
Back in June when I was on the coast enjoying the beach, I found this book at Sun Dog Books in Seaside, FL. I did not purchase it that day, and when I went back for it, I could not find the one copy. In July when I was in
Monroeville, AL and browsing the cozy little shelves of Beehive Coffee & Books and chatting with Mary
Badham (aka Scout), I found a single volume again! This time, I made it mine! I had remembered it only as a picture book, but in her introduction Victoria Randall shares a brief history of photography.
Beginning with the daguerreotype, named for Frenchman Louis Daguerre, to tintype, to
ambrotype,
calotype,
cyanotype, (all TYPES new to me), and
collodian, up to George Eastman's introduction of the first film camera. With this, came the traveling portrait photographer, and most specifically featured in this book: The Pony Man. Throughout America were photographers going from town to town with an outfitted pony and a suitcase full of riding costumes. In her modest (120 pages)
treasury of nearly a hundred charming photos spanning from the 1880's to the 1960's, Randall includes many personal details and inscriptions for each image. Here are just a few captured by my camera. If you love sepia photographs and children and ponies,
you should give yourself this book.

CIRCA 1939
Doesn't she remind you of Bonnie Butler in GONE WITH THE WIND?

CIRCA 1918

CIRCA 1918
(click on pictures of the book to enlarge)

CIRCA 1971 Near Fort
Rucker, AL
Our first born, Cameron, is seen riding his made in England
Mobo walking pony.
I think this is the last one of these sold from
Pizitz's in downtown Birmingham.
My Tennessee cousins had owned one, and I had longed for a Mobo to show up under my Christmas tree when I was a pre-schooler. Years later, I was astonished to find him in the toy department and sent word immediately to Santa. He reserved the toy before Cameron was born. Happily for his first Christmas, it became his first and only pony. Alas, there were no traveling pony photographers by this time. This is an old Polaroid I took, with a newly added sepia effect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When it's midnight in the meadow and cats are in the shed,
And the river tells a story at the window by my bed,
If you listen very closely, be as quiet as you can,
In the yard you'll hear him,
It is the pony man.
Opening
lines of the "The Pony Man" by Gordon
Lightfoot For other Sepia Saturday Posts, click
HERE!