{"id":1427,"date":"2022-10-13T06:21:37","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T06:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2022-10-13T14:46:21","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T14:46:21","slug":"investigating-a-mystery-photo-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/2022\/10\/13\/investigating-a-mystery-photo-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating a Mystery Photo Album"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

By Anna Denman, senior History major, Fall 2022 Archives Intern<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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A mystery photo album, separated from it’s collection, provides many clues about it’s owners and Athens past.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After the Mahn Center staff introduced me to the many internship project options available for the fall 2022 semester, I was immediately intrigued by the unidentified photo album. Who were the people smiling, laughing, and posing in these photographs that appeared to be at least one hundred years old? I am always surprised to see people look so casual and relaxed in photographs from that long ago. I expect stiff, barely smiling family portraits, rather than images of young friends dressed in costumes or children making funny faces for the camera. As is demonstrated by the pile of photos laying across the women in the photograph below, the people in these images took many photographs of family, friends, and the places they visited. Capturing moments and memories was important to them, as is made clear by the creation and preservation of this photo album.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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O’Bleness photo album. Three women sitting under a pile of photographs. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To begin investigating this mysterious photo album, I searched for clues to when and where the photographs were taken as well as who the subjects where. The clothing appeared to be a late Victorian style, and many of the homes looked Victorian as well. After researching ladies\u2019 dress styles from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, I deduced that these photographs must have been taken between 1885 and 1915.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I then found an image of a home office with a calendar hanging on the wall in the background, which appeared to be flipped to July of 1903. Other photos that appear later in the album can be seen placed on the desks in this photograph as well, indicating that those images were taken before that date. A more obvious clue to the period of these images was the label \u201cFeb 1906, Indianola, Iowa,\u201d on a loose photograph tucked into the back of the album.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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O’Bleness photo album. Group portrait of young women in front of a home. Second from left has been identified as Ada O’Bleness. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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O’Bleness photo album. Home office with calendar hanging on the wall and photographs from the album placed on the desk. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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O’Bleness photo album. One of six photographs tucked into the back of the album. Labeled “Feb 1906 Indianola, Iowa.” MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I then found a small card with the name \u201cMrs. Harry C. O\u2019Bleness\u201d written across it. Could this album have belonged to the O\u2019Bleness family? All I knew about the O\u2019Bleness family at this point was that the OhioHealth O\u2019Bleness Hospital here in Athens, Ohio was named after the family or some member of the family. With a little research, I found an article in The Athens Messenger<\/em> that details the history of O\u2019Bleness Hospital and healthcare in Athens County. According to this article, the hospital was named after Charles O\u2019Bleness, a successful banker and Athens local who donated one million of the 1.7 million dollars used to open the hospital.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Mahn Center staff provided me with the O’Bleness Family Collection consisting of boxes of photographs, letters, wedding invitations, diplomas, pieces of hair, and more that were donated by Elizabeth O\u2019Bleness, wife of Charles O\u2019Bleness, in 1975. A combination of these documents and searches on genealogy platforms such as WikiTree revealed that Harry Clifford O\u2019Bleness was the oldest brother of Charles Garnett O\u2019Bleness, Ralph Alphonso O\u2019Bleness, and Mary (Mame) Lulu Hutchinson O\u2019Bleness. Images of the four O\u2019Bleness children, their parents Henry G O\u2019Bleness and Josephine M. (Shearer) O\u2019Bleness, and other friends and family cover the pages of this photo album.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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O’Bleness photo album. Mrs. Harry C. O’Bleness card. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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O’Bleness children: Left is Harry and Charles O’Bleness, center is Ralph O’Bleness, right is Mame O’Bleness. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I quickly became intrigued by the youngest brother, Ralph O\u2019Bleness, who seemed to disappear from the photo album and other O\u2019Bleness family photographs at a young age. Using genealogy platforms, I discovered that Ralph died at the age of 19 in 1898 due to spinal injuries resulting from a collision with another player at football practice. A notice for his funeral services that I found in his records confirmed this story. Ralph was a member of one of Ohio University\u2019s first ever football teams. A photograph of two of his teammates can be found in the back of the photo album. I found a picture of Ralph in his uniform in the O\u2019Bleness family records that was clearly taken the same day as this photograph of his teammates. These photographs show the joyful moments that the members of the O\u2019Bleness family shared.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The silly candid photographs of Charles, Ralph, and Mame playing dress-up provides a glimpse into their youth and the connections they shared with each other, but so many questions are left unanswered. How did Ralph\u2019s passing affect the family? Why was Harry, the oldest sibling, absent from so many of the photographs of his siblings but still present in the rest of the photo album?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Despite all the questions I have already answered, each new image has me even more intrigued about this family and their stories.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Clockwise from top left: Group portrait of the Ohio University football team, 1897. Ralph O’Bleness is second from the left in the second row; Ralph in his football uniform; Pete McLaren (left), Ralph (center), and unknown football player; Ralph, Charles, Mame, and others dressed in costumes; Ralph’s funeral notice. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As I continued to match images from the O\u2019Bleness family\u2019s records to images in the photo album, I recognized the locations in some of the images that were taken here in Athens. For example, there are multiple images from the album that were taken of uptown Athens and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument that still sits on the College Green today.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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O’Bleness photo album. Soldiers and Sailors Monument at Ohio University. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The O\u2019Bleness family were already prominent members of the Athens community by the time this monument was erected in 1893. There are also multiple photographs of what would have then been called the \u201cAthens Asylum for the Insane\u201d or the \u201cAthens State Hospital.\u201d This complex that we now call \u201cThe Ridges\u201d began operations as a mental hospital in 1874, which is what it would have been used as when the O\u2019Bleness family captured these images.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I then came across an image in the album of Henry O\u2019Bleness, Harry O\u2019Bleness, and a man named Carl Fuller standing on the porch of the Athens Brick Co. office. A copy of this photograph in the O\u2019Bleness family records allowed me to identify the men and location in the image.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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O’Bleness photo album. Top: Henry, Harry, and Carl on the porch of the Athens Brick Co. office. Bottom: Athens State Hospital. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I later found a section of images in the album labeled \u201cSignal Station, Camp Cuba de Libre, Jacksonville, Fla.\u201d After some research, I determined that this was a military camp used in 1898 during the Spanish American War. I still do not know which members of the O\u2019Bleness family took these photographs of the camp or why they were there. In the coming weeks, I hope to continue identifying more of the images from this photo album, as there are still many that have left me puzzled.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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O’Bleness photo album. Signal Station, Camp Cuba de Libre, Jacksonville, Florida. MSS151 O’Bleness Family Collection, Ohio University Libraries.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Works consulted:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Hulvalchick, Alex. “O’Bleness Celebrates Its Century-long History.”<\/a>\u00a0The Athens <\/em>Messenger<\/em>\u00a0(Athens, OH), July 12, 2021. Accessed September 30, 2022.
\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anna Denman, senior History major, Fall 2022 Archives Intern After the Mahn Center staff introduced me to the many internship project options available for the fall 2022 semester, I was immediately intrigued by the unidentified photo album. Who were the people smiling, laughing, and posing in these photographs that appeared to be at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,6],"tags":[63,64,65,17],"class_list":["post-1427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internships","category-manuscript-collections","tag-athens","tag-obleness-family","tag-photography","tag-student-project"],"modified_by":"Janet Carleton","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1459,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions\/1459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}