Inagine a photo album 3" x 1 3/4" x 1". How big can the photos be?
Not very big, especially when there are two on a page. There are 12
leaves with 46 photos (two were removed). The oval frames are 5/8" x 7/8". The
spine is missing and some of the pages are torn. The album came from Abraham Taber & Brother, book dealer and stationer of New
Bedford, Massachusetts. I inherited this album filled with tintypes. Miniature tintypes, "gems," date from 1863. They were about 1" x 1" and were often put in albums. Some of the tintypes are slightly tinted - rosy cheeks. Some are in good condition; others are flaking or darkened.
I don't know who owned the album. And I have no idea who the subjects are. Relatives of the owner? Or maybe friends? Most of the subjects are young men, so perhaps they were students at a prep school or college. But there are also a few women. Their attire is that of the 1860s.
Does anyone recognize the nine people in the "gems"? A wild guess is that the album belonged to someone in the Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth (Wingate) Clark family of Stratham, Rockingham County, New Hampshire.
