Collectors treasure the beautiful color prints found on advertising calendars of  the early twentieth century, known as “The Golden Age of Illustration.”  But, as we know, many of those beautiful illustrations started as equally beautiful black and white photos by Beatrice Tonnesen and others.  Unfortunately, because the calendar companies that published the color prints usually discarded the original photos, we rarely see the two together.  Now, thanks largely to the recent discovery of an archive of Tonnesen’s original photos in her hometown of Winneconne, WI, we can match many of them with the color prints found in my collection and the collections of others. Sumner Nelson has scanned the original photos and restored them for display in the Beatrice Tonnesen Catalog.   Here, for your enjoyment, is a true “before and after” presentation of vintage calendar art .  See the accompanying slideshow, and match each photo with its resultant color print.

In many cases the lens of the camera catches details that are hidden behind imperfections in the development solution and printing process. Often, as in this eyeball, you can see the reflection of what appears to be the natural studio lighting with possibly some added lights, and the shadow of the camera and photographer in the middle. [Click on the image for an even closer view.]

The eyes are always special to me. I try to give them extra attention, because I know that I’m the only one who has looked into these eyes from so close in maybe 100 years. And nobody may ever look again. While I don’t give the whole image as detailed of a cleaning for basic web and preservation prep, out of respect I give the eyes special attention. It’s my way of saying “Hello and thank you.”

I doubt that someone will be able to look into my eyes at this close distance in 100 years.

[update edited 07/15/10]
These images represent the complete group of the scans that I did on my second visit to the Winneconne Historical Society. The entire contents of the Winneconne Historical Society collection of Beatrice Tonnesen images has now been digitized and is displayed in large versions in Album 15 of the Catalog on this site. Lois will be adding some information to each image that is viewable by rolling the cursor over the image.

Around 1922, Beatrice Tonnesen photographed a dark-haired beauty in Native American dress against a neutral background.  Photographs such as this one were in high demand for use by prominent illustrators who added backgrounds and details, producing the romanticized depictions of exotic and adventurous women that had caught the imagination of the calendar-buying public.  Best sellers featured Indian maidens paddling canoes near waterfalls, or standing dreamily amid forest or mountain landscapes.  Also popular were scenes of women in far-off places, costumed in pirate, gypsy or Egyptian garb.  Neither the costumes nor the women who wore them seem to have been authentically Native American or Egyptian.  Nor is it likely any real pirates or gypsies were involved!

Presumably, the subjects were simply local women, supporting or helping to support themselves by posing for artists and photographers.  And Tonnesen’s backgroundless Indian maiden photo, which ultimately became a woodsy calendar print by artist Homer Nelson, may have featured a Chicago beauty queen named Mary Simmonds. In 1921, Mary Simmonds (1896-1976) entered a beauty contest for residents of the midwest. Sponsored by The Chicago Tribune, it offered a total of $20,200 in prize money.  Simmonds didn’t win the big prize, but she was named “Chicago’s Most Beautiful Girl,” winning $1,000 and considerable publicity.

Tonnesen reportedly spared no effort to find the best and most beautiful models for her photos.  At least one other beauty queen (Beulah Clark Dunn) is known to have become a Tonnesen model and one of Tonnesen’s star child models, Jane Berghauer, had been runner-up in a “Most Beautiful Baby” contest.  So it seems probable that Tonnesen followed newspaper coverage of local beauty contests in search of models for her ongoing projects.

I found several photos of Mary Simmonds in the Chicago Tribune archives, and a good deal of biographical information.  Working as an office clerk, she lived at 1129 Sunnyside Avenue with her mother and her younger sister, Anna. Tribune writer Antoinette Donnelly offered a glowing description of Mary Simmonds, complimenting her remarkable eyes and pearly teeth, but adding somewhat oddly that she “…has a pair of ankles and feet that any girl would love to own.”   Later in 1921, Mary married James O’Grady who was assistant manager of the Marquette National Fire Insurance Company.  Census information indicates the pair continued to live in Chicago, raising six sons.

The original photo (See accompanying slideshow) from which Homer Nelson painted is owned by the Winneconne Historical Society.  Oshkosh Public Museum also has a photo that appears to show the same woman, but not as an Indian maiden.  Interestingly, a different photo from the OPM archive bears the notation “Simmonds,” but the photo appears to be of a different dark-haired woman.  This leads me to wonder if perhaps Mary’s sister Anna also modeled.

I’ve included the following images in the slideshow:  Tonnesen’s photo circa 1922 from Winneconne Historical Society (Note the model’s feet and ankles are on display here!); announcement of Mary Simmonds’ wedding , Chicago Tribune, November 9, 1921;  photo and article “Chicago’s Most Beautiful Girl” from Chicago Tribune, May 29, 1921; Photo by Moffett Studio, Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1921.  Comments, opinions and information from site visitors are welcomed!

For more information and a photo of Homer Nelson’s print, see our post dated June 8, 2009, titled “Homer Nelson Print Features Tonnesen’s Indian Maiden.”

Copyright (c) 2010 Lois Emerson

It appears to me that Ziegfeld Follies dancer Eva Grady, sometimes known professionally as Eva Brady, appeared in some of Beatrice Tonnesen’s work ca. 1918-20.  Of course, barring documentation from someone associated with either the model or Tonnesen herself, I’m never completely certain about these things.  But here’s how I came to believe that Tonnesen photographed one of Ziegfeld’s glamorous performers.

From about 1915 until about 1920 or so, fashion shows, known then as “style shows,” were very popular in Chicago and in communities throughout the mid-west.  I’ve discovered that photos of some of the era’s top artist models, including some whom I believe posed for Tonnesen, as well as famed illustrators such as Henry Hutt, Zula Kenyon, C. Allan Gilbert and others, can be found in the press coverage attendant to these events. A Chicago-based troupe of models would tour the mid-west, modeling each season’s fashions amid much fanfare including lavish parades, talent shows and speeches by local dignitaries. The events often lasted for several days, with daily, photo-filled newspaper features trumpeting them.  Several months ago, while searching an online newspaper archive, I came across an item in the September 27, 1919 issue of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette titled “Fort Wayne’s Great 1919 Style Show.”  Beneath the headline were photos of three of the featured models.  Two of them were models I’d seen and read about before – Adelyne Slavik and Mae Burns – women I believe to have modeled for Tonnesen.  The third model was identified as “Eva McGrady”, and though I’d never run across her name before, her face looked familiar!  She looked to me exactly like the woman gazing from a framed portrait that sat on a table in a 1920 photo I’d seen of Beatrice Tonnesen’s studio.  A follow-up story on the Fort Wayne Style Show corrected the model’s name to “Eva Grady.”  I routinely made a note of both names, attached it to the corresponding Tonnesen photo in my files and forgot all about Eva Grady.

But then, a few months later, I discovered that another possible Tonnesen model had appeared in a 1920 issue of Theatre Magazine.  Thumbing through the magazine in search of her photo, I came upon a feature about the (then) current Ziegfeld Follies production.  There, identified as “Eva Brady” was the woman I knew as “Eva McGrady/Grady.”  A quick search of the various Ziegfeld websites cleared up the confusion surrounding her names!  Eva Grady hailed from Chicago and danced in the Follies of 1920-22, sometimes under the name Eva Brady.  One site included information that she had previously been an artist model.  As a Ziegfeld Follies girl, she was photographed by the famed Alfred Cheney Johnston, and I found her photo in the book Jazz Age Beauties: The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston, by Robert Hudovernik (Universe Publishing 2006). Johnston also photographed Eva for a number of ads that appeared in Theatre Magazine.

Census information indicates Eva Grady was born in 1899.  In 1920, she was listed as living in Chicago with her family, including a younger sister, Dorothy.  In 1931, she married Robert Rice Reynolds (1884-1963), who was a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1933-1945.  Unfortunately, Eva died in December, 1934, her North Carolina death certificate listing tuberculosis as the cause.

The accompanying slideshow features images from my magazine and calendar collection, as well as some of Tonnesen’s photos for which I believe Eva modeled. I’ll be most interested in any opinions or information our site visitors have to offer!

Shown (L to R): Original black and white photo by Tonnesen from Winneconne Historical Society Collection, scan from the Beatrice Tonnesen Catalog, Album 15; color print by unknown illustrator based on the previous Tonnesen photo- shown on a 1921 calendar; a page from the September 1922 issue of Theatre Magazine showing Eva in fashion photos bottom and right; ad for Bonwit Teller photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnston from October 1920 issue of Theatre Magazine; Eva Brady top left as photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnston, as part of a feature on the Ziegfeld Follies in Theatre Magazine, August 1920; two photos by Tonnesen, both Courtesy Oshkosh Public Museum, Oshkosh WI, All Rights Reserved. (Image with dog is the photo Tonnesen had displayed in her studio.); ad for Dobbs apparel from Spur Magazine, September, 1920, signed Alfred Cheney Johnston.  Ziegfeld website identifies model as Eva Brady/Grady.

Copyright (c) 2010 Lois Emerson

It was shortly after receiving the March issue of Chicago Magazine in his mail that David Lloyd made a startling discovery. A photo of his wife’s grandmother, Beulah Clark Dunn, was prominently displayed on page 96. Alerted by her husband, and a bit skeptical, Rose Lloyd opened the magazine and immediately recognized the photo, by Beatrice Tonnesen, as identical to one she had stored safely among her family memorabilia.

I am deeply grateful to Rose for what she did next! With lightning speed, she rounded up nearly forty photos of her beautiful grandmother, scanned them and emailed them to me. She also provided biographical information, documents and news clippings that allow us a fascinating glimpse into the world of calendar and advertising art in the 1920’s. (See accompanying slideshow.)

Beulah Clark Dunn (1903-1996) won the Chicago Herald and Examiner’s Sweetheart of Chicago contest in 1920. This led to a string of public appearances, including the glamorous opening of the Chicago Theatre and a cover portrait on sheet music for “A Body Just Can’t Help But Loving You,” composed by Will Reider. News clippings from both the Herald and Examiner and The Chicago Tribune during the 1920-1922 time frame reveal she competed successfully in several of the city’s major beauty contests, which were all the rage at the time. In the meantime, her modeling career had taken off and she was seen in everything from millinery and cold cream ads to the art prints and photographs produced by Tonnesen and others for the booming calendar market.

In 1922, Beulah married Phillip J. Dunn, owner of Chicago’s Dunn Coal Company. They had two daughters, Marie (Rose’s mother) and Beulah Mae. Beulah Clark Dunn continued to model after her marriage, sometimes with her daughters. Marie, born in 1924, also modeled for fashion ads in the 1940’s.

Images of Beulah Clark Dunn are (L to R): Photo by Tonnesen, circa 1922, from which R. A. Fox painted “The Glory of Youth” (To view Fox’s painting, see image #3 in the slideshow below this one); an early calendar photo by an unidentified photographer; back of photo inscribed to Beulah by Beatrice Tonnesen and dated 1920; art print titled “Love’s Dawning” copyright Osborne Co. by an unidentified photographer; a photo illustration of Beulah and an unidentified child, signed MaiDai George, Lux Studio; photo for a hat ad (photographer unknown); front of  1920 photo inscribed by Tonnesen.

(C) 2010 Lois Emerson

Editor’s Note: There are new developments in the story of the “Glory of Youth” photo .  A reader who has an original of that photo has identified the model as her grandmother, Beulah Clark Dunn.  Interestingly, like Vera Hedderman whose story is told below, she was born in 1903 and won newspaper acclaim for her beauty.  The two models bore a resemblance to one another, and both posed for print art in the early ’20s. But it now appears that it was Beulah Clark Dunn who actually sat for the “Glory of Youth” photo.  Her story appears, above, in the post titled “Chicago Area Family…”  We thank the families of both models for generously sharing their stories and helping to enrich our understanding of the “Golden Age of Illustration.” – Lois, 4/22/10

No sooner had the March issue of Chicago Magazine, with its feature on Beatrice Tonnesen titled “Camera Obscura”, hit the newsstands than I received an email from Senior Editor Geoffrey Johnson, the article’s author. It seems a local resident, Bridget Roth, had spotted a woman she believed to be her grandmother among the many Tonnesen photos and prints that were featured! Naturally, I contacted Bridget immediately.

It was a circa 1922 Tonnesen portrait of a beautiful young woman, discovered last spring at the Winneconne (WI) Historical Society, that had caught Bridget’s eye. Chicago Magazine ran it alongside an image of a print by famous illustrator R. Atkinson Fox that he titled “The Glory of Youth.” Fox had obviously painted from Tonnesen’s photo. Both images looked to Bridget Roth like her grandmother, Veronica Josephine Hedderman Hanley (1903-1976), often known as Vera.

Bridget contacted her sister, Megan Hutchison, who emailed me images of the only two photos known to show Vera at around the time the Tonnesen photo was created. Apparently, their grandmother had been modest about her brief modeling career. In 1925, she had married an up and coming banker, Robert Emmett Hanley, and, like so many women of her time, she gave up her career and focused on his. The couple became the parents of seven children and 52 grandchildren!

Bridget and Megan remember their grandmother as having remained elegant and beautiful throughout her lifetime- not surprising in view of what I discovered as I researched Veronica Hedderman. In January, 1923, the Chicago Tribune named her one of “The Twelve Most Beautiful Women in Chicago.” The short bio accompanying her photo described her as “auburn-haired, blue-eyed, with intriguing long black lashes.”

Having received the two photos of Vera, I compared them to other photos and prints in my files. It turns out that there are four photos of the model believed to be Vera in the collection of the Winneconne Historical Society and another in the Tonnesen Archive of the Oshkosh Public Museum. I also have her image on several prints and advertising pieces in my own collection.

Shown in slideshow (L to R): Two family photos of Vera Hedderman; “The Glory of Youth” by RA Fox (Courtesy Pat Gibson); two Tonnesen photos-one showing the “Glory” model from a different view and one which may show the same model holding a fan.

(C) 2010 Lois Emerson

If you’ve read Geoff Johnson’s feature on Beatrice Tonnesen in the current (March) issue of Chicago Magazine, or listened to his WBEZ interview, you know that we have learned a great deal about Tonnesen’s work from the descendants of Tonnesen’s models.  In most cases, it seems, a great-aunt or a grandmother, or maybe a dimly-remembered cousin, left behind a stack of artfully composed black and white photos, all featuring that relative in his or her youth or young adulthood.  Tonnesen seems to have been in the habit of giving her models numerous photographic mementoes of their work.  Once a photo is located and can be verified as Tonnesen’s work, either through its contents or written notations, it can provide a treasure trove of clues to help us identify or date the other photos and prints in our collections, and even learn more about how the photos were created.

Your own attic may be hiding some of these forgotten, but historically significant, treasures!  If so, we’d love to see them and learn about the ancestor they feature.  Here’s some pertinent information to help, should you decide to make a search:

• The photos will look pretty much like the ones shown in the accompanying slideshow, which came from Album #15 of the Beatrice Tonnesen Catalog (Click at the top right of this page to see the entire album containing 106 images.)  Tonnesen’s photos were sometimes marked with a “T-” followed by a three or four-digit number.
• Tonnesen worked from about 1896-1930 in Chicago and she employed men, women and children of all ages as models.  Reportedly, she occasionally traveled elsewhere in search of models.  Models’ birthdates probably range from the mid-1800′s to the late 1920′s.
• She sometimes employed professional models, but often her models were people she met in everyday life.  Modeling was seldom the person’s main occupation.
• There were many whose names we don’t know at all, but the following people, all born between about 1890 and 1910, may have modeled for Tonnesen.  If so, their photos may have been handed down to family or friends:  Mae (or Mary) Burns, whose married name may have been Foss; Adelyne Slavik Schwill, Eva Grady, who sometimes went by Eva Brady; Jean Blackwell, or some very similar name; Ellen O’Connor; Josephine Huddleston; Elizabeth Green Stone; Edna Clifford; Alice Gudgeon; Rosalie Williamson; Gertrude Nelson; Mary Suchier.
• The following who may have modeled were probably born in the 1870′s or 1880′s:  Alice Hyatt; Alice Stuart; Lillian Rosenhof or Rosenlof.

Thanks for reading!  And thanks for any information you can turn up.  We are looking forward to featuring your new Tonnesen finds here!  Just send a response (below) and we’ll get right back with you.

(C)2010 Lois Emerson