Mystery Photos: Howorth Photography

Here's Mr. Charles Wesley Howorth. Nice self portrait!

Started out as a photographer in Edmore, Mich., where he was born, and was only in Duluth for a few years in the late 1800s. Moved to Chicago by 1910 and died there in 1932. 



Here's an early Michigan photo card.

Before we get too excited about Mr. Howorth's artistic abilities, know also that his wife was granted a divorce in 1915 on the grounds of "extreme cruelty" (which was a common cause in that record). Interestingly, his brother was also divorced in 1914 due to "repeated and extreme cruelty." The Michigan records are available online.

Aaand if we want to consider even more 19th century personal drama, it seems that Mr. Howorth's mother and twin sisters died of "consumption" when he was 8.

Wow. That's more than I expected to know about Mr. Howorth. It seems like there is an inverse relationship between the amount of time a 19th century photographer spent in Duluth and the amount of information that can be found about their life.

Considering that when we delved into another Duluth photographer, Lars Linden, it turned out he "beat and otherwise abused" his wife and child, one must ask whether it was photographers in specific or men in general who were on a rampage at the end of the 19th Century.

Here's a photo from Howorth's studio in Duluth around 1892. The subjects are Casper and Caroline Kampe Weber and their children William and Grace.