I handled the microphone duties for the remote broadcast of 7SD at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ.
From the left: Andy Breckman, Ken Friedman, Scott Williams, yours truly, and the guy who runs Maxwells.
I bought this ambrotype on the street last year from someone.
It caught my eye initially because the subject resembles a very young Samuel Clemens. Upon closer examination I noticed that he sports what appears to be a policeman's shield or fraternal lodge pin. Whoever he was and whatever he's wearing, I love the rose in his cheeks and the decay that surrounds him.
Entropy will not be denied, even in the photographic afterlife...
I picked this up in Omaha- it's wrapping paper from a general store that was located in Crete, Nebraska, ca. the 1880's.
Nebraska was considered part of the "wild west" at the time; Wild Bill Hickok's first known gunfight happened at a Pony Express Station an hour south of Crete.
The name of the proprietor, Frank J. Kuncl, and the ad copy in Czech on the Buffalo's mantle attest to the migration of Bohemians to Nebraska in the 19th century. Wila Cather's great novel, My Antonia, memorializes Bohemian Nebraska- check it out at your local library!
