Olney Family Photograph Albums, ca. 1895-1910
approximately 222 photographs in 4 albums
The Olney family photograph albums consist of a four-volume set containing approximately 222 photographs depicting family, friends, and neighbors of Clyde Charles Olney, a photographer and bookkeeper based in Columbiaville, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois.
Volume one (14.5 x 20 cm) has black cloth covers and contains 30 snapshots. Images of note include views of the Tug River Coal & Coke Co. in West Virginia, the Columbiaville Band in uniform, the interior of a men’s winter camp, and two women dressed as men.
Volume two (15 x 21 cm) has black cloth covers and contains 94 snapshots. Images of note include views of a parade in Neenah, Wisconsin, a farm and hotel in Columbiaville, the interior of a house in Chicago, and a humorous staged scene of two men waking up in a brass bed together. Several family members on both the Raymond and the Olney sides are identified in a number of photographs, including one of Clyde Olney’s mother Belle. Also present are pictures of "High Steppin' Hallie" dancing in a plaid dress, Clyde Olney playing what appears to be a banjo, and "Dad" Charles Olney.
Volume three (14.5 x 19 cm) has black cloth covers and contains 45 snapshots. Images mainly show Olney’s wife Augustha (aka “Muddy”) and their daughter Mary as an infant in Chicago. Several pictures of Clyde, Muddy, and Mary together are included as well as some that show "Grandma" and Daisy Olney. The album ends with photographs of "Grandpa, Grandma Olney, Mary and Muddy" as well as Hallie Olney in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Volume four (14.5 x 19.5 cm) has black cloth covers and contains 53 snapshots. Images of interest include pictures of Daisy and Hallie Olney in front of a piano around 1895, an older looking Daisy in front of a different piano, a Columbiaville-based photographer named William J. Leisaw eating watermelon, and another photograph of the Columbiaville Band in which each person is identified and labeled (including Charles Vermilya, younger brother of Clyde’s mentor photographer Albert L. Vermilya.)