This week's theme is Heirloom...This very large portrait in its original frame and glass has been handed down for several generations and now hangs in my mother's dining room. Lester Franklin Hayes didn't always reside there...
Lester Franklin Hayes married Emma Lavinia King in 1908 in post earthquake San Francisco, California. They were my great grandparents. Lester was the only son of Franklin Hayes and Sallie Crawford Hayes who lived at 3818 22nd Street in San Francisco. Sallie lived in that home until her death in 1940. Lester lived there until his death in 1969. We have several furniture heirlooms from this home, but this portrait has the most interesting history. I also ended up doing a little bit of research into the process of enlarging cabinet card photographs at the turn of the century to learn more about this picture.
In the earliest days of photography, the only way to produce a large image would be to use a large negative – generally made of glass – that would come into direct contact with the photographic paper. To satisfy customer demands for larger photographs without having to use big cumbersome negatives, solar enlargers were invented to project a small negative onto a larger sheet of paper using sunlight.
Photographic prints created with the enlargement process had a few problems. Flaws in the negatives were amplified, images tended to be out of focus around the edges and they were prone to fading. Because of these issues, nearly all enlargements were retouched with crayons and paints. Even as the technology and resulting prints improved, the colorful retouching had become a desirable trait in enlarged photographs and by the end of the 19th century, these types of prints were not considered finished until they had been hand-colored. https://indianahistory.org/blog/painting-or-photograph-it-might-be-both/
Franklin and Sallie doted on their son and must have hung this picture in a special place in their home on 22nd Street in San Francisco. The coloring looks like it was done with chalk or pastel and more attention was paid to the face than the background or clothing. The noticeable detail in the original photograph is not there. Lester's eye color changed from blue to brown. The original glass is very old and wavy, the gilded frame has a velvet surround and is very beautiful. It must have been a statement piece, for sure.
When Lester Hayes passed away, two of his daughters, Dorothy and Fran, took items out of the home they thought other family members might be interested in. This portrait ended up in my grandmother's home (Lester and Emma's youngest daughter Betty), but there was one problem with it. My great grandmother and Lester had divorced in 1924 and Lester was not spoken of after that in our family. So, the picture was given to my mother with the proviso that it wouldn't be hung anywhere where Nana (Emma) could see it. Lester Hayes stayed under my parents' bed in Nevada City, California, until the mid 70's.
At that time good family friends purchased a quaint Victorian home in Nevada City. After their renovation of the home was completed, Lester Hayes was prominently hung in their back parlor directly over the antique square piano. He had found a temporary home and fit right in with the period furnishings. He was often a topic of discussion when ever company came over, and had a much more interesting life there than under the bed. I can remember attending birthday parties and playing in that house, since I was close friends with the family's daughter. At that time, I really had no idea who this boy was, essentially watching me grow up from his perch above the piano.
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