The Victorian Art of Proper Props

Despite its reputation as a reserved and polite period, the Victorian Era was anything but. Thanks to the newly invented science of photography, we can catch a glimpse of how similar our great-great-grandparents were to us. While the earliest images are often stark, fuzzy and dull, commercial photographers got sophisticated quickly. By the 1870s and ’80s, as the larger “cabinet cards” like these replaced the smaller “carte de visite” prints, just about anything was possible. Victorians mugged before the camera, took action photos, preserved dead relatives on film, staged elaborate and artistic scenes, captured historic events and posed for naughty shots.

These two youngsters were photographed by one of our lesser-known, but very talented city professionals. All I know, so far, is that E.C. Nickerson kept a studio in the “Fay Building” in Portsmouth from at least 1888-92. That fits with the time period in which these cabinet cards were most popular. Nickerson’s bread and butter may have been taking a series of portraits of men, as he did for the local Odd Fellows and for Portsmouth police officers and firemen.

Nickerson’s real skill, however, may have been his artistic use of props as seen in these two portraits. Clearly the larger image format (roughly 4 by 6 inches) made it possible to incorporate more elements into a vertical picture of standing figures. Lafayette Newell also had a masterful ability to create fake outdoors scenes indoors. One wonders whether the two shared darkroom secrets or were desperate rivals.

Here again we can see the use of a painted backdrop set against large props in the foreground. The girl may be Helen C. Drake of Greenland Depot, N.H. Although standing stiffly in her new dress, she is smiling. The chair placed to her left allows us to also see her new coat and hat. The unknown young gentleman appears more wary. Mr. Nickerson has posed him against a faux garden fence, one arm extended, the other tucked royally into his belt. His legs are crossed and framed by a realistic-looking plaster rock.

Wouldn’t you like to know more about the evolution of photography in New Hampshire’s only seaport? I would. Why not start by digging around in your attic and family scrapbooks? So far we know precious little about the photographers themselves, their families, their equipment, their studio locations, their business practices and, of course, their customers.

Copyright 2020 by J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.