On many vintage postcards, the identity of the photographer from whom the image came is unknown. However, pre-World War I postcards routinely included photos labeled with the photographer's name, location, and even the date of the photograph.
This photograph of Little Chutanunda Falls near Amsterdam, New York, was taken by John Arthur Maney in 1901. Maney was an amateur photographer known for his images of the Mohawk River Valley and Amsterdam-area images. As noted in a historical postcard essay of the town, Maney was "the single most prolific and significant recorder of Amsterdam's appearance in its industrial heydey."[1] Even today, pictorial accompaniments to local history are incomplete without a Maney photograph. If you’ve seen a vintage postcard of Amsterdam, most likely the photography was taken by Maney.[2]
John Arthur Maney was born in 1870 in Troy, Pennsylvania, the son of Irish immigrants William Maney and Margaret Quinn. He began playing music at an early age, joining the Hi Henry minstrels as a cornetist. Maney received formal education in music, graduating from the Mozart Musical Institute. Around 1893 he moved to Amsterdam and opened a music studio. Maney married Ellen T. “Ella” O’Neil, a native of Amsterdam, on June 26, 1895.[3]
At the J. Arthur Maney Music School (also known as the John Arthur Maney Conservatory of Music or School of Music), Maney trained students in orchestra and various musical instruments—especially the piano, violin, and other stringed instruments. He also sold music equipment as the local representative for Cluett and Sons of Schenectady, with products ranging from Steinway pianos and Aeolian-Vocalion phonographs to Gibson guitars and mandolins and Holton band instruments. Maney also served as secretary of the American Federation of Musicians No. 133 local trade union. He was director of many local music groups, including the 13th Brigade Band, Primsose & West, and the Mohawk Mills Band. Together with Louis H. MacNaughton, he formed the Maney & MacNaughton Orchestra. It was said at the time of Maney’s death that about half of the musicians in Amsterdam had trained under him.[4]
This photograph of Little Chutanunda Falls near Amsterdam, New York, was taken by John Arthur Maney in 1901. Maney was an amateur photographer known for his images of the Mohawk River Valley and Amsterdam-area images. As noted in a historical postcard essay of the town, Maney was "the single most prolific and significant recorder of Amsterdam's appearance in its industrial heydey."[1] Even today, pictorial accompaniments to local history are incomplete without a Maney photograph. If you’ve seen a vintage postcard of Amsterdam, most likely the photography was taken by Maney.[2]
John Arthur Maney was born in 1870 in Troy, Pennsylvania, the son of Irish immigrants William Maney and Margaret Quinn. He began playing music at an early age, joining the Hi Henry minstrels as a cornetist. Maney received formal education in music, graduating from the Mozart Musical Institute. Around 1893 he moved to Amsterdam and opened a music studio. Maney married Ellen T. “Ella” O’Neil, a native of Amsterdam, on June 26, 1895.[3]
At the J. Arthur Maney Music School (also known as the John Arthur Maney Conservatory of Music or School of Music), Maney trained students in orchestra and various musical instruments—especially the piano, violin, and other stringed instruments. He also sold music equipment as the local representative for Cluett and Sons of Schenectady, with products ranging from Steinway pianos and Aeolian-Vocalion phonographs to Gibson guitars and mandolins and Holton band instruments. Maney also served as secretary of the American Federation of Musicians No. 133 local trade union. He was director of many local music groups, including the 13th Brigade Band, Primsose & West, and the Mohawk Mills Band. Together with Louis H. MacNaughton, he formed the Maney & MacNaughton Orchestra. It was said at the time of Maney’s death that about half of the musicians in Amsterdam had trained under him.[4]
In his spare time, Maney devoted himself to photography. Between 1895 and 1930, Maney traversed the Mohawk Valley with his camera equipment, taking photographs of Amsterdam and various natural features. His accumulated collection of images was deemed “one of the finest ever made in New York State.”[5] Maney was a member of the Amsterdam Camera Club and a frequent participant in local exhibits. His work was nationally recognized, receiving the first prize Silver Medal in both the Street Scenes and Cloud Studies categories in Camera magazine’s photography contests in September 1901. By 1905 practically all postcards of Amsterdam and surrounding areas used John Arthur Maney photographs. A shipment of 100,000 postcard received by Trucker Bros. merchants in 1910 featured thirty-four views of Amsterdam captured by Maney.[6]
Maney’s photographs were also used to illustrate books and other notable publications concerning Amsterdam and Montgomery County. National magazine Outdoors ran a feature on the Antlers country club and golf course of Amsterdam, utilizing Maney photographs. The local Board of Trade hired him to make various photographs of Amsterdam for their 1905 manual.[7] William Maxwell Reid was a frequent collaborator with Maney, whose photographs were used in The Mohawk Valley: Its Legends and Its History in 1901, The Story of Old Fort Johnson, published in 1906, and Lake George and Lake Champaign in 1910. The Story of Old Fort Johnson featured 40 photographs while Lake George featured 84 illustrations from Maney’s photographs. Colgate professor and geologist Albert P. Brigham also utilized Maney’s skill in documenting geologic formations in the area for his article “Glacial Geology and Geographic Conditions of the Lower Mohawk Valley.”[8] Because of his work photographing historical sites, Maney was a member of the Montgomery County Historical Society as well as the New York State Historical Association.
Maney died in on December 20, 1935 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam, six years after the death of his wife Ella. Both the photographic and music communities mourned his passing. The local newspaper published an eloquent note of sympathy about Maney, describing him as “kind to others, even when such kindness involved a good deal of sacrifice on his own part.”[9] Maney was interred in Saint Marys Cemetery in Fort Johnson.
Upon Maney’s death, the glass negatives of his photographs were discarded by the curb for garbage pickup. Luckily, neighbor Robert Fonda saw the contents and saved them. Various public entities have Maney photographs in their possession. In 1978 the heirs of Fonda donated the collection to the Montgomery County Department of History. Also, a collection of 72 glass plate photographic negatives and an album of 50 images are in possession of the New York State Library. A graduate thesis by Ellen H. Fladger in 1982 catalogued the 1196 glass plate negatives held by the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives.[10]
Notes
[1] Gerald R. Snyder and Robert von Hasseln, Amsterdam (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010): 6.
[2] “Amsterdam’s Center Was the Place to Be,” Amsterdam Recorder, February 25, 2012, http://www.recordernews.com/news/02252012_downtown_history.
[3] Amsterdam Evening Record, September 9, 1905; December 20, 1935; Gloversville Local Record, May 11, 1895; Little Falls Evening Times, January 18, 1893; “1896 Home Almanac of Amsterdam,” Montgomery County, New York Genweb, http://montgomery.nygenweb.net/amsterdam/amsterhome2.html.
[4] Amsterdam Evening Recorder, September 7, 1927; The Musical Blue Book of America 5 (1921), 189; Amsterdam Evening Recorder, September 9, 1908; St. Johnsville Enterprise and News; Amsterdam Evening Recorder, June 14, 1915; December 4, 1915; October 26, 1922; December 7, 1922; September 25, 1929; New York Labor Bulletin 63 (July 1914), 46; Official Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Musicians (1919), 164; Official Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Musicians (1935), 144; “Breen Gives Word Picture of Early Amsterdam,” Amsterdam Evening Recorder, July 2, 1954; “Throng attends Second Concert,” Amsterdam Evening Recorder, July 27, 1929; Amsterdam Evening Recorder, December 18, 1935; Amsterdam Evening Record, December 20, 1935.
[5] Amsterdam Evening Record, December 20, 1935.
[6] Ellen H. Flagler, A working catalog of the John A. Maney collection of glass plate negatives in the Montgomery County, New York Department of History and Archives, thesis, State University of New York College at Oneonta, 1982; Amsterdam Evening Record, May 3, 1934; “Awards in Contests Nos. 15 and 16,” Camera 5, no. 9 (September 1901): 344; Amsterdam Evening Recorder, September 11, 1905; May 12, 1910.
[7] Amsterdam Evening Record, June 10, 1904; June 13, 1905.
[8] Amsterdam Evening Record, December 20, 1935.
[9] “John Arthur Maney,” Amsterdam Evening Recorder, December 21, 1935.
[10] Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar, Montgomery County (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004), 29; Canajorarie Courier-Standard-Enterprise, December 19, 1978.
Maney’s photographs were also used to illustrate books and other notable publications concerning Amsterdam and Montgomery County. National magazine Outdoors ran a feature on the Antlers country club and golf course of Amsterdam, utilizing Maney photographs. The local Board of Trade hired him to make various photographs of Amsterdam for their 1905 manual.[7] William Maxwell Reid was a frequent collaborator with Maney, whose photographs were used in The Mohawk Valley: Its Legends and Its History in 1901, The Story of Old Fort Johnson, published in 1906, and Lake George and Lake Champaign in 1910. The Story of Old Fort Johnson featured 40 photographs while Lake George featured 84 illustrations from Maney’s photographs. Colgate professor and geologist Albert P. Brigham also utilized Maney’s skill in documenting geologic formations in the area for his article “Glacial Geology and Geographic Conditions of the Lower Mohawk Valley.”[8] Because of his work photographing historical sites, Maney was a member of the Montgomery County Historical Society as well as the New York State Historical Association.
Maney died in on December 20, 1935 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam, six years after the death of his wife Ella. Both the photographic and music communities mourned his passing. The local newspaper published an eloquent note of sympathy about Maney, describing him as “kind to others, even when such kindness involved a good deal of sacrifice on his own part.”[9] Maney was interred in Saint Marys Cemetery in Fort Johnson.
Upon Maney’s death, the glass negatives of his photographs were discarded by the curb for garbage pickup. Luckily, neighbor Robert Fonda saw the contents and saved them. Various public entities have Maney photographs in their possession. In 1978 the heirs of Fonda donated the collection to the Montgomery County Department of History. Also, a collection of 72 glass plate photographic negatives and an album of 50 images are in possession of the New York State Library. A graduate thesis by Ellen H. Fladger in 1982 catalogued the 1196 glass plate negatives held by the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives.[10]
Notes
[1] Gerald R. Snyder and Robert von Hasseln, Amsterdam (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010): 6.
[2] “Amsterdam’s Center Was the Place to Be,” Amsterdam Recorder, February 25, 2012, http://www.recordernews.com/news/02252012_downtown_history.
[3] Amsterdam Evening Record, September 9, 1905; December 20, 1935; Gloversville Local Record, May 11, 1895; Little Falls Evening Times, January 18, 1893; “1896 Home Almanac of Amsterdam,” Montgomery County, New York Genweb, http://montgomery.nygenweb.net/amsterdam/amsterhome2.html.
[4] Amsterdam Evening Recorder, September 7, 1927; The Musical Blue Book of America 5 (1921), 189; Amsterdam Evening Recorder, September 9, 1908; St. Johnsville Enterprise and News; Amsterdam Evening Recorder, June 14, 1915; December 4, 1915; October 26, 1922; December 7, 1922; September 25, 1929; New York Labor Bulletin 63 (July 1914), 46; Official Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Musicians (1919), 164; Official Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Musicians (1935), 144; “Breen Gives Word Picture of Early Amsterdam,” Amsterdam Evening Recorder, July 2, 1954; “Throng attends Second Concert,” Amsterdam Evening Recorder, July 27, 1929; Amsterdam Evening Recorder, December 18, 1935; Amsterdam Evening Record, December 20, 1935.
[5] Amsterdam Evening Record, December 20, 1935.
[6] Ellen H. Flagler, A working catalog of the John A. Maney collection of glass plate negatives in the Montgomery County, New York Department of History and Archives, thesis, State University of New York College at Oneonta, 1982; Amsterdam Evening Record, May 3, 1934; “Awards in Contests Nos. 15 and 16,” Camera 5, no. 9 (September 1901): 344; Amsterdam Evening Recorder, September 11, 1905; May 12, 1910.
[7] Amsterdam Evening Record, June 10, 1904; June 13, 1905.
[8] Amsterdam Evening Record, December 20, 1935.
[9] “John Arthur Maney,” Amsterdam Evening Recorder, December 21, 1935.
[10] Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar, Montgomery County (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004), 29; Canajorarie Courier-Standard-Enterprise, December 19, 1978.