Tampere Boy (Finnish?)


Figure 1.--This portrait is unidentified. All we know is that the portrait was taken in Tampere. I'm not etirely sure where that was located. We believe that it was taken in the 1890s.

This portrait is unidentified. All we know is that the portrait was taken in Tampere. I'm not etirely sure where that was located. I thought at first the boy was American. Tampere sounds rather like a town in the southwest. And the script looks like a style popular in the Old West. But we know of no American city with that name. In addition, most American cabinent potrait cards have both the name of the city and the state and this card says only "Tampere" and the name of the photographer, Aug. Schuffert". The name is German. "Aug." is an abbreviation of the first name August. There are of course many Germans in Ameica and quite a number of 19th century American photographic studios were operated by Americans of German ancestry. And the flower arrangement and toy horse seem to me a bit different than we commonly see in American portraits. A reader writes, "Are you certain this photo is American? Tampere is a prominent city in Finland, only a couple of hours from Helsinki. Could the photograph be Finnish?" This image could indeed very easily be Finnish. The only Tampere we can find is the one in Finland. As the boy certainly looks Finnish. Finland does not have mamy large cities. Tampere is one of the three largest cities in Finland. It lies northest of Helsinki. The other city in the trio is Turku. Both Turku and Tampere are in the 100,000 to 500,000 population bracket whilst Helsinki is in the 500,000 to 1,000,000 bracket. Unfortunately we don't have the backview of the card which might give us the answer. The family name Schuffert sounds German, but I don't know how many Germans lived in Finland. Perhaps some HBC readers will have an insight here.






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Created: 6:08 PM 10/29/2006
Last updated: 6:08 PM 10/29/2006