The Happy Valley. The Elegant Eighties in Upstate New York by Pauline Dakin Taft. Photographs by Leonard Dakin.

Syracuse University Press, 1965. First edition. Hardcover, fine with fine protected dust jacket  Appendix by Beaumont Newhall re stop action photos by Leonard Dakin, one of the first generation of amateur photographers to take advantage of the the recently introduced gelatin dry plate negatives to make snapshots in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Dakin’s negatives depict his family, homes (interiors and exteriors), friends, and environment in Cherry Valley, New York State.  261 pages. 141 photographs in black and white.  Text by Dakin’s daughter Pauline with Foreword by Louis C. Jones. Summary:

The Happy Valley: The Elegant Eighties in Upstate New York, published in 1965 by Syracuse University Press, is a unique photographic and social history by Pauline Dakin Taft. It documents a specific, brief era of leisure and "elegance" in the rural communities of Cherry Valley and Cooperstown, New York, during the 1880s.

Key Themes and Content

The "Candid" Pioneer: The book is centered on the rediscovered photography of the author's father, Leonard Dakin. Unlike the stiff, formal portraits typical of the Victorian era, Dakin used a fast shutter to capture spontaneous, unposed moments of his family and friends—a revolutionary approach at the time.

Leisure and Society: It depicts the "Elegant Eighties," a period where the affluent middle class enjoyed an idyllic summer lifestyle. Images show lawn tennis matches, boating on Otsego Lake, picnics, and "parlor theatricals."

The "Happy Valley" Setting: The title refers to the Cherry Valley area, which the residents treated as a private sanctuary of culture and fun. The book captures the specific architecture, fashion (bustles and boater hats), and social rituals of these "summer people."

Social History: Through Taft’s commentary, the book serves as a primary source for understanding the manners, domestic life, and social hierarchies of late 19th-century Upstate New York.

Significance

The book is highly regarded by photography historians (including Beaumont Newhall, who wrote the book's appendix) because it reveals a "human" side of the 1880s that is rarely seen in professional studio archives. It transformed a private family album into a significant record of American social development.