Weekend Random Images

(Above) A rare, carved 19th century Phrenologist’s head, used as a table top model illustrating the properties associated with various parts of the brain. Carved and painted with ink descriptions along the scalp. Sensitive rendering of the face with inlaid glass eyes. C. 1870; 10 inches high. Via One Good Eye.


(Above) Terra cotta sculpture found near Ossining, N.Y., thought perhaps to be an end-of-day piece. Via Candler Arts.


(Above) C. 1940-50: These simple silhouettes represent a virtual arsenal of ray weaponry. All were made by a single youngster to be at the disposal of his imagination. Via Joshua Lowenfels.


(Above) Brooklyn Harbor, 2007. Photogravure 28 x 20.5 inches by Lothar Osterburg.

(Above) 19th Century photograph of woman with parrots. Via eBay, private collection.


(Above) Image © Geoff Story.


HERE IS A BUCKET FULL OF IMAGES CULLED FROM the web, near and far. Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you next week.

Blue-Haired Dandy

(click this image for larger view!) Image © Geoff Story.


MY FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE GEOFF STORY, A VERY TALENTED DESIGNER AND PHOTOGRAPHER/ARTIST, shared with me this image he took of a graveyard photograph attached to a gravestone at St. Louis’ famous and historic Bellefontaine Cemetery. Over 100 years have passed, giving this particular tombstone photographic image some very strange qualities. The gentleman’s hair has turned blue—an amazing cerulean blue! This angelic couple, floating in death by soft, cotton-like clouds, remain as a surreal image whose particular qualities fit our sensibilities today perfectly. This is an amazing photograph of a transformed-by-time photographic tombstone image.

From Bellefontaine.com:
The story of Bellefontaine Cemetery, a non-sectarian, perpetual care cemetery, begins with the year 1849, when many prominent citizens of St. Louis, who had the welfare of the City at heart, recognized that the old cemeteries located along Jefferson Avenue would soon have to be abandoned, since they were directly in the path of the City’s westward growth.

The movement for a new cemetery was led by William McPherson, banker and prominent lawyer, who had served as Mayor of St. Louis several times prior to 1849. They organized a group of notable men, regardless of their religious affiliations, and procured 138 acres of land on the Bellefontaine Road, — Hempstead farm. On the 7th of March, 1849, they adopted a constitution and incorporated under the name of the “Rural Cemetery Association”, received a Charter from the State of Missouri. At the next meeting of the Association, they decided to drop the name “Rural” and adopt the name “Bellefontaine”, because of the fact that the Cemetery was located on the old military road leading to the former Fort Bellefontaine.

They had acted none too soon, for in June of that year the worst cholera epidemic in all our local history came up the river from New Orleans. By the early part of July, it had so alarmed the community that all the city fathers, excepting the Mayor, fled from St. Louis with their families, leaving the Mayor to cope with the situation as best he could. Before the middle of August, more than ten percent of the City’s total population had perished. There were more than thirty funerals each day from the Catholic Cathedral; and from other prominent churches a like number.

As soon as the plague had abated, James E. Yeatman, a member of the Bellefontaine Association, went east to obtain the services of a competent landscape architect. At Greenwood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York, he found Almerin Hotchkiss, a man thirty years old and of good education. Mr. Hotchkiss embarked upon his career at Bellefontaine that autumn and held the position of Superintendent until his death, forty-six years later. He was succeeded by his son, Frank, who held the position for some twenty years.

The Cemetery, as we view it today, is largely the work of Almerin Hotchkiss. The original 138 acres was expanded to 314 acres by three additional land acquisitions before 1900. Approximately 70 acres of unused ground remain for future development. Bellefontaine’s fourteen miles of curved roadways were created to afford beautiful views of the landscape, seasonal foliage and lakes confined within its borders. The Cemetery, noted for its silent beauty, numbers 86,000 interments among 6,800 spacious family lots and numerous single grave areas. Bellefontaine continues to have one of the finest collections of trees in the St. Louis area.

Learn more about this famous cemetery here.

A Stash of Drawings Comes to Light

WHILE AT A PARTY NOT LONG AGO, I HAD A DISCUSSION WITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER Katy Fischer about her love and obsession with estate sales and flea markets. Of course, I had complete understanding for her affliction. She eventually told me about a great find of old drawings that dealt mainly with gay issues. She found the drawings tucked between the pages of an old book at the estate sale of Saul Rosenzweig - a retired professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Katy works at TOKY Design, and she told me that she had given the entire set of 1920-30-ish period illustrations to colleague Geoff Story. Geoff, who happened to be nearby, told me the drawings were posted on his Flickr site. We all went to a computer and took a look and I knew I had to share these with my loyal readers. Thanks for sharing, Geoff!

Apparently, Saul Rosenzweig spent his entire career exploring various aspects of aggression, including his creation of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study, a test to measure latent hostility. The test was popularized in Stanley Kubrick's famous film, A Clockwork Orange.

Whether these drawings were part of an early study, or just drawings Rosenzweig acquired during his long career is unknown. What I do know is that most of these early, anonymous drawings of sexual intimacy are interesting and insightful studies of a taboo subject. I am sure that the artist kept these illustrations well-hidden, where they surfaced for Katy Fischer 75 years later.