Summer 2020 - On the Cover
about the postcards
The above cards are from the collection of Steve Lazar (found at thehumboldtproject.org) and feature an early auto scene by the photographer Jesse Meiser. Mr. Meiser primarily photographed with a view camera using glass plate negatives. Negative sizes included 5x7, 6½x8½, 8x10, and 11x14. Both cards were produced as contact prints from the original glass plate negative. After using photoshop to mosaic the scans of the cards, a glimpse of the size and limits of the original photograph begins to emerge.
Mr. Meiser lived in Humboldt between 1905 and 1910 and practiced commercial photography during that time. He operated a studio in Eureka on the corner of 5th and H streets, and advertised himself as a “portrait, commercial, and scenic photographer.” Particularly gifted at scenic photographs, he shot upwards of a thousand or more during his time in Humboldt. Many of these scenes survive today on real photo postcards and prints sprinkled throughout public and private archives.
A close inspection of the cut log shows an early form of the billboard (commercial graffiti targeting motorists along the auto route) advertising the Friedenbach Brothers General Merchandise store in Fortuna. The store featured a huge assortment of goods –an early invoice advertises “Dry Goods, Boots and Shoes, Groceries, Chick and Egg Foods, Feed and Seeds, Gent’s Furnishings, Hardware, Crockery, Rubber Goods, etc.”
from Steve:
These two cards were acquired independently of each other years apart. I only noticed their resemblance after I began combing through my collection for Meiser cards, at the outset of my current research on the photographer.
According to Chuck Petty, the automobile is a 1908 Maxwell. Both it and the driver appear in a number of other contemporaneous Meiser photos. In some photos, the Maxwell lettering can be seen attached to the car’s radiator. In others appear the lettering “Rabbit” –perhaps the car’s nickname?
from Chuck Petty:
The first Maxwell car was made in 1904 by Jonathan Maxwell and Benjamin Briscoe, who in 1909 joined the short-lived United States Motor Company. With the collapse of this combine in 1913, Maxwell continued on alone until the postwar recession. In 1920, deeply in debt and facing ruin, the company convinced Walter P. Chrysler, who had resigned from the Buick division of General Motors, to join the effort to revitalize the company. In 1922 the Maxwell company took over Chalmers Motor Car Co. (founded in 1908). In the following year Chrysler bought control. Under Chrysler’s leadership, the company began to manufacture competitive automobiles, beginning with a revolutionary six-cylinder vehicle that was introduced at the 1924 New York Automobile Show. In 1925 the Maxwell Motor Company became the Chrysler Corporation, with Chrysler as president. (From the early history of the Chrysler company Encyclopedia Britannica).
In 1908 Maxwell had a company slogan that was “Perfectly Simply; Simply Perfect” and the Maxwells quickly distinguished themselves as excellent, durable, no-frills cars. The 1908 Maxwells had a sliding gear transmission with neutral in the middle, then go back once and it’s first, second and third, all in a straight line, just like a drag car would be and with right hand drive. In 1908 the Maxwell was the 3rd best selling car, behind Buick and Ford. The 1908 model sold new for $825.00, with the top and Roll-down Storm-front another $70.00. The car runs about 35 miles per hour - has a 1 quart oil tank and a 8 gallon gas tank, which will get about 100 miles.
