These cool old photos of Provincetown will have you seeing double
Sometimes, goofing off on the web yields treasure. That's how I stumbled upon these cool old photos of Provincetown in the Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views on the New York Public Library website. They are in the public domain and attributed to Cape Cod photographer G. H. Nickerson. A couple of the photos are dated from 1875, while it seems fair to assume that they all were taken in the 1800s, as Nickerson passed away in 1890.
You may be wondering why there are two photos in every image. That's because these are stereoscopic photos, often looked at in a special viewer that combines the image. This was a highly popular way of viewing images of all sorts of things back in the day.
Here's how the New York Public Library describes it:
"Stereoscopic views consist of two nearly twin photographs — one for the left eye, one for the right. Viewing the side-by-side images through a special lens arrangement called a stereoscope combines the two flat images and creates the illusion of objects in spatial depth. Photographers around the world produced millions of stereoscopic views between 1850 and 1930. Their popularity soared when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert received the gift of a stereoscopic viewer at the Crystal Palace exhibition in 1851. Stereoscopic views include topographic views, local history, events, industries and trade, costume, urban and country life, and portraits."
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And here's more about photographer George H. Nickerson, from his obituary in the April 15, 1890 edition of the Barnstable Patriot newspaper:
"George H. Nickerson, the well-known and popular Provincetown photographer and a past commander of J. C Freeman Post 55 , G. A. R., died in Provincetown Friday morning, aged 53. He was a member of King Hiram Lodge of Masons, Marine Lodge of Odd Fellows and of several other societies. Mr. Nickerson was a brother of Hiram Nickerson of the Nickerson Piano, and was a native of Centreville. When boys, George and Hiram ran in the Boston and Barnstable packets, Mail and Sappho, as stewards, and were general favorites of that line. They afterward went into the Photograph business, serving with Black, the famous Boston Photographer.
"George established himself early in business in Provincetown, having one of the best saloons in the County, and by his skill and pleasing, social nature built up a large business, and his pictures have always been sought by people who recognized his skill all over the County. He was a man of unswerving integrity, of pleasing address, and made friends everywhere. He will be sincerely mourned by all who knew him."
My favorite image shows something I had heard about, but never seen a picture of: the days when Provincetown's town hall was located on High Pole Hill, where the Pilgrim Monument now stands. I know it seems silly, but the monument is so grand and such a huge part of town that it felt like it had always been there.
Another favorite image shows a Provincetown yard full of drying fish. My guess here is that this is the legendary "scully-joe," dried cod or haddock also known as "skully-jo," "skulljoe" or several other variations.
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A 1937 Federal Writers' Project guide to Massachusetts had this to say about it: "Skully-jo, once popular, is no longer made by any but a few Portuguese families. This is codfish or haddock cured in the sun, ‘till it’s hard enough to bend lead pipe around.’ When fish was plentiful the Portuguese made barrels of it and the children carried it about in their pockets and chewed it instead of candy. It was said that ‘the longer you chewed on a hunk of skully-jo, the more you had.’"
The same can sort of be said about these photos. The longer you look at them, the more you are transported to a time long gone at the Cape tip.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Stereoscopic 1800s photos of Provincetown by George Nickerson
