• Father's Day-WhatsUP June 20 - 03:16 am

This is Arthur Kettley, originally from England, who migrated with his family to Canada, and finally made his way to the States. A couple of generations later, my wife was one of his great-grandchildren. Thank-you, Great Grand-Dad Kettley.

Arthur served in combat in the Boer War in South Africa, where he rubbed shoulders with a young war correspondent named Winston Churchill. By the way, our son's wife is currently in Africa, on a medical mission trip to Uganda. When she returns, they will move to Neguanee, to pursue clinical studies at Marquette. You've seen Jonathan and Katriina on the Pasty Cam several times before, like on the deck of the Keweenaw Star:

Good morning !!!!

Happy Fathers Day to all dads out there. Remembering my dad who has been gone 1 1/2 yrs.

Very handsome man. Is that a bathing suit he's wearing? I wish I had one like that. I need to cover as much as possible.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!
Charli, great pic from the past of your wife's great grandfather...what history.
NKR, great idea for a bathing suit, that would be guarenteed to hide all our bulges. ;)

Happy Father's Day! What an outfit

Hold the presses! I just discovered today's Shoebox Memory had been stored in 2 files, so I had forgotten the entire view is available. Here is a better look for all of you Chain Drive enthusiasts:

Very insteresting picture that brings up a few questions. It would appear that the background is a studio prop and his right elbow appears too far away to hold him in that position. How in the world did they manage to get him to be able to hold that position on a bike long enough to get a picture. I don't think they had the technology in those days to dub in a background but maybe they did. Anyone have ideas as to how it was done. Maybe we should just enjoy the picture for what it is and stop nitpicking.
Anyway Happy Fathers Day to all.

Maybe that's a rock prop that his left foot seems to maybe be
partly covering. Notice how little (at least in appearance) bicycles
have changed since this picture was taken: toe clips, drop
handlebars, single speed direct drive (think racing track bikes),
doesn't look like there's any brakes, and what a place for the
bell, could really ring your "ahem" bells. Great-grandpappy must
have been a tall one, that frame looks pretty big (going by the
steering tube length). Wonder what make they used for this
studio prop?

Cool picture and even cooler that it's in someone's family. So many folks have lost those bits of their family history....

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Hi all,

The picture is an albumen print from the very early 1900's. In that time, studio backrounds were almost always used, and no, they didn't have the technology to dub in a backround so flawlessly (not like we do now). If you look closely at the picture, the back wheel of the bike is up against the backdrop which has been raised up on a wall so the wheel won't leave a mark on it; thus leaving a plain band underneath the backdrop which is the wall it's hung on. The wall meets the ground just behind and below the back wheel. With his wheel against the wall, the rider could hold this position easily long enough for the image to be captured.

I do a lot of photo restorations, and the photographers were pretty clever at setting stuff like this up.

Just so you know....

Albumen print?
They used egg whites in the photo process?
(albumen: the white of an egg; the nutritive and protective gelatinous substance surrounding the yolk consisting mainly of albumin dissolved in water)

Very ingenious and thanks for the explanation. It took some doing to get the desired results in those days.

From an 1850 or so description of the process..
by a photographer named LeGray.

Take white of eggs, to which add the fifth part, by volume, of saturated solution of chloride of sodium, or what is still better, hydrochlorate of ammonia; then beat it into a froth, and decant the clear liquid after it has settled for one night...

and using Whatman's paper, you may obtain a reddish purple tint very harmonious. Canson's papers, and usually all those which contain much amidine, give black tints.


It was used to tint and varnish early photo paper
it seems..

The bike looks likeit has metal rims on the wheels instead of the old wooden rims which were common. It also looks like it uses bead type tires with tubes instead of sew-ups which had no beads and were tubeless. As for brakes an aquaintence of mine who is now passed away always rode with no brakes he claimed on a competition bike the only concession he made to the younger riders ( he was in his sixtys and still riding competetivly)was he rode the lightest bike he could get. Ken used his left foot between the riser tube and the rear wheel for a rear brake and a hard palmed leather glove on the front wheel for front wheel braking

Just went into the What's UP page. There was an entry from
Mr. Wheatman. Have I missed something lately? Where is
he? I haven't read anything from him lately. The What's UP
page was from 2003, and I don't remember the last time he
made any entry. Loved that man's command of words.

The last time I had seen something from him was about a month ago, and before that I do not remember. I miss him also such a way with words.

Happy Father's Day to my Dad Dwight. I love you Daddy!!!

The upper left corner looks like it has a squished fly on it!!