Shown at perhaps five or six years of age, Carolyn Rodgers, (1.) the daughter of Hartford, CT amateur photographer Clarence Maxwell Rodgers, 1871-1950, is shown clutching a bouquet of Iris flowers while sporting a hat festooned with flowers. This photograph won several awards for the photographer, a member of The Hartford Scientific Society (founded 1885) who at the time worked as an insurance draughtsman (2.) in Hartford, which grew into a major center for the Insurance business in the United States.

The photograph is presented here in its original quarter-sawn oak frame with the following particulars included on four labels on the frame verso:

label #1: printed: CURTIS H. MOYER

PICTURES AND FRAMES

45 PRATT ST

HARTFORD, CONN.

label #2: typed: From the Photographic Section of 

The Hartford Scientific Society,

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Hartford, Conn. U.S.A.    No 7

Exhibited by,  Clarence M Rodgers (ink)

Title   Iris (ink)

Number of pictures in the exhibition,   8 (ink)

Return by express.

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For the Second Salon of the Toronto Camera Club. 

label #3: printed: The Fourth Chicago Photographic Salon

Chicago, Ill.

Title   “Iris” (ink)

Name of Exhibitor   Clarence M. Rodgers (ink)

Address   Hartford, Conn. (ink)

Return by   Express (ink)

(Freight, Express or otherwise)”   (printed exhibition label: 155)

label #4: typed: 1st. prize, Portraits, and Silver Cup

for best picture exhibited, Hartford, 1903.

Chicago Salon,       1903.

In graphite on support below labels: Carolyn Rodgers

Exhibited: “Iris”: The Fourth Chicago Photographic Salon: December 29, 1903-January 24, 1904. Entry #155 (lone entry) by Clarence M. Rodgers of Hartford, CT and reproduced full page in halftone in salon catalogue.

“Iris” exhibited in the Second Salon of the Toronto camera club, thirteenth annual exhibition (1904) March 29th to April 2nd, inclusive, 1904.

Review: From the March issue of the Photo-Beacon for 1904 commenting on the Salon: “Clarence M. Rodgers had a sweet study of a child.”

Provenance: Purchased for this archive in August, 2021 from a Florida dealer who stated it was included with other pictures and documents related to several generations of related families, (including a gentleman named Richard Blanchard) covering the years from roughly the mid-late 19th Century through the mid-20th Century.

1. Carolyn Hanmer Rodgers Brown: 1896-1989

2. 1900 U.S. Census: Clarence Maxwell Rodgers was living at 15 Beacon Street in Hartford, CT. In 1905; The British Journal Photographic Almanac and Photographer’s Daily Companion lists him as being the Hartford Scientific Society’s Secretary of the Photographic Section and a member of its Executive Committee. An insurance draughtsman was one skilled at drawing engineering or architectural plans.