Photographer_________

Lamson Nature Prints, Thompson Art Company, Portland, Maine

Title:

Lakeside Birches

Date:

c1900-05

Medium:

Platinum print with applied color on period mount with original frame and backing

Size of Image:

5 1/2 x 3 7/8 nches

Size of Mount:

10 x 8 inches

Condition:

Rich warm tonal image, sharp and clean, hand applied color, signed and titled below image, light discoloring to mount at bottom right edge, photographer’s latel on back of frame.

Other:

Handsome hand colored platinum print of a stand of birches by an unidentified lake from the Lamson Studio, Portland, Maine.

The Lamson Studio was the culmination of a remarkable family of photographers beginning with Joseph Harrison Lamson (1840-1901) one of the earliest successful Maine photographers noted in the following obituary:

Death of a Veteran Photographer.  We regret to learn of the death of Mr. J.H.  Lamson, one of the oldest photographers in Main.  His father was a maker of daguerreotypes, and his mother an artist, so that he came naturally by his photographic and artistic instinct and training.  He started in business in Bangor, Me., and from there, at the age of about twenty-one or two, went to Cuba, where he engaged in the photographic business with great success.  For some years he did business in the different parts of the West Indies and South America, and made quite a little fortune, which he invested in the photograph business in Philadelphia.  He was also very successful in that city, but while on a visit to his brother in Portland, Me., during the summer time, was so much taken with the beauty of this locality as to establish himself there, selling out his Philadelphia business to Gutekunst.  About twelve years ago his health demanded a change and he removed to California, where he was engaged in business for about six years, part of this time being associated with Steekle in the firm of Steekle & Lamson.  He had the misfortune to be involved in the boom in California at that time and lost his accumulations of a lifetime, and thought it best to return to Portland, where his reputation was so well established.  He has photographed many of the prominent men of this country, and his portraits of Longfellow and Whittier are the best that have been made of those poets.  About six months before his death the Studio was incorporated and increased capital put into it, thus enabling it to enlarge in many directions, so that at the time of his death it was in fine condition to continue, and is at the present time being conducted very successfully as a company under the management of his two sons, J. Harry Lamson and Frank Lamson.

Frank Lamson (1875-1908) passed away at the young age of 32 in Pasadena, California

Joseph Harry Lamson, Jr (1873-1962) 

There are numerous entries in the photographic publications of the era that hold Lamson’s credit and copious advertisements for the services of his studio.   Fred Thompson purchased the Lamson Studio and rights to the images in 1905 and continued to publish them for some time.