I’m sure the calls will be pouring in to the Vintage Rockport complaint department to point out that this picture is of Gloucester, not Rockport. Even so, given that it is such a beautiful photograph and is one of the oldest postcards I have, I had to share it. (For readers unfamiliar with the area, Annisquam is a village within the city of Gloucester.)
The 1897 photograph is by Martha H. Harvey. What little I could find about her online suggests that she was a photographer active in the 1890s. I believe she lived in Annisquam and was married to George W. Harvey, a painter. I have seen a couple of recent references to sales of her photographs through art galleries (such as this one). I also found references to her photographs used as book illustrations (such as here).
Here are two of George Harvey’s Gloucester paintings from the same period. Here are several more.
If anyone has more information about either Martha or George Harvey, please share it below.
Vintage Rockport 
Martha Hale Harvey – In the early 1960’s my family and I moved into a cottage on Sunset Hill above Lobster Cove bridge. In the 1950’s we had lived a number of summers in the Custom House on River Road, but happily moved into our own property (wish we still had it!!). Down the lane lived Elliot C Rogers with his wife Helen. In the 1940/50’s he co-authored ‘The Saga of Cape Ann’ with his friend Melvin Copeland. Our families became very close and while he was elderly, he could be quite cantankerous and a lot of fun. He had stories about everything Cape Ann. He even gave me a cannon ball fired onto his ancestor’s dock by the British sloop of war Falcon, during the Revolution (now at the Cape Ann Historical Society). Elliot had a large free standing storage building at the rear of his land, which housed a lot of things, including dozens of wooden crates which contained all the glass plate negatives (in various sizes) he had inherited from his Aunt, Martha Hale Harvey. She and her husband the painter George Harvey lived on River Road, down from the Annisquam Yacht Club. Helen and Elliot had no children, and were concerned about what to do with the precious glass negatives taken by Martha. He asked my father, Ben Shattuck, who was an advertising executive, to come up with ideas. Unfortunately, Dad drew a blank, but Elliot managed to convince Rob Sagendorph, owner of ‘Yankee Magazine’, to purchase the collection. Recently they donated it to Historic New England, where it now thankfully resides. I do still have about ten small glass plate negatives in my possession. A gift from Elliot in 1963. I plan to hand them over to Historic New England asap.
In case anyone’s interested – Chris Shattuck.
Chris,
Thanks for sharing that. Very interesting. I just checked the Historic New England website and see that it mentions that it has some of her photos, although it does not appear to identify which it has. Keep us posted if you learn more about these pics.
-Bob
Thank you for sharing this information. Do you happen to know if, at one time, Elliott C. Rogers was ever a florist in the Rockport region? I recently purchased a very long, original wooden store sign with “Elliott C, Rogers Florist FTD Member” painted on it and was told by the seller that it came from the Rockport/Gloucester area and dates from the 1920’s-30’s. I am curious to know more about the sign and this is the only link I have found that references Elliott C. Rogers. Please let me know if you know any details of his earlier life. Thank you.
Lisa
I do not know that. You might want to check with the Sandy Bay Historical Society.
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