The
Hine/Kirtland "Cabinet Card" Photo Album
(circa 1880's)
Compiled By Edward Kirtland Hine, Jr. ("Ted")
- November 2013
Introduction When
visiting the home of my aunt, Ruth Hine-Darling, in Leavenworth, WA
in 2003 I came upon a photo album containing priceless pictures of
my Poland, OH Hine and Kirtland ancestors and relatives.
The photo collection appears to center around my great grandparents
Samuel Hine (1816-1893) and Emma Kirtland-Hine (1841-1914) and
includes photos of them, most of their children, Emma's parents, as well as
other relatives and non-relatives. I suspect that most of the
photos were likely taken in the early to mid 1880's.
On the inside cover of the album are the
handwritten words: “Album belonging to Homer Henry Hine 1874-1958”.
Since Homer’s date of death was were included, I would guess
that this was written either by his wife Rose or by his daughter Ruth
sometime after his death. I strongly suspect however that the album
was initially put together by Homer’s brother, Samuel Kirtland Hine (son of
Samuel and Emma Hine) and ended up in Homer’s possession after his
brother’s death in 1942 as Samuel had no children to leave it to.
The photo album format was known as a Cabinet
Card collection and research suggests that this was a very popular
way to organize one's family photo collection during and
1880's and 1890's, a time when photo portraits were relatively expensive and
before home amateur photography was available. The album
contains 18 two-sided pages each designed to hold 4 photos (two on
each side). The album is full and thus contains about 72 photos,
each of portrait quality and all apparently taken by professional
photographers of the day. Each photo is printed on sturdy card
stock approximately 4-1/4” wide, 6-1/2” tall, and 1/32” thick which
slide into specially designed slots on the album pages. Most of the
photo cards contain the name, location, and other information about
the photo studio that produced it either on the back of the card
and/or on the front below the photo. It is apparent that during
this period the Cabinet Card format was a standardized way to
distribute upscale photographic images. This album is very classy
and I suspect that at the time it was put together that it
represented a significant financial investment in both terms of the
album itself and the photos that it contains.
Some of the
photos have a hand written caption (in pencil) identifying who is in
the picture and in some cases that person’s relationship to Homer.
I have no idea who added the captions. I suppose it could have been
Homer, his wife Rose, his daughter Ruth, or brother Samuel (“Kirt”)
or perhaps another family member. Other photos have no captions
and I therefore have no idea who they are pictures of. There is
one caption unspecific to any one photo which reads “S.K. Hine’s
college chums” which is followed by a number of pages of
unidentified photos of young men which are all on photo cards
labeled as coming from studios in Troy, New York, the home of
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where Samuel Kirtland Hine had
attended college. This is the biggest clue that suggests to me that
the album originally belonged to Samuel Kirtland Hine.
I digitally scanned all
the photos that had handwritten captions identifying them as a known
relative but did not scan those photos that did not have captions
and that I could not identify as a relative. Two scans of each
photo were made: one of the photo in its album page (two photos per
scan) in order to preserve the captions and then one of each photo
temporarily removed from the album page.
Some notes on names and
relationships as they apply to the photos below to prevent
confusion: Samuel Hine was married twice and raised two
families, one after the other. His first wife was Ellen Louise
Montgomery-Hine and his second Emma Caroline Kirtland-Hine.
Samuel's daughter from his second marriage (to Emma), Ellen Louise
Hine ("Nell"), was most likely named for his first wife Ellen Louise
Montgomery-Hine. Also, Samuel's eldest son from his marriage
to Emma was also named Samuel (Samuel Kirtland Hine, "Kirt") so
don't be confused by Samuel Hine (the father, with no middle name)
and Samuel Kirtland Hine ("Kirt") his son.
For unknown reasons there
are portrait photos included of Samuel and Emma Hine and 4 of their
5 children with son Charles Potter Hine noticeably missing.
There are however two portrait photos labeled as son Alfred Blakelee
Hine and two labeled as son Homer. Perhaps one of these photos
was mislabeled and is actually a photo of Charles.
The Cabinet Card pages
below are presented in the their original order with pages
containing unidentified individuals left out.
Cabinet Card Pages
(Click on an image to
enlarge it and then scroll down to see larger scans of individual
photos.)
 |
Samuel Hine and wife Emma Kirtland-Hine |
|
 |
 |
Samuel Kirtland Hine ("Kirt") / Ellen Louise Hine ("Nell")
(Son and daughter of Samuel and Emma Hine) |
Alfred Blakelee Hine / Homer Henry Hine
(Sons of Samuel and Emma Hine) |
|
|
 |
 |
Cornelia W. Hall ("Nell") / Elizabeth W. Hine ("Bess")
(1st cousin once removed of Emma Kirtland-Hine
/ granddaughter of Samuel and Ellen Montgomery-Hine) |
Cecil Dwight Hine and wife Elizabeth Woodruff-Hine
(Son and daughter-in-law of Samuel Hine
and his first wife Ellen Montgomery-Hine) |
|
|
 |
 |
Billius Kirtland and wife Ruthanna Frame-Kirtland
(Emma Kirtland-Hine's parents) |
Alfred Potter Kirtland / Ruth & John Kirtland
(Emma Kirtland-Hine's brother and his children) |
|
|
 |
 |
Ruth Mays-Anderson (both photos)
(Daughter of Emma Hine's sister Lucy Hall Kirtland-Mays) |
Alfred Blakelee Hine /
Unknown
(Son of Samuel and Emma Kirtland-Hine) |
|
|
 |
 |
Unknown / Catherine Mays ("Kathyrn"?)
(Daughter of Emma Hine's sister Lucy Hall Kirtland-Mays)
|
Unknown / John
Severance
(Indicated as a cousin of Homer Hine's however I've
been unable to establish a family connection.) |
|
|
 |
 |
Elizabeth Hine-Cates ("Bess) / Homer Henry Hine
(Samuel and Ellen Montgomery-Hine's granddaughter
/ Samuel and Emma Hine's son) |
Charles, Homer, Alfred, Nell, & Kirt /
Ellen L. Hine ("Nell")
(The 5 children of Samuel and Emma Kirtland-Hine)
|
|
|
 |
 |
Homer Henry Hine & dog Sport /
Unknown |
Homer Henry Hine & dog Sport |
(Samuel and Emma Kirtland-Hine's son.) |
(Samuel and Emma Kirtland-Hine's son.) |
|