Signature Help? CDV

Hello,

Was wondering if anyone could me with an opinion on what this
crazy signature says lol

Greatly appreciated!

Warm Regards,
Scantic

 

Last name Volleu ?

 

I been trying a variety of spellings - Vallen, Valler, Valleu, (and then each with an o instead of an a) Naller, Noller, Nallen, Nollen, and then with an S instead of the N or V. Not much success.

I was assuming circa 1870. Is that what you were thinking Scantic?

So I tried finding the photographer and found him right off - Benjamin F. Powelson at the 58 State Street, Rochester address in the 1864 city directory. Buffalo address on Main Street at the same time. Found him at home in Rochester in the 1865 NY State Census.

But surprise, surprise, by 1870 he had moved to Detroit, Michigan - and that's where he stayed.

 

This is a tough one! I'm seeing "Vo...", like Vollter, Vollser, or ?

 

I haven't any help on your CDV, but found the following very interesting CDV he did (c1863). It is of a young woman who at the age of 13 in 1851 was captured by Apaches and later sold to a Mohave family who tattooed her. After about 5 years her release was negotiated.

Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery website:
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/frontier/pop-ups/02-02.html

--- Susan

 

Wow. That is an amazing story - and what a coincidence. I do have to wonder how it came to be that he (in upstate NY) had the opportunity to take a picture of her.

 

According to this site, in 1864 Olive traveled to NY to visit with a Mohave dignitary. So maybe that's when the photo was taken?

 

I have a tough time thinking that a Mohave dignitary would have gone to Rochester, but that's neither here nor there. The other site mentioned (without dates) that once Stratton's book was released she went on an appearance tour as part of the publicity for it. I suppose that could be it, too.

 

Maybe the photographer traveled to wherever she was in NY for a prearranged photography session? Since her story was so widely publicized, I think it's possible it could have been arranged by the book publisher or a newspaper.

 

I agree, Pat. Anything's possible with someone that famous for the times.

 

I had the same thought. Wiki... bio on her says she did a lecture tour promoting the book (Living Among the Indians) written by a minister. The book was about her and her sister. She and a brother got the Royalties for their college education. The pic could have been taken while lecturing in NY. It seems she married a Texas rancher. She died in 1903 in TX.

According to the following site Powelson was in Detroit, MI and Auburn, NY as well as Buffalo and Rochester.
http://classyarts.com/CommonCDVlist.htm

--- Susan

 

Okay - let me cloud this up a bit more - there was a Mohave (elected, not hereditary) dignitary called Irataba who visited D.C. (meet with Lincoln) and Philadelphia, and New York in the 1860s - so there is the possibility of a connection........

 

Yes on Detroit, see my post #3 above. In 1850 he was in Newark, NJ too.

If the picture of Olive was taken in 1863, he was in Rochester then. Definitely could have travelled to another city to take the picture, of course.

 

Mansons, yes, according to the site where I read about her, Irataba was the dignitary she visited with.

 

All this from a signature decipher request.

 

Sniped by Bakers!

 

But we get to learn so much ancient trivia this way!

 

Which of course is no further along than when first posted! But ain't we got fun?????

 

No doubt! It's fascinating! But lest we forget, Scantic wants to know what the subject's name is on her picture.

We have a latest time frame to work worth - before 1870. But could it be as early as 1860? By clothing, type of photo, card to which applied? Anything else?

 

Okay - back to the issue at hand - but in truth, finding the name of some grocer in a podunk town in Monroe County NY in 1870 ain't near as much fun..........