In 1930, Beatrice Tonnesen retired from her career in Chicago as a nationally known artist-photographer, and returned to live with her sister, Clara, in their childhood home in Winneconne, Wisconsin.  Nearly two decades later, Tonnesen re-emerged on the national scene as the creator of “Marsware”, ceramic art objects fashioned from coal clinkers, the residue dug from her home furnace!  Reportedly, she was fascinated by the unique shapes of the clinkers and conceived the idea of adding clay and paint to create flower pots, candle stick holders and even necklaces, all adorned with sculptures of  people and animals she imagined as Mars dwellers.  Her craft was considered unique enough that it was the subject of a 1949 film short titled “Unusual Occupations,” produced by Paramount Pictures and shown in theaters nationwide.Having never seen a piece of Marsware, or even a detailed photo of one, I was excited, recently, to be able to buy a series of five press photos, showing Tonnesen in 1946 with her curious Marsware creations.  The photos, shown in the slideshow at right are all stamped:Acme Newspictures, Inc.461 Eighth Ave. New York CityPlease Credit “Acme Photo”This picture is sold to you for your publication only and must not be loaned, syndicated or used for advertising purposes without written permission from us.The photos came complete with titles and captions which can be seen by rolling your cursor over each image.  Does anyone out there have any actual examples of Marsware?  At least now we know what they look like, should we run across one at a garage sale!Copyright 2012 Lois Emerson 

A striking photo, found two years ago by the Winneconne (WI) Historical Society, showed a beautiful young mother holding her naked baby. A handwritten note on the photo indicated it had been copyrighted in 1901 by Packer’s Tar Soap. The photo appears to have been taken in the same session as the more famous “Tonnesen Madonna” featured here in a post from Chicago Magazine’s 312 blog. Recently, I was fortunate to be able to purchase the finished Packer’s Tar Soap ad from an online gallery, and can now present the “before and after” versions of this beautiful ad in the slideshow at right. I’ve included images of another mother and child photo from my collection which appears to have been shot at the same time, and a photo from the Winneconne Collection which appears to feature the same woman without the child.

Additionally, as I was preparing this post for publication, two related events occurred: First, one of our site visitors, Chip McElroy submitted a photo of a woman in a distinctive woven wrap who reminded me of both the mother in the Packer’s Tar Soap Ad and “Muriel” shown in our post titled “How Tonnesen’s Fedora Became Thos. D. Murphy’s ‘Muriel’.” Next, I happened upon an online image of the original “Fedora” published in 1901 in “The Inland Printer”, v. 27, page 224, available on the Hathi-Trust website. Amazingly, “Fedora” was wearing the same distinctive wrap as the woman in Chip McElroy’s print! I’m including the McElroy image as the fifth image in the slideshow at right. Personally, I am convinced that the same model appears in all of the images. What do you think?

Slideshow images, L to R: Photo for Packer’s Tar Soap ad; the completed ad; related photo from my collection; related photo from the WHS collection; photo courtesy Chip McElroy.

Copyright 2012 Lois Emerson