Photo Friday – Gray, Potter, & Strout.

Linwood Dyer Collection – Part 006
By Don Taylor

For Photo Friday, I identified two people in five photos from the Linwood Dyer Collection this week. This collection includes hundreds of photos, documents, and genealogies of people who lived in Scarborough, South Portland, and Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I desire to analyze the images and reunite the photos with family members who may have never seen the picture. The Scarborough Historical Society holds the originals in this collection.

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Henry Staples Potter (1870-1920), 1873.

The photo identifying information includes:
H S Potter, Jr., April 10th, 1873, 2 years.

Why I believe this to be the individual.

• In Linwood Dyer Collection, Part 4, I examined an 1893 photo of Henry Staples Potter.
• I am confident this is a photo of Henry, taken on 10 April 1873, when He was two years five months old.

I added this photo of Henry to my Ancestry Tree.

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Arthur E Strout of Individual

The photo identifying information includes:
Yours Truly | Arthur [? – “A,” “C,” “E,” or “P”] Strout

What I learned while researching this photo:

• First, I researched the monument. I found that it is the World War I Monument at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.[i]
• Next, I learned that Arthur E Strout attended Bowdoin College from 1953 to 1957. My review of the 1954 Bowdoin College yearbook[ii] suggested this is the same person as in the photograph.
• A 2009 “Interview with Arthur Strout by Mike Hastings” at Bowdoin Digital Commons revealed that Arthur was born on 6 September 1935 to Alfred Meserve and Olive Mabel (Edwards) Strout. He grew up in Thomaston, Maine.

I feel confident this photo is of Arthur E Strout, circa 1955.

I added Arthur E Strout to my Ancestry tree and included this photo with that tree.

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John Gray (unidentified)

The photo identifying information includes:
John [?] Gray | Grays Farm | Antigua | B W I

What I learned while researching this photo:

• A review of Ancestry public trees for “John Gray” in Antigua failed to yield useful results. There is a John Gray b. 1825 in a private tree. But this cannot be that person, as the photo is too new.
• A review of Family Search yielded five John Grays:
  • John Gray (1783-1863),
  • John Gray (1785-1870),
  • John Gray (1816-1880),
  • John Gray (1843-1900),
  • John Gray (1846-1900)

Because the photo style and format appear to be from the mid-20^th century, this photo cannot be of any of these John Grays. This photo may be of some other John Gray visiting Grays Farm, Antigua, British West Indies.

Photo Not Identified.

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Mr. Sawyer[?], c. 1890s.

The photo is a small (2.5” x 4”) cabinet card.
The photo identifying information includes: Mr [“S” or “D”] wyer.

What I learned while researching this photo:

• Reading the name written on the back is very difficult. I believe the writing says, “Mr Sawyer,” which was overwritten at some time.
• My Google search for the image resulted in no viable copies of the same photo.

There is insufficient information to identify the individual. Sawyer is a common name in the Dyer genealogy material, so it is possible I may find another image of this person in the remaining material.

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“Victoria”

The photo identifying information includes writing on the back that says,
“Victoria with tray of wonderful strawberries at the door leading into the patio.”
Below that is a stamp saying “MINICAN | Av. Juarez Num. 71 | Mexico D. F.”

There isn’t enough information to identify the woman in this photo. Possibly, I’ll find another picture of Victoria with more details as I review the Linwood Dyer Photo collection.

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Conclusion

I identified two individuals and included their photos in my Ancestry Tree.

I would love to hear your reaction if any of these photos are of your family member. Especially if this photo is of a loved one for whom you hadn’t seen this photograph before.

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Endnotes

[i] Wyvern Almon Coo…’s name on the monument gave me the clue to determine the monument’s location. See the University of Southern Maine Digital Commons, Maine WWI Memorial Inventory. https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cumberland/13/

[ii] Ancestry.Com – U.S. School Yearbooks, 1900-2016 – Maine – Brunswick – Bowdoin College – 1954 – “Beta Theta Pi – Freshmen (Image 74 of 168).