Mary Corley Crider's photo album

After Tom Hugh Crider, known to many who loved him as "Pappy", died, an old photo album was found in a dresser that had been given to him by his sister Gladys who died a few years before he did. The album had belonged to Tom's father, Clarence Tom Crider, son of Mary Corley Crider. The album was in dreadful shape, with the pages deteriorating and the pictures fallen out of their slots. Some of the pages had names written on it, but the pictures had fallen out and we didn't know what pictures belonged with the names. Other pictures had names or some inscription written on the back of it. We began a mystery search to identify the pictures. We knew some basics, particularly a picture of a young Mary Corley that I posted in a previous post. There was also a photo previously identified as Thomas Corley, father of Mary Corley.

So we started really studying the photos and listing the things about each photo that we could deduct, such as any markings on the back of the photos, including the name of the town and/or the photography studio that had taken the photo.

We found we could separate the pictures into groups that had been taken in Missouri. Skaneateles and Albany New York and Terrell, Texas. We knew that Mary Corley and her siblings were born in Skaneateles, New York to Thomas Corley and Eliza Smith Corley (from census records).

Another thing we looked at was style of dress and portrait poses. I did some research on clothing of the period and found I could safely identify decades of the 1800s based on the clothing/hairstyles. This helped in grouping people and places. The backdrops of the portraits, especially in the New York photos, were also helpful in determining some information. Granted we made some assumptions, but feel fairly confident in these assumptions.

The smallest of clues were most helpful. After talking by e-mail with Enid Barnes (reference Part II of FInding Mary Corley), we were able to definitively identify Kate Corley Kimler, sister of Mary Corley Crider, by the grosgrain ribbon that was in her hair. In fact, Enid, who is Kate's great-granddaughter, has the ribbon framed on her wall.

This is Kate's picture to the right.

I replaced the album pages using paper as similar to the original as possible, and in addition, recreated the gold outlines around the picture frames. The original album cover had been torn and we replaced the leather, keeping an original cutout of the cover mounted on the front. Below pictures are Thomas and Eliza Smith Corley, parents of Mary, Kate and John. More about how we found John Corley in another post!