Born in Germany, the American amateur photographer Jeanette Bernard’s adopted daughter Minnie Fennel (b. 1880) is shown here resting on a rake with her terrier dog nearby in the garden of her Queens, New York home. She watches a gentleman (perhaps a hired man) prepare to move a wheelbarrow-full of dead branches collected from over the winter months during spring preparation of the garden.

The quality of this photograph also indicates it was most likely made from the original glass plate negative acquired by the Culver picture Service c. 1935-40:

Mrs. Jeanette Bernard, a devoted amateur photographer who, for ten years or more, kept a detailed camera record of her family’s life in their quiet neighborhood in the Borough of Queens shown at left. Mr. D. Jay Culver acquired hundreds of her glass negatives from a dealer in old glass about fifteen years ago- a collection which gives an unsurpassed picture of middle-class life at the turn of the century. Unfortunately he has no record of what street the Bernard’s lived on or who the people in the pictures are. (1.)

print notes verso:  titled in ink: Cleaning up the yard in Spring; red, triple oval Culver Service stamp on pasted white label; black ink stamp:

Culver Pictures, Inc.
660 First Avenue
New York, 16, N.Y.

1.excerpt: Jeanette Bernard biography: in: ‪The Columbia historical portrait of New York‬: ‪an essay in graphic history in honor of the tricentennial of New York City and the bicentennial of Columbia University‬: by John Atlee Kouwenhoven: 1953: Doubleday:  p. 443. For updated biographical details of Jeanette Bernard’s life in Queens, New York, see also:  “Queens’ own pioneer woman photographer”: in: Queens Chronicle, by Chronicle contributor Ron Marzlock: publication date: September 19, 2013. An original vintage example of this photograph with alternate title Woman and Man Gardening in collection of the George Eastman House: NEG: 40724: 83:2640:0025