Oscar W. Carlson and the Carlson House

One of my favorite things to do at either of the museums I frequent is to snoop around randomly, especially among stuff that looks as if it doesn't get snooped around in very often. A few weeks ago I snooped my way to a couple of small boxes of old glass-plate negatives that had been overlooked during the museum's photo-scanning project. So my next three visits were devoted to figuring out how to use the transparent media adapter on the museum's scanner, and then (carefully) scanning all the glass plates. Perhaps the thrill of seeing those dim, ghostly old negatives turn into vibrant positives has made me overestimate their merit, but I'm very fond of these particular images and I intend to post them all in the weeks to come.

The majority of them were not identified, and perhaps if I post them someone will recognize them. One I recognized from a developed photo on display in the museum: the Old Maids' Basket Ball team — but in the negative, you can see the team members' (stockinged) legs! The display identifies that photo as being from 1907, and I judge all the negatives to be from roughly that time, give or take maybe ten years.

A few were identified, with varying precision, by notes on the envelopes holding the negatives. The image below was identified as "O.W. Carlson." Now, who could that be but our very own Oscar the Grouch — Oscar W. Carlson?


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

That insignia on his cap is illegible — the photographer got it out of focus. In 1900 he gave his occupation as farmer; in 1910, watchman in a steel mill; in 1920, carpenter; in 1930, justice of the peace in the city court (!). Perhaps here we've caught him in his watchman era, or perhaps we've glimpsed some other job (railroad or streetcar conductor?) he held between censuses.

And the image below is identified as the Carlson house. I've never been clear on whether Oscar ever actually lived on Linda Street or only claimed to own part of it. The 1910 Census shows him living on Michigan Avenue.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

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I've just spent the better part of two days backing up the text of my blog all the way back to the beginning. I can't believe I was so careless when I started this thing! Anyway, now if Blogger suffers some kind of catastrophe, I could conceivably reconstruct this blog for the sake of posterity. Next on the to-do list is to back up all my images, so that Photobucket can have all the catastrophes it wants.