Cabinet portrait of James Pickens Walker, 1900, Rock Hill Academy - Clarksburg WV studio
Book 2, Page 57 ·1900
Transcription
A sepia oval-vignette cabinet-card photograph mounted at the center of the page: head-and-shoulders portrait of a dark-haired young man in dark coat, vest, and white cravat. The photographer’s embossed imprint in the lower-right corner of the mount reads approximately Sharr & Co. — CLARKSBURG, W.V.
Beneath, in blue fountain-pen ink in the compiler’s hand:
James Pickens Walker — 1900 — Rock Hill Academy.
AI Notes
The photographer’s embossed imprint in the lower-right corner of the mount identifies a Clarksburg, W. Va. studio (signature reads approximately ‘Sharr & Co.’ or similar over ‘CLARKSBURG, W.V.’). The 1900 cabinet card was therefore made in Clarksburg, West Virginia, not at the South Carolina school it documents - consistent with JP Walker’s family roots in nearby Overfield, W. Va. Caption below the photograph in the compiler’s blue-ink hand identifies the sitter as JP Walker at Rock Hill Academy in 1900 (the school where he was then enrolled). The relevant ‘place’ for the page is Clarksburg.
The portrait was made in Clarksburg, West Virginia — JP Walker’s home region — while he was attending Rock Hill Academy.