Joe's Family

As I mentioned in the previous post Joe was the second son born to Barnet and Esther, Charles was the oldest and Meyer was the third. In 1894 Louis Leonard was born in New York City and in 1900 Clara Gittel was born in Bridgeport, CT.

The oldest photograph of a member of his family, I believe, is this photograph of his father in Russia. This was printed on photographic paper and mounted on card-stock.

 

Barnet Shapiro about 1882 at 30

The photograph of his mother and his older brother Charles was taken in Russia just before they immigrated to the United States in 1884. This is a celluloid photograph adhered to tin. The process was a common method used for portraits and family photographs at that time. Today it remains in excellent condition and will most likely outlast most of our family photographs from the past 70 years.

Esther and Charles in about 1882 before they leave Russia for America.

This early photographic process eventually was part of the photographic technique patented by Kodak just at the turn of the century.