Two Young Men with Cigars

Title

Two Young Men with Cigars

Description

A portrait of two young men posing with cigars. One is seated with a crossed leg on a wide curule chair, while the other stands behind him. They look as if they are trying to project a jaunty carelessness, but neither of their cigars are lit and they both appear slightly awkward. The seated man wears a straw boater hat, a tweed suit and boots. The standing man wears a dark hat and suit with a lapel pin. There is what appears to be an oil cloth rug on the floor and a plain backdrop behind them. This photograph was taken by amateur photographer William Alonso Clapshaw, probably in a home studio. Several other photographs exist that were taken in the same setting. The men may be friends of the photographer. Flaws in the image are due to scratches and cracks in the emulsion layer on the negative.
This is one image from a set of glass plate negatives created by William Alonso Clapshaw. Clapshaw was a clerk and shopkeeper who lived near Forest Grove, Oregon for most of his life. He was born in 1880, probably at the family's home in the Hillside neighborhood of Forest Grove, on what is now Clapshaw Hill Road east of Gales Creek. Around 1910-1914, William took an interest in photography and created a set of glass plate negatives documenting scenes near his family's lands as well as images of himself, his friends and family members. He most likely used a silver gelatin dry plate process. The photographs were donated to the Pacific University Archives in 2023.

Creator

Clapshaw, William Alonso, 1880-2007

Date: Display

circa 1910-1914

Identifier

PUA_MS154_029

Subject

Portraits

Place

Forest Grove, Oregon
Gales Creek, Oregon

Medium

Gelatin silver negatives

Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Source

Pacific University Archives