When Ole Johnson passed away at ninety-four years of age, it is likely that his family commissioned a photographer to produce this memorial cabinet card. Due to the commonality of the name Ole Johnson (especially in the North Central states where many Scandanvians settled) , research yielded no biographical information about the Mr. Johnson pictured in this photograph. To view other Remembrance cabinet cards, click on the category “Memorial Card”.
This cabinet card served as a memorial to the gentleman pictured in the image. The photograph was taken by the Mosher Gallery of Chicago, Illinois. The cabinet card is dated 1891. This cabinet card is particularly interesting because the Brisbois International Memorial Portrait Company is also listed as producing the photograph. Research revealed no information about the Brisbois Company. Was Brisbois a subsidiary of Mosher’s gallery? Printed on the center bottom of the card, is an advertisement stating that the Memorial Portraits could be purchased at the cost of five dollars per dozen. It seems rather unseemly that the studio would put prices on the front of actual Memorial Cards purchased by grieving families. It is possible that this cabinet card was used as a sample to help sell Memorial Portraits to customers. Mosher was a well known and talented photographer. To learn more about him, click on the category “Photographer: Mosher”.
This cabinet card is a memorial photograph of J. W. Stubbs who was accidentally killed in Hong Kong. Stubbs was a stoker (tended to the engine) aboard the H.M.S. Astraea. He died in 1912 and this cabinet card was made by his shipmates in his memory. The image of this smiling and handsome 20 year-old sailor, who died tragically, evokes much sadness. The Astraea was a cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was commissioned for service in 1895 and was active in World War I. She was scrapped in 1920. The photographer who made this memorial card was A. Hing of Hong Kong.
This memorial cabinet card was published in loving memory of James Baker Foster (age 26) and his sister, Mary Aurora Foster (age 20). They both died in 1918, less than two months apart. The publisher of the card was H. F. Wendell, of Leipsie, Ohio.
