Last week, Joe Medeiros, a writer/photographer who goes by “Papa Joe Grappa”, published a story which chronicled 216 glass negatives from the early 1900s found in the basement of a Glenside house he bought in 1978 from the McDermond family.

According to Medeiros, a resident of California since 1992, he printed a few of the glass negatives, one of which was taken in front of the Glenside home on July 12, 1914 (featured below).

Medeiros published a follow-up story today which claims that John L. McDermond (pictured on the right below) is the mystery photographer of the 177 4×5 and 39 5×7 negatives. Born in Birchrunville, Chester, PA on December 1, 1854, he died on January 16, 1941, in Philadelphia, Medeiros wrote.

His younger brother, Ulysses Simpson Grant McDermond (pictured on the left below), was born in 1864 during the American Civil War.

Through “a little research”, Medeiros also determined that John L. McDermond was the father of Mordecai McDermond, who died in 1954.

“His widow Meta McDermond sold us the house in 1978. She’d lived there since 1908,” Medeiros wrote. “Mordecai had most likely inherited his father’s negatives, and they were relegated to the basement where they were forgotten.”

Mediros concludes the article by noting that “their lives were much harder and at times, much sadder” than ours.

“Many had to deal with a child’s death at an early age. John and his wife Fanny had a daughter die at 11. Ulysses and his wife Emma had five children die. Emma herself died at 45,” he wrote.

The full story can be found here. More images shared from the find are below:

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Photos: Joe Medeiros