Tintypes. c. 1890.
To the right is a picture of a girl who may or may not be a person by the name of Millie Card. Little is known about the young lady other than she played the violin, was ten years old in 1890, and lived in Brooklyn, New York. She’s also been a fixture of my junk drawer for the last twenty years. Let me explain.
The mystery of Millie Card and of this photograph (or tintype as they are known) began while I was tending to the affairs of a distant relative who had passed away. In the house of the deceased, I found resting conspicuously next to each other inside an old drawer an autograph book and an album of 19th century tintypes (pictured below). The autograph book we know to be the property of a person by the name of Millie Card, but the album of tintypes is of unknown origin. Ever since these items came into my possession, I’ve wanted to know whether the two had anything in common, specifically, if the pictures in the tintype album correspond with the people who have written in Millie’s autograph book and if Millie was among those faces pictured in the collection of tintypes.
Autograph Book
Tintype Album
Picture of a Doll.
Also found in the tintype album was this picture of
a doll. If this was Millie’s tintype album, this must have been her doll.
After some investigation, I've determined that there is no way of knowing for sure if these items are related. However, through the process of elimination, I have come to feel pretty confident that if Millie is indeed pictured in the tintype album, she would be the person seen above. So, is this Millie Card? I guess we’ll never know.
But it's interesting to note how a single page of Millie’s autograph book can capture a moment in time, essentially a snapshot of a conversation that must have taken place on February 20, 1890. On that date, Millie had her book signed by a man by the name of Joseph D. Phillips. After inviting him to sign it, Mr. Phillips must have asked, “What shall I write?” Millie most certainly replied, “just write anything.” And so he did. Seen below is the autograph that he wrote in Millie’s book.
