Howes Brothers Revisited

It has been one hundred years since three brothers, Alvah, Walter and George Howes traveled throughout Southern New England photographing a wide variety of subjects. Starting in 1886 they traveled as a team soliciting customers in cities, towns and on farms. They charged their customers one dollar for three prints. People in every conceivable profession were photographed with an 8 X 10 large format view camera that they carried with them in a wagon. Families posed in front of their homes with their prized possessions, farm animals and family pets. In the twenty year span of their careers they amassed a collection of over twenty thousand negatives!

Fortunately this dryplate archive of turn-of-the-century photographic negatives is being conserved by The Howes Brother Photographic Preservation Project. It is the largest collection of its type in America and offers a bonanza of research information for many varied disciplines.

This site will show you eighteen locations in Northampton Massachusetts and two locations in the adjacent town of Florence that the Howes brothers photographed. I have revisited the locations and re-photographed them in color with a 35 mm camera. Whenever possible I tried to have the current residents pose in front of their homes. Several people posed with their cherished cats, however, I was unable to get any oxen, chickens or hogs as the Howes brothers had.

Many of the homes are in excellent condition. In several cases the original woodwork is visible on porches and in fish-scale shingles, as well as other architectural details such as large window panels of beveled glass. It is interesting to note that some of the same trees appear in both the Howes photographs and mine, in particular the maple tree in front of 77 Warner Street.

Visit our online research section to view the complete Northampton area Howes Brothers Collection of 737 images.  Or for a look at the Howes brother's career see: New England Reflections 1882-1907 Photographs by the Howes Brothers, edited by Alan B. Newman and published by Pantheon Books, N.Y., or contact the Ashfield Historical Society, Ashfield, Massachusetts. All of the descriptive, text with the exception of 252 Bridge Street, comes from the register of Historic Northampton, Northampton Massachusetts.

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• 408 Bridge Road, Florence
• 593 Elm Street, Florence
• 77 Warner Street
• 71 Washington Avenue
• 101 Washington Avenue
• 22-24 Washington Place
• 90 Franklin Street
• 108 Franklin Street
• West Farms Schoolhouse
• 25 Conz Street
• 32 Conz Street
• 33-35 Conz Street
• 38 Fruit Street
• 29 Arlington Street
• 19 Arlington Street
• 17 Arlington Street
• 274 Bridge Street
• 252 Bridge Street
• 323 Bridge Street
• 280 Bridge Street

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