Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This is a story of one that got away, but came back and gave me another shot. I loved this card, but lost it to an insanely high bid on eBay several months ago. I was very unhappy about it – it combines my favorite elements of early photography and, of course, a great, dignified cat who seems to know something about posing for the camera. Last week what I assume is another copy showed up on eBay and I bid as high as I could – and won it! It is wonderful – a crystal clear photo. I took a loop to it in order to check out the strange doll in the carriage – yes, it appears to have a monkey head. I guess that got the kiddies going with a smile if Mr. Cat could not. The tag line reads COME ALONG WITH US.

Like so many of my best photo postcards, this one hails from Portland, Oregon, the origin of great, early photo postcards. The copyright is 1910, also inscribed on the front and it was taken by D.A. Ovens. It is unused and otherwise undated. I did not have brilliant results in finding out about our photographer, Mr. Ovens.  I found some copyrights on his photos with no images and this one image below off a Oregon library history site:

Assuming he had a photo studio in Portland I am unable to uncover any information about it.

For myself, I fantasize that Mr. Ovens traveled around pushing this baby carriage with doll, cat and camera and stopping to take your photo. How splendid that would have been to encounter on a downtown street in Portland, Oregon in 1910 and pose to have our photo taken with the kitty!