Sepia Saturday edition 303 featured a prompt image of a Halloween greeting card. Since today is Halloween and Sepia Saturday, I might as well combine them both and post images of ghouls from the collection of family photos! These come from the collection of Romayne Louella Greenaway (30 May 1936 – 7 Jan 2014). They were negatives, and an old size of negative that wouldn’t fit in my negative scanner. Fortunately, they were flat enough that I was able to lay them on a light box and use my DSLR to photograph them, invert the image, and there they are! Romayne was my grandmother (step-grandmother if we’re getting technical, but she married my grandfather long before I was born so she was always grandma). I believe that’s here in the right image with the crazy mask, but it’s hard to tell! The other images in the series show four children, three of whom are Romayne and her two siblings, but everyone has a mask on, so I can’t be certain who the extra child is or even which child is in which costume. In the left image, again, I can’t be sure who that is, but I love it too much to not include it for the theme as well. It’s a fairly simple costume – big bows on her hair and ankles, long coat, and a mask! If I had to guess, I’d say these were taken right around 1950. The others in the set of negatives show Romayne, and she looks to be about 12 or 13 which is how I ended up at that date estimate.
Even though I’m not at a trick-or-treating age anymore, I’m still treating myself to zombie movies and a Halloween themed cupcake this evening and hope you all are enjoying a little treat for yourselves today too!
I’m curious about the 5th Avenue box the girl on the left is holding. That’s a pretty scary mask on the right!
I don’t know these people, but I’d guess the one on the left is from the 1940s. The mask on the right is pretty scary.
I’d have to say it would be the late 1940s if anything, say 1947 and up. Early 1940s means the oldest daughter, Romayne, was age 4 to age 8, and I don’t think that’s her in the photo. The negatives were likely taken within two or three years of eachother, so I’m looking at a more narrow range for the set.
A bit hard to identify people with masks on, I agree. I have some larger negatives like you mention, so will have to try doing what you did to digitalize them. The only problem is that the light box I have no longer works, but I’ll see what I can do about that. Thanks for the suggestion.
You can always hold them up against a window with indirect light – it usually works just as well!
Those faces are truly awful but I guess they had fun. I just don’t get Halloween at all.
She’s got a shipping box for 5th Avenue candy bars, I think! Late 40s, early 50s looks about right to me…great mask on the right; nobody’d know you in that thing!
I think the mask looks handmade too with Papier-mâché or something like that.
It is so good that you have digitized the deteriorating photographs from your ancestors. Very inventive method!
The mask on the right is pretty weird-looking. I wouldn’t want the wearer to say “Boo!” to me in a darkened alley!
Neat photos. I’ve used a similar method but made a light box out of foamboard and then placed it on top of the scanner glass with the negative sandwiched in between.
Good way of preserving the negatives and great results!