1920s Double Image Photos by Lewis Reed
If you take a look at the state of photography today, such as the advances of digital cameras and the artful image manipulation by Photoshop, it is easy to forget that back in the 1920s photographers couldn’t just go into a computer program and change their images any way they wanted. They did what they could with the tools they had. Double image exposure was one tool Lewis Reed had in his photography tool belt.
With double exposure technique, you could create certain effects like placing the same person on both sides of a picture simultaneously. Very hard to believe these images were not created using Photoshop, they are just too cool. No digital manipulation here.
Below are some vintage (circa 1920s) double image photographs from Lewis Reed’s collection (click on photos to enlarge):
A Tale of Two Employees

Francis O. Day, Salesman (I Lost) paying off a local election bet to Guy Murray, Shop Foreman (I Won) in downtown Rockville circa 1940
One of the things I enjoy doing is looking through all of the old photographs in my grandfather’s albums and trying to figure out who and what they are. Some of the photos are more than 100 years old! Anyway, I can easily identify most of the Reed family, but who in the world are some of these other people? It’s like some reverse version of “Where’s Waldo”.
This time it was my mom (Lewis Reed’s daughter) who wanted to show me this old photo and tell me the story behind it. So here it is…
The story of two Reed Brothers employees (Francis O. Day, Salesman and Guy Murray, Shop Foreman) who made a bet on who would win a local election. It’s pretty obvious that Guy Murray won the bet, because he is being pulled by Francis Day through downtown Rockville in a horse cart. I thought only horses could pull those things, but I see grown men can, too!












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