We think that John and his son Hermann shared the responsibility of taking all the photos. When they both had to be in the same photo it would have been simple enough for one of them to set up the camera appropriately, and then have someone else push the shutter button when the whole group was ready.
Most of the B&W photos presented below were taken from about 1910 to 1917. These photos were printed recently from their original 5 x 7 inch glass plate negatives. Two were printed from film negatives (approx 3.5 x 2.5 inch) which were stored with these glass plate negatives.
The remainder were also printed recently – from original glass plate negatives which were half the size of the ones referred to above. Some of these photos date back to about 1907. It seems that the small glass plate negatives were used from 1907 to about 1910-1911, at which time larger 5 x 7 inch glass plate negatives became available.
All of the glass plate negatives, except for 19 of the 5 x 7 inch ones, were recovered from a hallway cupboard in the Walden family home in December 2015, along with the Thornton Pickard camera which was used to take them. This very old camera is still in perfect working condition.
(The nineteen 5 x 7 inch glass plate negatives have been in the possession of another family member for some time).
The camera and bulk of the glass plate negatives (with the two film negatives) have apparently been stored in the hallway cupboard, undisturbed for most of the last hundred years. There were no prints from these negatives in the cupboard. They are apparently in the possession of someone in a different part of the family.
Considering their age, the emulsion on the glass plate negatives is in remarkably good condition. Only a few photos have been excluded from the website because of the very poor quality of those negatives. In some photos though you will notice various blotches/defects due to deterioration of the emulsion. Other photos have been excluded because of their repetitive nature.