✅ SOLVED Lynching photgraph

[oldbattleaxe]

While I have the historical experts on a roll. What would you think was going on here? Mexican American War of a soldier or? Just some thoughts thats all ?

 

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[Red-Coat]

I'm not entirely convinced that's an authentic hanging/lynching.

There was unfortunately a dark time in America's history when hanging and lynching pictures were big business, including "hanging postcards" too, which were sold in the thousands. Often these pictures were of people who had been hanged but with the scene recreated after the event for a better picture. That looks to be the case here, with the over-dramatic observers and the guy pointing. It was also not unusual for the poor victim to be 'transferred' to a telegraph pole alongside a railroad (for maximum public exposure), having been hung somewhere else. That looks like a telegraph pole, and there's a "Railroad Crossing" sign to the extreme left.

However, here, I suspect the whole thing may have been artificially staged for the purposes of generating a 'saleable' picture. The 'victim' appears to be in an unnatural posture for someone who has been hung. Usually the toes of hanging victims point downwards as least a little, which is not the case here. The neck here is unusually 'bunched up' rather than stretched by the bodyweight pulling down on it. The arms also don't look as if they're limp. I could be wrong, and maybe this poor guy was hung a couple of hours earlier and has gone into rigor mortis (no sign of it around his mouth though), but that's my take.

Are those US Cavalry uniforms? That's what they look like to me.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Military, could be several things. Execution of a murderer, traitor, deserter, horse thief, rapist? Military use to hang prisoners convicted of capital crimes.

 

[GeoW]

Best deterrent yet...

g

 

[creskol]

Dang me, dang me
They oughta take a rope and hang me
High from the highest tree
Woman, would you weep for me?

 

[Gare]

You know PEOPLE NEED to BE AFRAID of the punishment for the CRIMES they commit. RIGHT NOW they are NOT afrAID of there punishment !!1 I feel if there not afraid they will continue there crimes !!1. I want CRIME to STOP not slow DOWN !!!
.

 

[A2coins]

She will not weap, for the trouble you decided to heap, She might if you payed her, but you are too cheap, Just keep swinging that stick waiting for a beep, says little bo peep. Sorry I had to go there lol

 

[Noah_D]

I was quoting "The Princess Bride," its a real funny movie if you haven't seen it.

 

[vhs07]

 

[Gare]

Some times I sure WISH pictures could talk. I think we should bring this back today

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I agree with Red-Coat. This looks like a staged or prop photograph for whatever purpose. All the dramatic poses of men standing in one straight line so they'd all be in focus.

 

[Red-Coat]

I’m still unconvinced.

OK, the lynch-mob are hauling the guy up, so that supports a presumption he’s being hanged rather than has been hung. There is also a shallow tangential angle between the telegraph pole and the noose rope, so it must be swinging.

However it must be swinging very gently because the picture is pretty sharp. Note how sharp the shadow of his arm is on the pole too. I would suggest that the reason why the lynch mob look to be in such wooden postures is that they’re been lined up in a single plane of focus and told to stand still for reasons related to the limitations of film sensitivity and camera shutter speed in the age when the pic was taken.

Those same limitations apply to the ‘victim’ too. He can’t be moving in anything more than a very gentle sway. If he was being hung, surely he’d be struggling, creating more movement and more blur? There’s no sign of that at all. Look at his legs too. Sharp. No sign of movement and strapping him above the knees wouldn’t be enough to completely restrict the movement of a struggling victim.

Then look at his face. Mouth closed and no particular sign of distress. Wouldn’t he be struggling for breath? Uttering some noises of distress?

 

[Red-Coat]

You didn't just snap off photographs in 1880. It was a process and you had to hold perfectly still for upwards of a minute. This is why no one ever smiles in "old tyme" photographs. If this were taken "in situ" as the hanging actually happened - There would be a lot of blurred faces and double exposures. As it is - everyone can be made out quite clearly. I think this is a staged picture taken at a much later date given the clarity of the image. Even if those guys were trying to stay perfectly still - hoisting up the weight of an adult male, holding still and getting this kind of clarity without blurring would have been pretty amazing for an 1880s era photography. This picture would seem to indicate a much faster shutter speed and having been shot onto film rather than developed onto a tin or metal plate. Camera film had only recently been developed by Kodak in 1880, was experimental and would have been very expensive. Most photographers would still have been doing photography with plate development. Just my two cents.

While I stand by what I said in an earlier post about the lack of blurred movement and suspiciously sharp image of an apparently non-struggling man being hoisted to his death, the above at least is not factually correct.

We don’t know for sure when this picture was taken, but Eastman Kodak brought photography to the masses with their fixed-focus, single shutter speed Box Camera in 1888. By about 1840, exposure times had been reduced to about 20 seconds (rather than ‘upwards of a minute’) and then, for professionals in the field, there was a major advance with the invention of the gelatin dry plate in 1871. For the first time, tripods were no longer necessary (although they still helped and were widely used) and candid photography was a realistic possibility. Even then, however, the exposures weren’t rapid enough to freeze a moving subject without some blur (and If you wanted a sharp picture you still had to pose it). That’s what’s suspicious about the picture.

Personally, I don’t subscribe to the ‘painted backdrop’ theory, but the picture does look like it has been taken by a professional with arrangement of the subjects for maximum drama and sharpness of the end result. Perhaps a photographer from a news agency.

It’s either a real hanging or it’s staged. If it’s real, why is there no visible movement on the captured image? ‘Staged’ can mean the later ‘re-hanging’ of someone already dead for the purposes of getting a dramatic picture (that certainly happened on occasions) or completely created as a mock event with someone playing the part of the victim. I’m still going with the latter based on the various clues from the unnatural posture of the person being strung up.

 

[Red-Coat]

To your point - not only do we not know the year the picture was taken- we don't know the model of camera the picture was taken with or medium it was shot on - so your theories that it was a 20 second shutter speed or utilized gelatin plates is - well - sure - maybe. Or maybe not. My point was that you didn't whip out your cell phone or a handy cam and just snap a crystal clear picture. I was speaking generally and from experience having worked with a photographer who utilizes period authentic, late 1800s photography gear. I think we're both in agreement that it would have been difficult to pull off such a clear shot if this were taken candidly. I also agree with you that the posture of the body is weird and it almost looks like the rope is being run up the back of the shirt but that's just speculation on my part.

I didn't propose a theory on what equipment was being used, or when the picture was taken. I was commenting on your take of the technology available at the time you think the picture was taken.

You proposed a date of 1880 and said "you didn't just snap off photographs in 1880. It was a process and you had to hold perfectly still for upwards of a minute".

That's factually incorrect. As I said, the invention of the gelatin dry plate in 1871 made this no longer necessary and candid pictures of moving subjects were perfectly possible (albeit, as I said, not with the degree of sharpness we see in the hanging picture) for professional photographers.

Yes early film (as opposed to plates) would have been experimental, expensive and not widely available in 1880 but it only took until 1888 for that to change dramatically, courtesy of Eastman Kodak with a single-shutter speed camera which also didn't require long exposures and was widely available to the general public.

 

[Gare]

I think I would rather be shot if I had to choose.......

A lot of people asked to be shot but were denied !! and hung .

 

[Kray Gelder]

I'd call that murder. Someone actually framed that and hung it on a wall?

 

[islamoradamark]

They used to hang horse thieves and cattle rustlers I've pictures like that hangin in peoples homes

 

[A2coins]

I think I would rather be shot if I had to choose.......

 

[A2coins]

I tried to be a poet and learned I shouldnt doet

 

[Noah_D]

I tried to be a poet and learned I shouldnt doet

You're a poet and you didn't even know it!

Now stop rhyming and I mean it.