Is this Mendocino’s first selfie?
Family group photograph taken in the north side yard of the Maxwell home on Kasten Street, c. 1915. On the left, Elsie Maxwell is holding her son Kenneth Maxwell, and Joshua Grindle (Elsie’s step-father) sits in a chair with her small daughter, Grace Maxwell. In the rear, Eliza Grindle (Elsie’s mother) stands with a man that is perhaps Henry Jarvis. On the right, Perley Maxwell leans against the house holding a string he has pulled to activate his camera’s shutter. Apple Hall can be seen in the background beyond the short wooden fence. (Perley Maxwell (photographer), Emery Escola, Emery Escola Collection, Kelley House Photographs)
This photo and many more available in “Perley Maxwell’s Mendocino,” by Bruce Levene. Includes the Mendocino High School Photography Students 2002 Then & Now Project. $25.