The Dead Detective

09/09/2026

08/30/2026

08/22/2026

August 19, 1826: Nicéphore Niépce produced the first heliograph during his attempt to capture the view from a window, exploiting the darkening properties of bitumen of Judea on a tin plate, with an exposure of approximately eight hours.

This image, known as « View from the Window at Le Gras » (The Courtyard of the Domaine du Gras), measures 20 x 25 cm, and is still intact today, preserved at the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin, USA.

08/12/2026

Of all the people I’ve personally identified so far, Sophia Fox is the earliest-born person in my collection. Born in Connecticut in 1788 to Jesse Fox and Ruth Hall, Sophia married her first husband, Asa Newton Jr. of Colechester, CT in 1810. Together they had 3 children. Asa Newton died August 3, 1836 at almost 54 years old. In 1847 she married Dr. Titus Chapman. Chapman passed away on June 30, 1866 at the age of 73. Based on her wardrobe, the photography studio, as well as the type of photograph, I strongly suspect this portrait was photographed during her second phase of mourning her second husband. I then felt the grief in her eyes even more. Sophia passed away on July 19, 1873, being around 84-85 years old. She’s buried with her second husband Dr. Titus Chapman at Westwood Cemetery in Oberlin, Ohio.

06/16/2026

“Congratulations ~ I hope you will enjoy your lovely new home, and will now make it your own.

I have not been there to keep up the patio bed, but in the spring, you will see Columbine come alive, and the ajuga ground cover bloom purple flowers. When the Columbine cease to bloom, I always left it and spread the seeds in the fall.
You have a bird sanctuary if you will hang feeders. Black oil sunflower seed was the best. I never took out the holly bushes because the birds live in them and they were protected from the winter hawks.

And you have resident bunnies!

I’ve owned the home for 48 years this July, but have now gone to a retirement apartment complex where I need to be & like it.

Fill your new home with love, joy, and gratitude and I wish you and your family many years of happiness.

Sincerely,

Sally

P.S. You will love the sunsets and the view. Canada geese like the field! They ❤️ cracked corn!”

05/19/2026

Absolutely one of my favorite portraits I’ve ever owned. Her eyes have always been captivating... and for three years, she sat unnamed in my collection.

This is Emily Howard (Cutler) Baker, born April 23, 1835, in West Glover, Vermont. She and her husband, David, married in 1855 and spent nearly 53 years together. Together they had 12 children, but had lost four during infancy. David pursued teaching after attending St. Johnsbury, later returning with Emily to the Baker family farm overlooking Parker Pond.

Emily died at 97 years old, being the second oldest resident in Royalton, Vermont.

I’ll never get over how photographs seem to collapse time. A face captured for only a moment, and through the quiet alchemy of chemistry and sunlight, can outlive generations. Somehow, allowing me to speak a name that perhaps hasn’t been spoken in decades, belonging to a woman born nearly two centuries ago.

04/15/2026

My late grandmother often told me stories of her grandmother, Emma Childers, a Muscogee Creek woman that she never had the chance to meet.
She remembered photographs of Emma, yet today the only image that remains is an illustrated portrait. I began this project from that absence. A wound of knowing someone so central to my history exists in a memory, but not in a photograph. I often find myself searching for her through photographs at the flea market. Although, I’m honored to offer others the very kind of closure I long for myself, I believe that my day will come too. ❤️

04/09/2026

Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service, 1928. Source: Los Angeles Philharmonic Association