Putnam, Mabel Celeste Black (1874 -1966)
/HORACE E. HUNT’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPH OF MABEL BLACK PUTNAM
THE PHOTOGRAPHER/ PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO:
Photographer: Horace E. Hunt, Denver Colorado
THE SITTER:
Name: Mabel Celeste Black Putnam
Description: Mabel Celeste Black Putnam has dark, short, curly hair and is wearing a blouse highly characteristic of the late 1890s. It has large puffed sleeves, deep pleats across the front and a high collar.
Biographical Note: Mabel Celeste Black Putnam served as the principal of Philip Sweed School in Petaluma. She was a member of the Petaluma Woman’s Club. She raised a small herd of cattle on the Putnam Ranch on Sonoma Mountain. In a 1929 reference to her in the Petaluma Argus-Courier, her name was hyphenated, Mable Black-Putnam.
Family Affiliation: Mable Celeste Black Putnam was the daughter of Petaluma Pioneers, Margaret Ann Black and J. W. Black, and she married John Putnam in 1906. Mabel Black Putnam was the mother of Rutherford Putnam who was the husband of Petaluma mayor Helen DuMont Putnam (1909-1984).
Bibliography:
THE PHOTOGRAPH:
Format / Size: cabinet card, approximately 10.75 x 16.5 cm
Medium: albumen photographic print mounted on cardstock
Description, front: This is a head and shoulders portrait placed on dark, embossed, cardstock. The photographer’s imprint is embossed in black cursive lettering across the bottom.
Description, back: Handwritten in cursive along the top is, “Mabel Black Putnam”. An attached yellow sheet of paper identifies, in handwritten cursive, the sitter to be, “Mother of Rutherford Putnam”.
Date: circa 1900
Condition: With the exception of the remnants of previously placed tape along the top edge of the back side, this card is in excellent condition.
Owner: Petaluma Historical Library & Museum, 1994-633-01
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