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Glass Plate Negative — \"W. Morton, Machinist\" Painted Sign, Camden, New Jersey
4×5 dry plate · circa 1900–1910 · two men on a dirt road, mill complex behind
An original 4×5 glass plate negative of a street scene dominated by a large hand-lettered advertising sign painted on a board fence: \"W. MORTON — MACHINIST — FOURTH ST. ABOVE COOPER ST.\" The lettering is bold and fully legible. Two men in light summer suits and hats walk along the unpaved road in front of the fence, one carrying what appears to be a case or parcel. Behind the fence rises a substantial multi-story industrial complex with tall smokestacks — a mill or factory works. Brush and cut branches lie in the foreground.
The address on the sign places this in Camden, New Jersey. Fourth and Cooper sits in the old industrial district near the waterfront, and the intersection still exists. Note that the sign advertises Morton\'s shop rather than marking it — the photograph shows the sign in its setting, not necessarily the shop itself.
This is documentary photography of a kind that rarely survives: a real street, a working city, and a small business named and placed by its own signage. Most surviving glass plates from this era are anonymous studio portraits. A placeable, dated, occupational street scene is a different thing entirely, and it is why this plate is offered on its own rather than in a lot.
Dating and provenance
The plate came from an original \"Star Negative Holder\" box, marked \"Will Hold 50 Plates, Pat. Jan. 16 1900, 4×5,\" alongside other plates showing steel truss bridges, rail yards, and Camden street scenes. The box patent date and the dry-plate format together place the group at roughly 1900–1910. I have not been able to identify the photographer, and no name appears on the plate or box.
This is glass, not film. It is a rigid dry plate, not cellulose nitrate, and ships without restriction.
- Emulsion: flaking and loss along the top edge, intruding slightly into the sky area of the image. A few small clear spots and pinholes elsewhere. The sign, the two figures and the mill buildings are all clean and unaffected.
- Staining: yellowed discoloration along the right edge margin, outside the main image area.
- Density: good. The sign lettering reads clearly with backlighting, as the photos show.
- Dimensions: 4 × 5 inches nominal.
- Stored on edge, handled by the edges only. Not cleaned — I don\'t clean plates, since a wrong solvent takes the emulsion with it.
The listing photos include both the plate as a negative and a digitally inverted positive so you can read the scene. The inversion is a straight tonal flip with no retouching, cropping, or content changes.
Shipping
Packed the way glass plates need to be: sleeved, sandwiched between rigid board, immobilized in a padded inner box, and double-boxed with dunnage on all sides. Shipped with tracking and insured for the full sale amount. I photograph the packing before it goes out.
Other plates from this same group are listed separately — combined shipping is offered. Questions welcome before you buy or offer.
