Velma Schmidt was born in Davenport, Iowa on March 6, 1886 to Oswald and Agatha (Bruhn) Schmidt. Her father, one of the owners of the Roddewig-Schmidt Candy Company, named a chocolate candy after his oldest child and only daughter. “Velma” chocolates became very popular locally and were sold in sweet, bitter-sweet, and milk chocolate varieties. The Roddewig and Schmidt families also owned the highly successful Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company.
Velma lived in the family home at 517 W. 7th Street in Davenport from 1890 until she died on June 18, 1959. She graduated from St. Katharine’s School and devoted her life to family and community service. Through the Schmidt Family donation 2016-46, Velma appears to have had an interest in photography that began in the early 1900s. Her photograph albums are filled with family, friends, and neighbors in both posed and spontaneous pictures.
The photographs appear to start in the early 1900s, which coincides with the timeline for the Kodak Brownie which became available for personal use in 1900. The early Brownie cameras had no flash capability which made interior photography difficult. Velma appears to have experimented with interior shots using sunlight.
The results sometimes weren’t successful, as Velma noted in her albums, as lack of sunlight caused the image to be dark when developed.
Other interior photos were more successful and show a creative use of sunlight and posed figures such as this image of a young girl identified by Velma as Elinor.
Most of the photographs in the albums were taken outside in warm weather, but we did find two Christmas images we would like to share with you. We focused on 1950s Christmas trees in a past blog, but found fewer images of earlier Christmas trees at the time we published the images in 2018.
Going through Velma’s albums recently, we were excited to see an image of a Schmidt family Christmas tree taken about 1910. Velma also decorated the picture with small cut out heads. Possibly family and friends who joined in the celebrations that year? The sunlight coming through the window highlights the Christmas tree, and the room, wonderfully. The room appears to be the same room featured in the darker photo above. Some redecorating has occurred, but the window, fireplace, and furniture appear to be the same.
If you look closely, you will see early electric lights on the tree. Called an Electric Christmas Outfit, the lights needed to be attached to a light socket. The wires extend from the Christmas tree and are attached to a socket in the electric chandler in the center of the room. We found an advertisement from 1912 in The Daily Times that explains the lights.
We have also featured images of Santa Claus in past blogs. Here is a link to a Santa Claus blog from 2021. Many of our images of Santa Claus come from Davenport’s Christmas parades in the 1940s and 1950s. When looking for images before the 1940s, we usually find illustrated Santas in the newspapers instead of photographs. We are thankful to Velma Schmidt for including in her album this amazing image of a 1920s Santa Claus holding a little boy who we have identified as Richard Hugo Schmidt.
Richard, or Dick as he was nicknamed, was born on July 14, 1923. From his size, we are estimating this photograph to have been taken around December 1924. We are not sure of the location of the photograph or who took it, but Santa and the Christmas tree behind him are ready for the holiday season. Little Dick Schmidt looks warm in his outdoor clothing while clutching his stuffed monkey possibly a little unsure of meeting Santa Claus. We also love Velma’s caption of “Nice Santa!”.
We hope you enjoy these images of Christmas past along with Velma’s interior experimental photos. Thank you for visiting our blog this year. We wish you all Happy Holidays.
(posted by Amy D.)
