John Rudolph Zweifel was a Duluth-based photographer from roughly 1885 to 1935. Several of his cabinet card portraits have appeared in Perfect Duluth Day’s “Mystery Photo” series over the years. Now a composite print of his work samples has emerged.

Michelle Novak, a steering committee member with the Students and New Archives Professionals Section of the Society of American Archivists, sent the image to PDD with the following information and query.

The attached Zweifel Studio photograph came to us as part of a mixed auction lot. It’s a pretty spectacular composite print and hand signed “Zweifel ‘[19]12.”

The problem is that the scanned samples on Minnesota Digital Library and others online (https://www.perfectduluthday.com/tag/zweifel-studio/) all have a stamped studio mark—and ours is a pencil signature. Have you seen other items in the collection that are 1) of this size (16” x 21.25” on a rag paper) and a composite, and 2) signed in pencil?

My thoughts wonder if this was his family or someone close to him, or because it may be an odd format, maybe he signed it personally. Unfortunately, the rag paper print is glued down well to the backer board so I have not been able to investigate it—and we’re not sure if it can be removed yet.

Any thoughts or insight would be much appreciated, thanks!

Feel free to publish images on the blog to see if anyone recognizes it. If we can find some names and/or nail down the place, we can look into donating it to an appropriate collection.