as if repeating their vows. For a moment, the studio, with its shabby props and painted backdrops, becomes a chapel.

Strothmann Sons: Oscar, Royal, and William

From left: Oscar, Royal and William H. Strothmann (image courtesy of Susan Strothmann Brooks)

In a previous post about Berger, Missouri’s St. Paul Catholic church, I discovered that Berger had its own, homegrown professional photographer: Richard Louis Gatzemeyer (1866-1945). Susan Strothmann Brooks recently found my blog and sent me the first professional Gatzemeyer portrait I’ve seen.

Richard, the son of Franklin County farmers August Gatzemeyer and Josephine (Berends) Gatzemeyer, kept a general store with his wife, Mary (Kotthoff) Gatzemeyer; he also farmed and, surprisingly, may have traveled to Japan in the 1930s.

This cabinet card photograph depicts three of the sons of Berger farmers Frederick Christian Strothmann (1847-1933) and Anna Maria (Drewell) Strothmann (1857-1922).

Gatzemeyer posed the three symmetrically and rather formally grouped around a small table. All the props of mid-nineteenth century portraiture are present: The painted backdrop, draperies, and (rather incongruously) a fur throw rug, all arranged to evoke an upper middle class parlor.

With Royal positioned standing in the center between his two seated brothers, the three men form a triangle, echoing the triangular upward sweep created by the drapes on either side of the composition.

The young men are dressed in their best suits, and as if their clothes, posture and expressions were not enough to indicate their seriousness, William’s hand rests on what appears to be a book of hymns.

While firmly anchored in the nineteenth century tropes of studio portraiture, the plain dark gray card mount  and simple advertising mark places this photograph in the early 1900s.

Perhaps Permilia Strothmann by Charles German

Portrait of Permilia or Louise Strothmann by Charles German (image courtesy of Susan Strothmann Brooks)

This cabinet card photograph, taken by Hermann photographer Charles German ca. 1900, may be either Permilia Johanna Strothmann or her younger sister Louise Margaretha Strothmann.

Permilia and Louisa were two of the five children of Franklin County, Mo. farmers Frederick Strothmann and Maria Drewell Strothmann (click on link to compare).

Charles German was born in July 1864 to German immigrant carpenter Henry German and his Missouri-born wife Eliza Summers German. Charles was set to learn the cooper’s trade, but sometime between 1880 and 1900, Charles learned photography.

For a time, Hermann photographer Robert C. Mumbrauer and Charles German were partners, but thanks to contributions by  Susan Strothmann Brooks, it’s become clear that German operated Mumbrauer’s studio at 4th and Schiller streets under his own name for an unknown period.

Since Mumbrauer had another career as a sheriff and railroad detective, it seems plausible that he either rented or sold the studio to German for a time. The Western Historical Manuscript Collection has one cabinet card marked “Mumbrauer & German, Berger, Mo.” that is dated 1895.

By 1910, German had put aside professional photography and became a Hermann saloon keeper. In later years he worked as a janitor. He died in 1947 at the age of 82 and is buried in Hermann City Cemetery.

Unfortunately, three of this image’s four edges have been cut off during scanning, but at right one can see that the card mount has a scalloped or serrated edge. This edge, along with the less obtrusive green printing of the photographer’s mark, places the mount ca. 1890-1899.

The more subtle background, too, sans the old false painted backgrounds and papier mache tree stumps, marks a turn-of-the-century shift to a simpler, less gimmicky portrait style.

According to costume historian Joan Severa, the young woman’s dress, possibly black silk, featuring a wide, ruffled bertha collar, dates to the mid- to late-1890s (Severa, Dressed for the Photographer).

Carefully lit to highlight the still-babyish lips, large dark eyes and turned up nose, German’s sensitive portrait captures a girl poised on the edge of young womanhood.

The Stroethmann Children

Cabinet card of the children of Frederick and Maria Drewell Stroethmann, ca. 1895, by R. C. Mumbrauer, Hermann, Missouri (found by Kathy Wieland)

This ca. 1895 example depicting the children of Franklin County, Missouri farmers Frederick Stroethmann (b. 1847, Germany) and Maria (Drewell) Stroethmann  (b. 1857, Berger, Franklin Co., Mo.) displays features common to cabinet cards produced during the 1880s and 1890s: the gold-hued photo appears to be an albumen print, mounted on cream press-board. The name and location of the studio appear on the bottom of the card, without artwork on the back, and the edges are decoratively scalloped.

Stroethmann descendant Susan Strothmann Brooks has been able to give tentative identifications to these children:

“I do not have the photo that you sent me of the Strothmann children.  However, I do have a photo of the family with the children older.   As I look at the Strothmann children [in this] photo, I would say Royal (1887-1966) is the boy in back, on the right is Johanna Permelia (1881-1971), on the left is Louise Margaretha (1879-1937), Johanes Oscar (1885-?), and Hermann Karl Wilhelm (1892-1958) is in the center”

The Face That Piloted a Thousand Steamboats?

Could this be a portrait of William L. "Steamboat Bill" Heckmann?

Reverse of carte de visite portrait of an unidentified young man.

Sometimes you buy photographs in ignorance and only later realize their significance.

This carte de visite portrait of a young man, taken at the studio of Robert C. Mumbrauer, was not identified. But when I sat down to look at it, the face reminded me of someone I had seen in another Mumbrauer photograph.

It was the face of one of the four young men who posed with an African-American boy in a Mumbrauer and German  card photograph belonging to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection.

That photo was taken at Chamois in 1895. It came from the William L. Heckmann Jr. scrapbooks at the WHMC.

Only three complete names are given, and it is unclear which name goes with which individual. The names written in the scrapbook are “George Patton, Bill Heckman, Pumpkin Patton, and Andy.”

The man in this photo looks an awful lot like one of the two men on the left side of the photograph. Could it be that I have stumbled upon a portrait of the well-known steamboat pilot, “Steamboat Bill” Heckmann (1869-1957)–author of the classic 1950 memoir of river life, Steamboating: Sixty-Five years on Missouri’s Rivers?

I wrote to  The Museum at the German School in Hermann, which has significant holdings on steam boat history on the Missouri and Gasconade rivers, including a complete pilot-house in their River Room.

They referred me to the Gasconade County Historical Society. Here is my correspondent’s response:

“I asked a colleague to look at two group family photos that we have, which I did not identify to her, to see if your subject, at another stage of life, might be in either of the group photos. In both cases, she picked out the man identified as William Heckmann, Jr. In her words, ‘It was the nose.’ “

I’ve also sent the photograph to the Herman T. Pott National Waterways Library, to which Dorothy Heckmann Schrader, daughter of steamboat Captain Ed Heckmann, has donated a substantial archive of texts and images.

Stay tuned.

Portrait of a Young Child by Robert Mumbrauer

The usually workmanlike Robert C. Mumbrauer created an unusually sensitive portrait of an unidentified young child in this cabinet card photograph.

Although faded and marred with foxing, the child’s face, dramatically lit from the side, remains clearly discernible. Her large eyes and sad expression are haunting.

The card mount’s pink back and elaborate advertising are typical of the 1890s. Note the conventional association of photography with reflected nature (fern fronds; clustered swirls representing a stylized mirror of water) and with painting (the easel and palette).

Also notable: the spelling of the town’s name has been anglicized from “Hermann” to “Herman.”

St. Paul Catholic Church, Berger Missouri

Although the photographer who created this image of St. Paul Catholic Church in Berger, Missouri is not identified, it certainly belongs on a site dedicated to images of the Hermann area. Berger is only eight miles southeast of Hermann, across the Franklin County line.

On the back is written “Berger Catholic Church.” A childish hand has added “Miss Gatzemeyer Berger Mo.”

I acquired this photo along with a portrait of a Franciscan nun and friar. A friar can be seen standing in front of the church doors, to the right of two little girls and an older man.

A brief history of the church posted on the web by Geneaolgy Trails says this building was dedicated in 1888, and that Boeuf Township farmer August Gatzemeyer (b. March 1825, Germany; d. 1901) was among the trustees. The founders of St. Paul were originally part of St. George, a Hermann congregation.

Hermann’s St. George Catholic Church was served by the Franciscan Friars of the Sacred Heart (St. Louis) until 2002, so perhaps the same order served St. Paul.

It seems likely this photo was owned by one of Mr. Gatzemeyer’s descendants. August’s son Richard Gatzemeyer (b. August 1866, Missouri) became a photographer; perhaps he took this photo, and the two little girls might be two of Richard’s daughters, Josephine (b. 1890), Amanda (b. 1892), and Lulu (b. 1896).

Mark Scott Abeln has a contemporary photograph of St. Paul, taken head-on, on his excellent blog “Rome of the West.”

See also Abeln’s informative and beautifully illustrated post on St. George Catholic Church, Hermann.

Spring Sisters

Cabinet card of two white-clad young women (found by Kathy Wieland).

This cabinet card from the Mumbrauer studio in Hermann, Missouri depicts two young women clad in flowing white. The girls wear what appear to be real flowers at the waist and throat. Their intimate pose, the older girl’s arm reaching protectively toward the younger, suggests they might be closely related.

The fluid, natural style of their loose, flowing gowns, without bustle or corset, marks a decided break with 19th century fashion. Their hair style is, however, quite old-fashioned: bangs of frizzed curls, hair pulled back and pinned low on the head behind that had been popular from the 1880s on.

Mumbrauer uses a relatively subdued, tasteful painted background, and eschews the gimmicky props of the past decades. The only vestigial trace of 1880s faux rusticity is the fake grass on the floor.

The photo definitely has an air of occasion about it. Could it have been taken as a part of one of Hermann’s annual Maifest celebrations?

Berger Priest and Nun by Charles Mumbrauer

Charles Mumbrauer took over his father’s photographic studio in Hermann after Robert C. Mumbrauer’s death in 1917. Charles ran the studio off and on until his death in 1935.

This portrait of an unidentified nun and a Franciscan priest is the first photograph I’ve acquired that is marked “C. Mumbrauer.” It was found with two early 1900s photographs of Berger, Missouri churches:  Immanuel Methodist Church of Senate Grove in New Haven and St. Paul Roman Catholic Church, Berger.

St. Paul was served by the Order of St. Francis, and the priest certainly appears to be Franciscan. He may have belonged to the same order that served St. George Catholic Church in Hermann, the Order of the Sacred Heart.

The photograph is mounted in an oversize, tri-fold presentation folder–one of a long series of mount innovations by photographic studios as they attempted to stimulate interest in portrait photography.

Girl With Papier Mache Urn: Lydia J. A. Bade Rohlfing

Cabinet card portrait of Lydia Bade Rohlfing, found by Kathy Wieland of FamilyWe Search.com.

This portrait of an awkward teenage girl teetering on the edge of womanhood was identified as “Lydia Bade (Mrs. Arnold Rohlfing).”

Born 20 March 1880 in Franklin County, Missouri to German immigrant farmer William F. Bade and Johanna Elizabeth Peters Bade, Lydia married Franklin County farmer Arnold P. Rohlfing about 1900. The Rohlfings had three children: Florence, Oliver L., and Irwin W. Rohlfing.

The awkwardness of adolescence is magnified by the incongruous setting: Tall, skinny Lydia, in a black  dress stretched tight over her thin  chest, stands by a papier mache faux urn that is just beginning to tip from the pressure of her hand.

Her dress’s fashionable standing-puff sleeves place the photo ca. early 1890s. Contemporary fashion advice for young ladies advised that “frocks . . . should increase in length with advancing years until at age twelve they should reach the ankle” (Ladies Home Journal, May 1891, quoted in Severa, Dressed for the Photographer (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1995). Her hair is done in up-to-date fashion, pulled back tightly into a knot, with a curled fringe of bangs.

The white card mount with blind-embossed decorative edges and a more subdued advertising design also locates this cabinet card photograph in the 1890s.

Lydia Bade Rohlfing died “six miles south of Berger,” in rural Boeuf Township, Franklin County, on 19 Nov 1943. She and her husband are buried in Senate Grove Cemetery, Berger.