The Jack the Ripper Location Photographs: Dutfield's Yard and the Whitby Collection by Philip Hutchinson Page A
Authors: Philip Hutchinson
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appears in four of the images. She is only close enough to the camera in two of them to identify her features. What becomes clear very quickly is the fact that she was travelling alone. There are no family members in any of the images. No husband, no children. Being a woman of such considerable means, this would suggest she was either unmarried and from a moneyed family, or was a rich widow. Such independence was to prove helpful in removing a great deal of possible names.
The historian Chris Scott ran a check on an archive of passenger lists on my behalf, using various criteria. It had to give returns within the confines of unmarried women between the ages of 35 to 45 in 1900 whom had travelled on the Lucania from New York to the UK. 11 names came back, none of them in June and only two of them being listed as landing at Queenstown (one being an Irish woman landing on 11 May and the other a Miss Rayden, aged 40, a New Yorker almost certainly on the same date – this being the Lucania’s disembarkation point directly before it travelled on to Liverpool and then back to New York to collect the Thomas Cook passengers about to take Tour 22). Although these parameters need to be widened, this clearly shows the inefficiency of some online resources, or perhaps the lack of rigour shown in 1900. Of course, it may be that the traveller was married yet making the trip alone and that her age falls outside that range. Nevertheless, a total of 11 names in a year is most definitely a small fraction of what it should be.
Miss Van Neiukirk and Miss Blake at the colonnades at St Peter’s, Rome, from the album
Only two individuals are named in the album, both sadly by surname alone. Both are single women; a Miss Van Neiukirk (apparently quite young), and a Miss Blake. The pair are seen standing at the colonnades at St Peter’s in Rome, attired to ‘pay homage to the Pope’. This photograph appears on the page next to the clearest image of the photographer herself, marked ‘Myself, ditto’. This is a contradiction of the earlier statement in the album about ‘Christian Martyrs’ at Smithfield and would infer the photographer was a Catholic, unless she viewed the opportunity to see the Pope as one not to be missed, regardless of denomination. This is a distinct possibility as Miss Blake holds a rosary and Miss Van Neiukirk and the photographer do not. Miss Van Neiukirk is mentioned again as sharing a gondola in Venice with the photographer. It is unclear whether Miss Van Neiukirk and Miss Blake were travelling on the same Cook tour as the photographer, or if they simply met her in Italy. As the distance between Venice and Rome is about 250 miles, it is more likely that all three ladies were making the same extended Grand Tour. Sadly, neither of the women produce any results on the Ellis Island website for arrival into the US in September 1900.
Miss Van Neiukirk was to prove an enigma. Dee Anna Grimsrud at the Wisconsin Historical Society undertook some research and found that this was the original Dutch spelling of the name. A few early immigrants from the Netherlands had this spelling but this was usually changed to Van Niewkirk and eventually Anglicised to Van Newkirk. The early immigrants only show up in New York and New Jersey. It must also be considered, of course, that written records of that time – whether they are from the Census, passport applications or shipping lists – frequently record names inaccurately based on their phonetic sound. Of the possible Miss Van Newkirks found on Census returns, two were in New Jersey and six were in Baltimore, born between 1864 and 1878 and most likely sisters. Only one Miss Van Newkirk is listed on the Ellis Island manifests from 1900, that being a Blanch Van Newkirk born in Baltimore on 27 July 1873, giving an age of 27 at the time of the photograph in Rome. She may possibly be the Miss Van Neiukirk who took the trip, yet her arrival back into the US does not tally closely with the
The historian Chris Scott ran a check on an archive of passenger lists on my behalf, using various criteria. It had to give returns within the confines of unmarried women between the ages of 35 to 45 in 1900 whom had travelled on the Lucania from New York to the UK. 11 names came back, none of them in June and only two of them being listed as landing at Queenstown (one being an Irish woman landing on 11 May and the other a Miss Rayden, aged 40, a New Yorker almost certainly on the same date – this being the Lucania’s disembarkation point directly before it travelled on to Liverpool and then back to New York to collect the Thomas Cook passengers about to take Tour 22). Although these parameters need to be widened, this clearly shows the inefficiency of some online resources, or perhaps the lack of rigour shown in 1900. Of course, it may be that the traveller was married yet making the trip alone and that her age falls outside that range. Nevertheless, a total of 11 names in a year is most definitely a small fraction of what it should be.
Miss Van Neiukirk and Miss Blake at the colonnades at St Peter’s, Rome, from the album
Only two individuals are named in the album, both sadly by surname alone. Both are single women; a Miss Van Neiukirk (apparently quite young), and a Miss Blake. The pair are seen standing at the colonnades at St Peter’s in Rome, attired to ‘pay homage to the Pope’. This photograph appears on the page next to the clearest image of the photographer herself, marked ‘Myself, ditto’. This is a contradiction of the earlier statement in the album about ‘Christian Martyrs’ at Smithfield and would infer the photographer was a Catholic, unless she viewed the opportunity to see the Pope as one not to be missed, regardless of denomination. This is a distinct possibility as Miss Blake holds a rosary and Miss Van Neiukirk and the photographer do not. Miss Van Neiukirk is mentioned again as sharing a gondola in Venice with the photographer. It is unclear whether Miss Van Neiukirk and Miss Blake were travelling on the same Cook tour as the photographer, or if they simply met her in Italy. As the distance between Venice and Rome is about 250 miles, it is more likely that all three ladies were making the same extended Grand Tour. Sadly, neither of the women produce any results on the Ellis Island website for arrival into the US in September 1900.
Miss Van Neiukirk was to prove an enigma. Dee Anna Grimsrud at the Wisconsin Historical Society undertook some research and found that this was the original Dutch spelling of the name. A few early immigrants from the Netherlands had this spelling but this was usually changed to Van Niewkirk and eventually Anglicised to Van Newkirk. The early immigrants only show up in New York and New Jersey. It must also be considered, of course, that written records of that time – whether they are from the Census, passport applications or shipping lists – frequently record names inaccurately based on their phonetic sound. Of the possible Miss Van Newkirks found on Census returns, two were in New Jersey and six were in Baltimore, born between 1864 and 1878 and most likely sisters. Only one Miss Van Newkirk is listed on the Ellis Island manifests from 1900, that being a Blanch Van Newkirk born in Baltimore on 27 July 1873, giving an age of 27 at the time of the photograph in Rome. She may possibly be the Miss Van Neiukirk who took the trip, yet her arrival back into the US does not tally closely with the
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