DECEMBER 14, 2021
Christmas arrived early for this historian and it arrived in the form of a question. Can you identify the location captured in this photograph? Such inquiries make to my inbox from time to time but this one was especially exciting because it involved an interesting backstory attached to a great photograph.

The request came from a gentleman in California who attended graduate school at Rutgers in the 1970s. While there he had purchased a box of unidentified glass plate negatives at an antique shop. The collection had no provenance; just a box of discarded and forgotten images. As a photographer himself, he felt compelled to acquire the entire set. Slowly, over a period of years, he carefully digitized all the plates and began the laborious process of researching. During COVID, with time on his hands and with a need for a good project, he went on a deep-dive journey of discovery that led him to late nineteenth/early twentieth century New Brunswick, early photography and photographers, and eventually to 238 George Street; the home, he would come to learn, of the Howell family.  And that’s where the story became especially interesting.

The Howell household included three unmarried sisters - Alice/Allie, Nettie and Margaret/Maggie. It seemed likely that one of these three sisters was the photographer behind the lens that captured their 19th-20th century lives in New Brunswick. A bit of digging revealed that two of the sisters died in the early twentieth century - Maggie in 1911 at 34 years old and Nellie in 1914 at 40 years old. Their deaths roughly coincided with the time frame of the collection of images which spanned from about the 1890s to the early 1900s which seems to suggest that either Maggie or Nellie was the unidentified photographer. The remaining sister, Alice, never married, continued to reside at 238 George Street with her brothers William and Charles and sister-in-law Anna, and passed away in the 1950s. The collection of glass plates were likely stored away in the house and forgotten. In time the home was sold and with no living descendants to claim this collection (another story) the box made its way to an antique shop in town and eventually into the hands of John Cruz. Not seen in many, many years, the collection revealed historic images of turn-of the century New Brunswick. Mr. Cruz went about the task of identifying locations, researching the family and learning about early photography and cameras. In an unselfish act of generosity, he donated this treasure of glass plates to the New Brunswick Public Library where they now safely reside. Thank you Mr. Cruz, you are a preservation hero!

Included in the collection was a photograph that baffled him - the one seen on the bottom half of the comparison image here. He couldn’t place it. He thought it might be Landing Lane in New Brunswick since the majority of images were taken in and around the city but it didn’t quite match. He cast out a net in an effort to locate someone who might be able help identify the canal house captured by the Howell lens around the turn of the century. That inquiry eventually landed in my inbox. I was excited; it was without doubt a fantastic, newly uncovered, photograph of a D&R Canal bridge house but…which one? Without question, it was not Landing Lane! Although some features stumped me, my initial instinct was that this was the bridge house that once stood at what is now Route 518 in Rocky Hill. Two things stood out - the “Look Out For The Locomotive” sign (indicating the presence of a railroad connection) and the distinct curve of the approaching dirt road towards the bridge. It was the road that stood out and was so familiar to me. With a bit of digging I located an identified photograph from the collection of the Rocky Hill Community Group that captured that same distinctive curved road and the “Lookout for the Locomotive” sign - a match! The A-Frame swing bridge had been replaced by a Kingpost, but this was Rocky Hill.

And thus my early holiday surprise! A perfect gift for the historian in your life! So look in those attics, basements and stored away boxes…you never know what treasures from the past might be revealed or photographs of our canal are packed away. My inbox is always open! Happy Holidays everyone!