The Shockoe ExaminerBlogging the History of Richmond, Virginia: Layton's Studio photographs,, Richmond, Virginia, 1926.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Layton's Studio photographs,, Richmond, Virginia, 1926.

This photograph proof (and the second one below) were sent through the mail in June of 1926 from the Layton's Studio photographers of 507 E. Broad Street to a Mrs. N. Blakemore of 15 E. Grace Street - about 5 blocks away. Nine decades later they ended up for sale on Ebay and I purchased them for a very modest sum.

This is one of two images sent to Mrs. N. Blakemore.

Front of the envelope - mailed June 1926 - nearly 90 years ago.

Back of the envelope.

I love their motto:

"IF YOU HAVE BEAUTY, WE TAKE IT.

IF NOT, WE MAKE IT."

- Ray

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: I have a Photo of my Grandfather taken by Layton Studios...
It was taken in 1914, and it shows Layton's address as 417 E. Broad Street, in Richmond; May 12, 2016 at 11:32 PM
Ray said...: Very neat. thanks.; May 16, 2016 at 10:46 AM
B Evans said...: Hello, I also have a photo of my great grandparents from 1914 , that shows the address as 417 E. Broad St. Would love to know if they may he connected in some way. Please contact me at bme_804@yahoo.com and I'll send over the picture/s. Thanks!; October 25, 2017 at 3:29 PM
Anonymous said...: I have a portrait of a small child, maybe 3 years old, from Layton Studios.
It was turned into a postcard. I know it's a family member, but have no clue who.
Anyone keep records? Like an ancestor of those who owned it?; January 5, 2019 at 7:54 PM

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Contributors:

Ray Bonis:

Ray worked at VCU Libraries' James Branch Cabell Library from 1989 until 2021. He is the co-author of Virginia Commonwealth University (2006) and Greetings from Richmond (2009) - an architectural history of the city.

Selden Richardson:

Architectural historian and author of Built By Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia (2006), The Tri-State Gang in Richmond: Murder and Robbery in the Great Depression. (2012), and Richmond Murder & Mayhem (2023)

On History:

"The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today...The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow."
-- G. M. Trevelyan (1876-1962) from his "Autobiography of an Historian," An Autobiography and Other Essays (1949).

Key Dates in Richmond History
(more to follow)

1737 – William Mayo laid out the original street plan for the town of Richmond on land provided by William Byrd II.

1742 – Chartered as a town

1780 – Virginia’s state capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond.

1782 – Incorporated as a city.

1788 - Virginia State Capitol building completed.

1860-1865 – Serves as capital of the Confederate States of America.

1910 - Manchester, the city located just south of the James, is consolidated with Richmond.

1949 - Oliver Hill (1907-2007) elected to City Council, first African American since Reconstruction.

1968 - Virginia Commonwealth University created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia and Richmond Professional Institute.

1977 - Henry Marsh elected as first African American mayor of Richmond.

2009 – Shockoe Examiner founded.