Fortunately folks did write in white ink on photo prints, although sometimes what was written led to confusion. My process involves finding the current appearance of a given location, but New York state has no place called Hinmanville, but it does have a hamlet named Hinmansville. Even the late Fred of tug44 noted the confusion here in parentheses. The confusion may be the result of good intentions, such as those of an Andrew Carnegie project here. Webster himself and Franklin had similar sentiments to those of Carnegie.

So I’m going to make an assumption here, namely, that this is a lock along the old Oswego Canal. Some of you might even come up with a lock number, I hope.

There’s a lot happening in this photo: the Oswego River between Phoenix and Fulton, the small boathouse, the horse beside the lockmaster’s shed, a man under the trees, the lock, the towpath, and another draft animal in the lower right.

It’s a great image, one that touches my desire for a “then/now” treatment, to contrast the terrain then with what’s there now.

Many thanks to Bill Hecht for cleaning up this image.