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| Nellie Coutant, "February Thaw" or "An Indiana Road" (both titles written on the back), 5.5"x7", silver print, from the Crawfordsville District Public Library Collections Notice the tree trunks have been re-touched to create more separation of the individual trees in the dark forest. You can tell the snow is not fresh at all, as though hundreds of horse-drawn buggies have passed. You can see one inn use toward the center of the image, pulled to the side of the road. This undated photograph is unusual in Nellie's work, so I have always kept it in the back of my mind. |
Nellie Coutant, born in the early 1870s in Crawfordsville Indiana, was a well known young woman in that city of about 6500 people in the 1890s. The social lives of young people are well documented in the newspapers of this time period, and Nellie is listed as a guest or co-host at all kinds of events, from dances, holiday parties, weddings, funerals, fraternity events, and country picnics. Nellie and the seven other high school graduates of her class (all women) were often listed as the most sought-after ladies at these parties, particularly for the all-male college students that came from near and far to attend Wabash College. Many of the women who seemed to be Nellie's closest friends married graduates from the college, and moved away from Crawfordsville, following their husband's careers. Nellie may have had serious suitors, but all seem to have moved on, and most of her friends were married and moved away by the turn of the century.
It is impossible to tell exactly when Nellie started taking pictures. According to an essay she wrote in 1904 in the Bausch and Lomb Contest Souvenir Catalog,
My first attempts at photography were made merely out of politeness, a friend having presented me with a pocket Kodak with a request that I become "an expert photographer." After using it a few times, a vague idea of making real pictures with the tiny thing entered my mind." (Bausch and Lomb Souvenir Catalog, 1904, author's collection).
When did this vague idea enter her mind?
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| Nellie's Essay in Bausch and Lomb's Souvenir Catalogue, 1904 |
She is reported as having won prizes for her photography in September 1897 at a Crawfordsville Fair. According to the Crawfordsville Weekly Journal, the Amateur Photographic Work prizes were divided between George Gregg*, May Kline [sic]** and Nellie Coutant.
Could one of these two have given Nellie a camera or taught her photography?
George Gregg (1875-1906), a blacksmith, was the much-younger brother of Orpheus Gregg (1848-1927), a business partner with Nellie's dad in the 1890s. George's older nephew, Orpheus's son, Frederick Gregg (1873-1910), graduated from Wabash College in 1893. He threw himself a graduation party, covered by the Crawfordsville Daily Journal (May 27, 1893). It was the kind of event a business partner would be expected to attend, likely with his family and 21 year old daughter, Nellie. According to the paper, "the favors to the guests were both appropriate and beautiful, being tiny photographs of the college buildings and ground, and were executed by the host himself, who is a photographic artist of no mean ability." Was that "party favor", a tiny photo album***, something that started a conversation, that led to a gift of a camera? Perhaps Fred taught both Nellie and George about the joys of photography, and both entered the 1897 fair contests at the same time.
May Klein was a year younger than Nellie, and attended many of the same parties in the 1890s. May was one of the few women in Nellie's circle who stayed in town, performing as a singer with a quartet, and didn't marry until age 66. May Klein entered photography contests in Paine's Photographic Magazine, which had monthly prizes in various categories. This magazine is where Nellie won many of her cash prizes. May's first image published, "The Yountsville Hill", was the first prize Landscape image in the month of May 1900. Notice anything about it?
According to the contest results, this image was "taken about noon on a cloudy day in March" on a 6.5" x 8.5" negative (p. 68). Nellie's image is now in the Crawfordsville Public Library, and may never have been submitted for a contest, nor published. One assumes May would have seen it in person, if Nellie's version was first. Nellie labeled her image "February Thaw", while May's image was made in March. Was Nellie's from the month before, or a whole different year? It seems remarkable for each woman to have arrived at the same part of the road and framed her view so similarly, without having seen the other's.
Nellie had already been winning prizes in the magazine a few months before May did. One of her first awards was for an article, one of a few in her lifetime, about "flashlight" photography. It appeared in the June issue of 1899.
Nellie was learning with a "camera fiend" and another woman, and working with her sister, Mary Coutant, in her home darkroom. Whether he was Fred and George may never be known, and neither seem to have been involved with the magazine contests. May Klein was entering the same contests as Nellie, and won the category award at least twice (once for the above image), and received honorable mention at least six other times between 1900-1902. Then her photographic trail runs cold. Nellie's first published image (I can find) appeared in December of 1898 in Ladies Home Journal, but her most productive years appear to be 1898-1904, and less so until 1911 when they suddenly disappear.****
Nellie's photography output outlasted May's by nine years before also disappearing. Long enough for her membership and work in the national camera clubs to leave a trace that could be noticed by a graduate student in 1985 named Gillian Greenhill. Gillian contacted the Crawfordsville Library looking for Nellie's images with no success. Her letter was the first to go in a new file folder about Nellie, and the librarians have been adding bits to it ever since.
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* George Gregg (1875-1906) - This fellow led me on a scandal goose chase, as most historic figures with legal cases do. If you were interested in historic soap-opera scandal, search Gregg v. Gregg. The young Mr. Gregg married June, and moved her into his house with his mother, Sarah. June left him and the couple divorced (in 1901) after only 3 years, while June was pregnant with their first child. In 1904 June Gregg sued Sarah Gregg for ruining the marriage and for "turning her husband against her." The case law review is a pretty good read to get the idea, but historic Indianapolis newspaper articles, available on Google, describe how Sarah encouraged her son to see other women while June was out of town (by inviting them to stay in the house), told him their child was by another man, and was a big meanie. It eventually led to George becoming abusive to June, and denying his child. Anyway June won $3,000 in the suit! (About equivalent to $87,000 today)
** May Klein (1873-1945) has been tricky to research, as her name is often misspelled as Kline in the Crawfordsville Newspapers and census; once I even saw it as Cline! Her late-in-life marriage meant an unexpected name-change, so finding her death certificate was an adventure. Suffice it to say, she is Alice May Klein Duckworth, born May 8, 1873 to Madison and Alice (Smith) Klein in Crawfordsville, Indiana; married to Harry W. Duckworth, 68, in 1939; passed away May 21, 1945 at 72 years old, Crawfordsville, Indiana. She appears to have lived her whole life at 509 E. Wabash Ave., likely born in the house, but passed away in a hospital. Mr. Duckworth died at their Wabash home September 1, 1949.
*** I want one! Or at least want to see one. I wonder if any still exist?
**** This isn't to say there wasn't some other photographic publication she was submitting to that hasn't been digitized yet. I did find evidence she submitted to unusual opportunities, like the Ohio Farmers Association. As more magazines are scanned, new niches appear. Most of the latest images I have found are from the Ladies Home Journal!
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