Grand Pictures

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director 

If you’ve had a chance to wander through our exhibit “Grand, Domestic and Truly Comfy,” you’ve seen recreations of some of the rooms from the Langdon Mansion, once a landmark of the Elmira area. Located near the intersection of West Church and North Main streets in downtown Elmira, the property was first owned by Anson C. Ely. In 1862, Jervis Langdon purchased the home from Ely’s widow along with a neighboring lot. Four years later, he had the house remodeled and enlarged to meet his needs. Every interior surface was covered, with much of the work done by Pottier and Stymus, a top interior decorating firm and leading cabinet-maker out of New York City. As was the style for wealthy patrons in that era, the home was highly ornate. It truly was grand both inside and out.

View of the Langdon Mansion

Putting the exhibit together required our guest curator, Walter G. Ritchie, Jr., to do months of research. A critical part of his work relied on photographs taken in the mid-1870s. By this time Jervis Langdon had died, but his wife engaged the decorating firm once again to update additional rooms. And Van Aken was hired to document them. Many of the photographs Ritchie used have been enlarged and are mounted on the wall behind each of our room settings. As if frozen in time, they give us a glimpse of what each room looked like. If you look closely, you can find furniture and objects from the pictures on display in the settings. The photographs are one-half of a pair of stereographic images. The curved border at the top is a distinctive framing of many photographs done in this style. 

Stereographic images rely on viewers seeing two nearly identical images at the same time and our brains combining the two to “see” depth. This illusion, also known as binocular vision, can give viewers a life-like experience, as if they are standing in the same space where the picture was taken. In 1838, English inventor and physicist Charles Wheatstone had devised a system to create intricate drawings which viewers used to perceive depth. Imagine how relieved he must have been when advances in photography made depth perception much easier.

Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) photo by Granger

Beginning in the 1840s, stereoscopic images became a popular form of photography, and by the 1850s, they were a staple in many American parlors. We have a blog about them here. At the time, instead of scrolling through social media for hours, people entertained themselves with stereoscopic images of faraway places.

The photographs of the Langdon family home that our guest curator researched were taken by Elisha M. Van Aken, who ran a photographic studio in town. Van Aken was born in Rensselaerville, New York, in 1828, and took up photography in his early twenties, when the art form was new. He moved to Lowville, New York, where he set up a portrait studio over the village Post Office. In 1856, he was advertising his ambrotyping, daguerreotyping and photographing services. In 1873, now with a family and well-established career, he moved to Elmira.

Van Aken’s studio was first located at 134 West Water Street and later at 120 West Water Street. The 1870s were the height of stereoscopic imagery’s popularity, and his work in this and in studio portraiture was prolific. His photographs documented everyday life in Elmira of the late 19th and early 20th century, featuring street scenes, businesses, people, homes, and pets. 

In addition to his studio work, Van Aken was often seen hiking about the outskirts of town, lugging his equipment.

Elisha M. Van Aken and his camera

He photographed nature, people, events, and buildings, both inside and out. His son Charles joined him in the studio, learning the business, and became quite the photographer too. In the spring of 1904, the elder Van Aken fractured his hip and died a short time later at the age of 76. A notice about his death in the April 30, 1904 edition of the Star-Gazette declared “Mr. Van Aken did much for lazy people. He found the hundreds of scenes worth depicting around the outskirts of the city and his busy camera reduced them to paper so that they might be enjoyed by those disinclined to go and see for themselves.” 

Today Van Aken photographs can be found in national collections including those of the Smithsonian Institution, the George Eastman Museum, and The Getty Museum. We are fortunate to have many Van Aken glass plate negatives and prints too, including those hanging on the walls of our current exhibit.

Grand, Domestic and Truly Comfy: The Langdon Mansion in Elmira will be on display until May, 2025