No Smiling, Please.

 

 

 A very tiny photo nano-story.

 

 

 

This small ensemble of eleven musicians is pictured on a small photograph rather than a postcard, though it does have the same proportions. It was taken with a camera that had a special feature on the back, a small, rectangular shuttered window that allowed the photographer to write a caption using a stylus that would be recorded directly on the film negative. The group of eight men and three women is identified in white block letters on the right edge of the photo as The Miles Concert Orchestra. It's a mixed instrumentation of five strings and six wind instrumentalists, with two too many cornets for such a small 'orchestra.'

But unlike the smart phone cameras of our century, this camera did not register time nor place. So this photo could date from roughly the early 1900s, judging by the garment fashions and hair styles, but the location of the parlor might be anywhere in North America.

 

They have the look of a church or school group more than a professional orchestra. However after searching through the new!dapper archives, I found them in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the Miles Concert Orchestra played at the Jonas Long's Sons department store on 6 October 1906. The Scranton Republican ran an  advertisement for the store promoting its selection of men's French ties,  women's broadcloth walking skirts, Billy Bounce, a new book for children, and an evening concert by the orchestra.

 

 

Scranton PA Republican 6 October 1906

 

 

I found no other reports of the Miles Concert Orchestra in Scranton's newspapers so its performance history was likely very brief in just 1906. Were they employees at the Long department store? We will never know. It's a shame that they didn't get a better photo, but at least it had comical qualities that make it memorable a century later.