Reed Jr., John (Jack) Smith (1881-1928)
/A.O. Carpenter’s Portrait Photograph of John (Jack) Smith Reed Jr.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER/ PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO:
Photographer: Aurelius Ormando Carpenter (1836-1919) was a journalist and photographer. He was born in Vermont and in 1855 moved to Kansas to support John Brown and the abolitionist movement. In 1856, he married fellow photographer, Helen McCowan, and by 1859, they were residing to Potter Valley, California. They eventually moved to Ukiah, Calfornia and opened a photography studio they operated for many years. They were the parents of the prominent photographer and artist, Grace Carpenter Hudson.
Studio Location: Ukiah, California
THE SITTER:
Name: John (Jack) Smith Reed Jr. (1881-1928)
Description: This is a head-and-shoulder, full-frontal portrait of a young boy. He tilts his head slightly to his right and looks directly into the camera. He wears a Donegal tweed jacket with vertically pleated side panels and a center panel adorned with four buttons arranged in a square. A white, crisp collar has been added to the jacket and a tidy, small, dark bow tie appears directly beneath the child’s chin.
Biographical Note: In 1881, John Smith Reed Jr. was born in Ukiah, California, and in 1908 he moved to Petaluma with his widowed mother and other family members. In 1909, he and his brother-in-law, Edward Keller (1880-1947), established the Keller & Reed Company. The company took over the publication of The Northern Crown, a magazine written and edited by Reed’s mother, Anna Medora Morrison Reed. It reported on Northern California political and cultural issues, and its first edition appeared in April 1904. Additionally, beginning in 1909, Anna edited and the Keller and Reed Company published the first edition of The Sonoma County Independent, a daily newspaper that ran until 1912.
Reed married Myrtle H. Hughes (1887-1972) and they raised two children, John Arman Reed (1909-1944) and Jean Elinor Reed (1915-1936), in Petaluma. He died in 1928 and was buried in Petaluma’s Cypress Hill Memorial Park.
Family Affiliation: John (Jack) Smith Reed Jr. was the last child of John S. Reed Sr. and the prominent poet, lecturer, and suffragist, Anna Medora Morrison Reed (1849-1921).
Bibliography: John E. Keller (editor), Anna Morrison Reed, 1849-1921, published by the editor, Lafayette, California, 1978; Harlan Osborne, “Keller’s Family Printed its Name on Petaluma,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, August 11, 2023, section C; Petaluma Argus-Courier, May 19, 1928, p. 4 (obituary); https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126179803/john-smith-reed
THE PHOTOGRAPH:
Format / Size: cabinet card, approximately 10.75 x 16.5 cm
Medium: albumen photographic print mounted on cardstock
Description, front: This cabinet card contains a head-and-shoulder, full-frontal portrait of young boy. The photographer’s name, A.
O. Carpenter, followed by the word “artist” appears in small print along the bottom.
Description, Reverse: The back side of this cabinet card is empty or contains only an accession number.
Date: c. 1887
Condition: This cabinet card is soiled throughout.
Owner: Private collection of Carma Reed, digital copy by permission.
Reproduction rights: The Petaluma Museum Association makes no assertions as to ownership of any original copyrights to the digitized images here reproduced. These images are intended for personal or research use only. Any other kind of use, including, but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication in any medium or format, public exhibition, or use online or in a web site, may be subject to additional restrictions including but not limited to the copyrights held by parties other than the Association. USERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for determining the existence of such rights and for obtaining any permissions and/or paying associated fees necessary for the proposed use.