Marion Dillenback - Photographer

 See this postcard (and yes I know I am obsessed with postcards lately!)

Do you see the signature at the bottom? I've been curious about it for a while and finally looked it up. It turns out that Marion is the Dillenback of Dillenback Photo Service.

Marion Dillenback was the former Marion Gallagher who married Garrett V. Dillenback, Jr on May 26, 1927.  Garrett was the son of Garrett and Adele Dillenback and they lived for a time at 1511 New Scotland Road - New Scotland Ave at Bridge Street as the card says -  the locally famous Ironweed House.

The 1940 U.S. census has the whole family living together.  Garrett and Adele are in their 70s with no occupation listed.  Daughter Elizabeth is 46 and a secretary at the state laboratory. Garrett, son, is 37 and his occupation is hard to read, but it looks like technician photographer, and he is a wage earner in private work. Marion, daughter-in-law, is 33 and her occupation is photographer private business, working on own account.  

And just to make things fun, the 1940 U.S. census also captured Garrett Dillenback, Jr. as a guest of the Times Square Hotel in New York City. I know its our Garrett because it states that on April 1, 1935 he was a resident of Slingerlands, NY.  His occupation is listed as "technician newspaper."  Garrett has a long history of technical "things" that I can document including his graduation from M.I.T., his U.S patent in 1930 for a "television motor structure" and Ham radio commendation from the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War. 

But, getting back to Marion, she made a career with photography and several of the photos in the town's archive that are attributed to "Dillenback" were most likely made by Marion herself.  

Like this one of the house at 1511 New Scotland.

And this one of the library book mobile in front of the school on New Scotland Road.

And the whole series of construction photos of the Delmar Post Office.

And in a nice throw back to another blog post, Marion worked for James A. Glenn of Albany for many years as evidenced by several city directories. This one is from 1959. 

And here's an ad from the November 6, 1936 issue of the Altamont Enterprise.

And now, at here at the very end, I must confess to making the mistake that the Dillenback of Dillenback Photo was Garrett.  I have even put this mistake in print and will have to make a correction to my book Bethlehem People and Places.  Sigh.  Always, I do the best I can with the fact checking and make corrections as I am able.