I will leave this to the experts for the year and details of this brass T.
What are the sidelights?
Minnesota 1912-13-14 license plate registered to George A. Danielson, Morris, Minnesota.
If I went to the Minnesota Historical Society, I could pull the original registration ledger and provide the serial number.
It looks like the brass radiator on the car has been painted.
The molding/beads on the body appear to have dark paint, like the typical red and black color scheme used in 1909.
Note the dark hubs against the light spokes.
Here is another view of the same car (postcard currently listed on eBay).
Two women, one man in the first photo. Two men, one woman in the second photo. One of the men and one of the women traded places as photographer/subject in order to take the snapshots.
More details:
In the first photo, the woman at the right is holding a camera. The gentleman holding a cigarette.
In the second photo, the same woman is holding a camera pouch, middle gent still has cigarette, gent at left appears to be holding a cigar.
Great photo Lance!
Anybody know (or remember) what a tea cozy is? Seems like the one lady in the picture has a "tea cozy" that serves a secondary duty as a hat! Not that I'm particularly interested in vintage women's clothing, but it IS interesting what women felt the need to cover their heads with, or, probably more importantly, to appear "stylish" for the time,......harold
A tea cozy can resemble a hat but I highly doubt women wore tea cozies on their heads.
They are wearing hats and heavy clothing because it's late fall or early spring in Minnesota and they are touring the countryside in an automobile. They're being practical because it's cold outside.
Erik,.....well,.....maybe I should have suggested that perhaps the lady has a hat that could be used to keep her teapot warm and "save" on the cost of a tea cozy,.....(:^),......harold
My guess, 1909 or 10 car with a 1911 or 12 top. Possibly aftermarket top.
How did they take the first photo when the lady in the picture is holding the camera?
She is holding the second camera.
I did not see any wing's on the radiator?? Bud.
Looks like a '10 touring with aftermarket lamps and top. The radiator has the low filler neck typical of 1909 - 10, the front fenders and the running boards are '10. The windshield is a Mezger "Automatic" of the proper height for a '10. Cowl lamps look like maybe Atwood for a larger car.
i was always told that windshield was 09, top & bottom same size for 10????? charley
Headlamps look like they might be Rushmore.
Note the raised diamonds sewn into the door panel flap by the woman's right hand. I know that was an '09 (and pre-T) feature. When was that discontinued?
Rushmore would be right. charley
Thread drift alert!
A minor bit of trivia/social reference.
In the comic strip "Born Loser", Thornapple works for a rich tycoon by the name of Veeblefester (I did have to confirm the spelling of that name).
Thornapple works in the sales office. Veeblefester's company manufactures and sells tea cozies.
Anyway.
Great picture!
I do wish we could be certain about the color of the car. It is probably late enough that it was probably green? Royce, what would you say? I sure can't tell by looking at the image.
Would this car have been early enough to have been sold originally without lamps, windshield, or top?
I have looked at these two pictures quite a bit. The wheels bug me. They almost look like they could be natural finish!? The rest of the car looks too shiny and clean for the wheels to be coated in mud spray? But maybe?
The wheels and the other oddities make me want to question whether this is an original era photo or not. However, I cannot see any one thing that would tell me that it isn't. The costumes are so perfect for the era, the gray scale of the picture is right. The smiles are unusual, but not unheard of for those years.
The top and windshield do not seem to fit together really well. It appears that the top of the windshield is forward of the front of the top? All of the anomalies could be correct for a cleaned up, and updated two year old car. Maybe the car was new to them?
Or maybe the picture was taken on a HCCA tour in the '50s?
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
Perhaps Steve Jelf can estimate the approximate date on the photo by taking a good look at the camera the lady's holding in the fist photo. I have a similar camera here on a shelf that was made around 1940.
And did anybody notice the cell phone in the hand of the guy sitting on the running board and holding the filtered cigarette in the second photo?
The camera she is holding in the first photo appears to be a common Kodak folding (bellows) Autographic camera. They had a little door on the back so that you could write onto the film in such a way that the note would show up on the developed print. That way, if film did not get developed for a while (like that never happened), your note from when the photo was taken could remind you of what or who or where it was. Those cameras came onto the market in the early '10s, and continued with minor changes until the late '20s. One of the minor changes was the bellows on the earliest ones were red. By the late '10s the bellows were black. While the B&W photo doesn't show color shading very well, the angles of reflection and apparent gray scale comparison of the black case and of the bellows may indicate a red bellows (they appear much more gray than the camera body). That could indicate an earlier camera, but still, pushing the early limit for the era of the car.
The camera appears to be a larger size one. It may be the 116 size. I have one of those (black bellows). I also have a 120 size, slightly later mid-'20s version that I used to use quite a bit. However the bellows developed a light leak, and I quit using it.
Also of note on the camera. It has the squeeze bulb shutter accessory (short version), which helped to hold the camera steady for longer exposures using the slow early films. Pressing the shutter directly had a tendency to shake the camera slightly.
Just a few of my observations and speculations of the camera.
Similar folding cameras were made up almost until WWII. This one is not nearly that late.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
Or; ask Wayne!
Is it possible the wheels are natural?
The photo was taken in 1912, 1913 or 1914. The owner was George A. Danielson of Morris, Minnesota. Read my very first July 17 post.
Lance said the photo was attributed to Morris, Minnesota. I presume he harvested it from eBay or another internet source.
The car has a 1912-13-14 Minnesota license plate (Minnesota issued a three year plate).
My father is a collector of early Minnesota license plates and has early Minnesota public license plate directories - I had him look it up for me. If I went to the Minnesota Historical Society, I could pull the hand posted ledgers and provide the serial number of the car.
The camera may or may not be a Kodak. If it is a Kodak, it may or may not be an Autographic as Kodak did not market them until 1914. (Earlier Kodaks could be retrofitted with an upgraded back with the trap door for the Autographic feature.)
After seeing Lance's original post, I immediately went to eBay to see if I could find the photo that he posted. Instead, I found a second photo of the same car which I subsequently posted.
Below is the back of that photo. Note C.L. Voss photographer and Morris, Minn. Voss most likely did not take the photo, but merely developed it for whomever took it.