Newly discovered: the earliest known photograph of my great-grandfather David Blumenfeld. My guess is that this is taken sometime after 1902 when he opened his haberdashery shop (at the age of 37) in South St. Paul, Minnesota. Only then did he begin to "make a go of it" financially, where he might be tempted to have a portrait taken. I wonder if his lapel pin indicates that he is a Mason... Anyway, a good-looking fellow whose demeanor belies the throes he'd been through so far.
Here's one of the last photos taken of him, which appeared in his obituary in 1956.
