The Dead Detective

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.

05/09/2026

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

04/01/2026

Their 50th Wedding Anniversary 🕊️
William Henry Morgold & Mary Frances (Troy) Morgold married on March 24, 1872, in Jackson, Ohio. I was able to recover a photograph taken in 1922 of them on their 50th wedding anniversary. They built a life across the Midwest before settling in Oklahoma in 1908.

Together, they had six children and endured loss along the way. Yet in this moment, half a century into their marriage, they are pictured here side by side, still in love. 🕊️🤍

03/19/2026

I’ve never had anything like this happen…

While searching for the same studio stamp on — I was shocked to find an undeniable younger portrait of Samantha. At last, the two portraits are reunited. 🤍🕊️

Samantha Webster was born March 15, 1834 in Geneva, Ohio and married David Russel Alden in 1853. They had 2 children, a daughter Estella “Stella” May Alden (b. 1855) and a son Hiram W. Alden (b. 1859.)

The family moved to Kansas around 1870.

Her daughter, Stella May Alden, married Clinton Orestes Kinne in 1872, but a short illness caused her death at the young age of 27.

Her son, Hiram W. Alden, became an accomplished musician and later a recognized figure in hospitality, associated with the Nadeau Hotel in Los Angeles, the Albemarle in San Diego, and the Hughes Hotel in Fresno.

The couple relocated to California, residing in the hotels where their son Hiram worked; however, in 1890, David Russell Alden passed away at the age of 63.

After her husband’s death, Samantha stayed with Hiram for the next 28 years, until her passing in 1918 at the age of 84.

(These are the only surviving portraits of Samantha and David Russell)