Swedish neighbors and customers

Part of the Powell Studio's diverse clientele

Camera-friendly

This portrait of John and Rosalie Pihl Monson’s children was probably taken by Annie Powell in 1895. Anna Louise, Ingrid Hanna, Johan Alberth, and John Edwin seem unusually comfortable with the camera. That may be because they were close neighbors, and knew Annie and John Powell from their residence at 218 Agawam Street. The loving cheek-to-cheek gesture and the careful placement of the girl’s arm and hand on the right are an example Annie’s exceptional posing skills.

Their father migrated from Sweden in 1874, and worked in the nearby U.S. Cartridge Co. which actively recruited Swedish immigrants. He was a charter member of the Swedish Lutheran Church and treasurer of the Swedish Mutual Aid Society. The youngest child in the photo, John Edwin Monson (1894–1977), is the step-grandfather of Brad MacGowan who supplied this image.

Backyard comfort

I ran this circa 1903 photo of the Anders Thomasson family last month in a survey of Annie Powell pet photos. He was a Swedish immigrant who established a successful drug store on Central Street. Annie took this as a subcontractor for Norwegian immigrant Johann Hansen who operated a studio at 158 Merrimack Street from 1903 to 1910. Image courtesy Lowell Historical Society.

Many of Annie’s photos of her Irish and Portuguese neighbors remain today. But these two images are the only portraits I have found of her Swedish neighbors.

Dialing for Swedish business

Between 1900 and 1906, John and Annie Powell ran almost 100 ads in the Lowell section of Skandinavia, a weekly Swedish-language newspaper based in Worcester. Many of their neighbors were Swedish-Americans. I have highlighted their ad in green.

The Google translation reads:

The difficulty of photographing children has been overcome. That the Columbian Studio has done this can, however, be attested to by satisfied parents and is evident from the endless number of happy baby faces exhibited at the Columbian Studio, J. & E. H. Powell, 55 South Whipple street.

To place the ads, as the Lowell section header notes,the Powells would have walked up the hill to agent and correspondent “O.A. Berntson” at 121 Moore Street. Berntson was a grocer, travel agent, notary, and in 1917, author of Kort historik ofver svenskarne i Lowell (Brief history of the Swedes in Lowell). This was apparently the last ad they ever ran in any language. Behind in their mortgage, a few weeks later, they lost their home and business.

Bernie Zelitch is founder and executive director of by Annie Powell charitable nonprofit. Formerly an investigative journalist, he is a songwriter, historian, and member of the Photographic Historical Society of New England board of directors.