Loomis and Lois Burrell

[winger]

Loomis and Lois (aka my great grandparents) lived in upstate New York and were involved in the dairy industry. His hobby was photography and she also made some pictures (many to use as studies from which to paint in watercolors). When my grandmother passed away in 2010, my parents were the main ones to clean out her house (which had been built in 1832 and in the family the whole time). Since I have a scanner and a darkroom, I got the negatives they found. Many are unlabeled. There was a big pile in an envelope simply labeled "1912" - they honeymooned in Europe that year.

So here are a few. I just don't want them to stay in the dark forever.

These first two I think were either done by Lois (known in the family as Geam) or at her direction.

 

[winger]

And these two just kinda struck me as cool.

 

[winger]

And just because, here's a family portrait taken in 1932. Loomis and Lois are seated and their daughters are standing. My grandmother (the oldest daughter) is on the left.

 

[mike c]

WOW, those are nice Photographs. The old negs I from my great uncle we found in a couple of shoe boxes, not as old as yours but from the 1920's to 1950's. What treasures they are.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

Your great grandparents took some very nice interesting images.

 

[BrianShaw]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing your family with us!

 

[Larry the sailor]

A treasure for sure.

More please!

 

[Peter Schrager]

Great eye..see where you get it!!

 

[winger]

Great eye..see where you get it!!

Thanks, Peter! What I think is VERY cool is that Lois met Loomis because she had degrees in biology and bacteriology when he asked Cornell for someone to help him. They met, she did research involving some of the earlier work on using bleach to sterilize dairy equipment, they married, and when she had their first daughter, she stopped officially working and started doing watercolors. She was also an avid gardener and possibly created her own crosses of various plants. Scientific mind and artistic outlets. The parallels to my path are uncanny.

I'll post more later and I might put some in a Flickr gallery or on Zenfolio publicly - not sure.

 

[pbromaghin]

Please do post more. These are wonderful.

 

[DWThomas]

This is really a wonderful treasure trove of family history to enjoy and preserve. And one can see a good eye and proper handling of technology runs in the family!

 

[bvy]

Loomis (great name, by the way) and Lois clearly weren't your average camera club camera hacks. Some of these are very artistic. Thanks for sharing.

 

[pdeeh]

this one could just as easily be Atget

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[MattKing]

Please do post more. These are wonderful.

I totally agree.

 

[dasBlute]

beautiful images, thanks for sharing!

 

[dasBlute]

this one could just as easily be Atget

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

+1

 

[Pioneer]

These are really good. I just put this thread on my watch list. I look forward to seeing more.

 

[cowanw]

Wow some one had a great eye.
Do you think the portrait was for a fancy dress ball for the house centenary? The outfits are not really 1932 (or are they in upstate New York?)
Wonderful!

 

[winger]

Do you think the portrait was for a fancy dress ball for the house centenary? The outfits are not really 1932 (or are they in upstate New York?)

You guessed it - house party for the house. Those dresses were still in trunks in the attic and I actually wore the one on the daughter in the back right for a fashion show in the 80s. The one I wore for the house party we had in 1982 isn't in that photo (and I'm NOT posting the shot of me in that one because it was the 80s and the hair is just, well, 80s).

 

[pentaxuser]

And just because, here's a family portrait taken in 1932. Loomis and Lois are seated and their daughters are standing. My grandmother (the oldest daughter) is on the left.

Amazing. To this Brit you could have said 1862 and I would not have questioned it. Real history here. To have any real living memory( as in young teenager) of even 1932 you have to be almost 100.

pentaxuser

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

If you have enough truly excellent images then maybe they could be organized into an eBook about great granny and grandpa. Hopefully, there's lots of historical documentation to fit with the imagery.

 

[winger]

Hopefully, there's lots of historical documentation to fit with the imagery.

I have some info, but not nearly as much as I wish I had. My grandmother likely would have answered most questions and been able to show me documents and whatever else, but I didn't think of it when she was around. Of course. I know I'm not the first to wish I'd asked more questions. I seem to have become one of the default family historians (a cousin or two are good at it, too).

Thanks all for the compliments - I need to choose a few more to post (and I think there are still more I haven't scanned).

 

[winger]

I just realized while doing a quick google search that today was Loomis' birthday, albeit in 1872.

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=58767434 (some of the info for relatives is incorrect, though)

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

Wow... that guy is OLD!!

 

[winger]

Here are a couple more. The trip in 1912 was to the Alps with a stop in Paris, from what I can tell from the photos.