This beautiful photo from the Harold and Elizabeth Zachary Vogler Collection was donated to the Alleghany Historical Museum by Phyllis Wood Fournel. The two ladies and their driver are on an outing in a fancy, horse-drawn, 2-seat surrey. (Leather seats, fenders and carriage lamps.) The ladies look smart in their flat, straw hats which were in fashion around 1900.
We don’t know much more about it, except that it is a rare “opalotype” photo, that is, it was printed on an opal glass plate. The fragile emulsion which holds the image on the front surface of the glass has been marred in places, sometime during its life.
The 6.5”x 8.5” plate was probably “contact printed” from a glass negative, meaning, the two pieces of glass were in face-to-face contact when it was exposed. This would result in a final print that is “right-reading” on the emulsion side, which is how it was displayed in its frame. (Other clues: The lady’s jacket buttons are on her left side as is common and the buggy whip is on the driver’s right which, also, seems pretty traditional.)
