Relay Team Photo is a Whodunit from 1906
Hint: It’s Not the Obvious Guy from Montreal
Lowell Relay Team, 1906. The pose seems to simulate two relay handoff runners and two starting runners. A relay race would only have one starter in crouch position but the photographer's choice of two balances the composition. Courtesy of Lowell Historical Society (LHS), archived by UMass Lowell Center for Lowell History (CLH).
The celebration of Black History Month in Lowell often includes this dramatically staged 1906 photo of the Lowell High School relay team, undefeated for four years.
The photo features team captain Gerald Lew, who was from a prominent Black family dating to the Revolutionary War. It is owned by Lowell Historical Society and archived at UMass Lowell’s Center for Lowell History (CLH). The CLH website offers the full story of Lew and his family.
A “Marion” logotype printed on the front mount means it came from the John Seraphin Marion studio on Central and Merrimack streets. But when I first saw the image in August 2024, I noted it was highly art-directed and choreographed in a style very similar to Annie Powell’s work. It displayed retouched shadows, a technique she often used to enhance contrast and composition. And the unusual setting, with an oriental rug and curtain backdrop, suggested it was taken at an unadvertised studio at the Lowell Textile School.
The evidence was mounting last year that the studio was set up for the convenience of Annie Powell and her husband, John, whose home studio was two miles away. They had a near monopoly on the school’s substantial photography work, likely due to migration from the same West Yorkshire, England area as the school director, Christopher Brooks, and a prominent teacher I have written about, Fenwick Umpleby.
Two recent discoveries make the attribution to Annie Powell a compelling near certainty.
The first was that during the early 1900s, it appears that Annie Powell regularly worked for Marion. A study of the studio collection shared by Michael Lally contains mostly Powell photographs. It links five “Marion” studio portraits from that time to Annie Powell.
Marion's take on Leadership. Photographer Marion got the contract and credit for the relay team photo. But the image's composition and dramatic flair is missing in other Marion efforts, such as this one printed in August 4, 1903 in the Lowell Daily Courier. This view of civic leadership is a contrast to the track team captain participating as an equal part of the action. Here the police lieutenant is near the camera looking very much in charge. He stands separate from his charges who seem in search of direction. Courtesy Chelmsford Historical Society.
The second discovery was a scan CLH provided of the verso (reverse) of the relay team image. Handwriting matches her known style. It also uses a distinctively British adjective, “‘crack’ relay team” to describe their success. Americans might have used the description “amazing” or “wonderful.” Marion, whose name is on the photo, was from French-speaking Montreal. In 1906, there were two other British photographers in Lowell: her husband, John, and John Dempsey. Handwriting samples from both of them are obvious mismatches. Handwriting samples from Annie Powell are close matches.
The writing on the reverse completes the case for Annie Powell’s authorship. Probably at least two people put pencil to paper on it, but significant portions of the text closely match Annie Powell’s known style. The word “Lowell” matches the same word on an image Annie made of mill worker Dela Braga, circa 1919 (courtesy LHS). The “crack relay team” penmanship not only matches her known handwriting, but also contains an idiom she would have brought over from England. British idioms and spellings help attribute other photos to Annie.
Lots of rugs would be expected at a school devoted to weaving in all its forms. I conclude that the backdrops and furniture in some images were owned by the Powell studios, as they appear in photos taken at their studios in south Lowell between 1898 and 1906. Courtesy CLH and Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives.
Make it stand out
Bernie Zelitch is an investigative journalist, historian, and by Annie Powell executive director.
Published in our newsletter 2/21/2025
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