Beleden, one of Connecticut’s great high-style mansions, is located on Bellevue Avenue in Bristol. Designed by the architect Samuel Brown of Boston, Beleden was built for William Edwin Sessions, of the Sessions Clock Company. The Sessions family operated a foundry that had been producing castings for the E.N. Welch Company, a Forrestville clock manufacturer. Around 1900, Sessions purchased E.N. Welch and in 1903 renamed it the Sessions Clock Company. In 1906, William E. Sessions, who had been living in a house on Bellevue Avenue in Bristol, purchased the adjacent house and land of Nathan L. Birge. The Birge House was torn down and over the next 4 years Beleden, completed in 1910, was constructed. The U-shaped brownstone mansion was once the centerpiece of a large estate, which featured formal and English gardens, a pool, greenhouses and grape arbors. These former grounds were later divided by Beleden Gardens Drive and built-up with smaller homes. Two buildings, a coachman’s lodge and a gardener’s cottage, were originally part of the estate but are now separated from the main house by newer structures.
Thank you for the interesting history that is provided on Beleden. I clicked the link of the ‘Gardener’s cottage’ to Beleden as I was interested because I have photographed the cottage. Low and behold, I see the link went to my photograph of this cottage that I had posted on my former Flickr account.
I have many photos of historic homes which I have had posted online in the past. I hope to post them again in the future. Unfortunately, I have just discovered that one of my photos of these historic homes, Castle Largo (on Main Street Bristol), was stolen and used for advertising (aka profitable purposes). It is a shame that I am becoming very apprehensive about sharing my work online due to theft of my photography by abhorrent folks who feel they can freely steal copyrighted material. I grew up in this area of architectural treasures on Federal Hill in Bristol. Due to this, I especially appreciate the interesting history of this area provided on this site. Thanks so much!
I recently noticed that both the picture and text of my post for the Cambridge Arms Apartments in New Haven appear on this architecture site without any credit or link to my blog at all. It’s hard to prevent people stealing text, but for pictures I could add a watermark over the images, but it wouldn’t look very nice.
Daniel,
I just came onto this site to provide a the new link to my photo of the Gardeners Cottage of Beleden; though, after reading your comment about your photo being used by this site in the way that you have stated I have changed my mind.
I do have a signature on nearly all of my photos. Though, I missed that my photo of Castle Largo was uploaded without my signature stamp.
It actually does not take away the appearance of the photo that much if you add some type of ownership mark on the photo. With a photo shop program, you can be very creative how you add the mark to the photo. It is much worse to have your photo stolen then to loose some of the asthestic quality to the photo.
It is honestly abhorrent that anyone feels that photos are found online are free for the picking and in this way feel that theft of private property is ever acceptable. Likewise, I feel the same about theft of writing. Both of these art forms of photography and writing are personal to us.
You have increased my awareness to also now always include a copyright statement with descriptions that I add to my photos.
I hope that you can contact someone on this site and get this matter of your photo being used here clearly in ways you have not authorized resolved with this site. Until then, I regret to say that my original feeling of appreciation of the material on this site has changed.
Shame on this site for not contacting the photographer/owner of the property to request permission to post photos and certainly give credit to the author of the photo on this site!!
For the record, I do fully intend on attaining compensation from the party that illegally used my photo on their commercial site. Infringement of a copyright is a violation of law of course. I encourage anyone that has experienced such a violation to adamently pursue having the offending party be held accountable for the theft.
Best of luck to you Daniel! I will follow up here with sincere hope that this site will resolve this matter of infringement of the copyright of your photo.
Daniel,
I visited the links that you provided and I see that your photo is on this site as you stated. I don’t know how you posted the links in the manner that you have. Though, thanks for doing so to allow me to view your photo and your site!
For now, my photo of Castle Largo that was stolen is posted on a new Flickr site I just started here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40361995@N02/3913531381/ (I am not certain if I will leave my photos on this site)
I think there’s some confusion here… Linda, you have the sites reversed! Historic Buildings of Connecticut is my site and its the “essential architecture” site that stole a picture from me. I take all the pictures and write the text myself for Historic Buildings of Connecticut. Sorry for the confusion!
Yikes! Daniel, I am so sorry!
I did in fact misunderstand and reverse the sites. :-/ Though, I am happy to know that this site is yours and all the photos are taken by you as I enjoy this site very much! You have done an incredible job compiling so many photos along with the informative history on all of these historical homes! Your site is like a toy box to me as I do have a great passion for beautiful architecture of the past. 🙂
As for the ‘essential architecture’ site that stole your work, I am not sure if you are aware of this but copyright infringements are a violation of FEDERAL LAW and can carry a maximum penalty of $150,000 per infringement, and/or criminal penalities of up to 10 years in prison. That site indeed stole your description as I recall verbatim, without crediting you which is also a copyright infringement of your work.
Here are a few online resources that give information about violation of copyright law for your review
http://www.chillingeffects.org/piracy/faq.cgi#QID145
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/504.html
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html
Of course, the .gov site is written more formally and can be difficult to understand. I found the ‘chilling effects’ site more readable, though I don’t know the accuracy of the less formal sites.
I do feel firmly that people that steal private property, and most especially if they benefit from it in a profitable manner, should be held liable/accountable for the theft. (The person that stole from me has stolen other copyrighted material as well, and I do intend to inform the owners of the other stolen works that have been published on this woman’s site.)
People who pirate our copyrighted artwork (photography, writing etc) devalue the work that we do. To me it just beats all, when others increase their earnings by taking away the value of ours. The more people that take a stand against this piracy on the internet and subsequently when thieves are held accountable by penalities that are substantially more then it would cost them to pay for the use of the artwork (aka intellectual property), as with anything people will think twice before they feel they can casually swipe property on the internet that doesn’t belong to them.
You have no need to apologize at all. On the contrary, please accept my apology for the error.
Again, I do hope you get the matter resolved with the person that swiped your work. If they don’t I hope you will consider pursuing the theft with an attorney.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
btw, you are welcome to link back to my photo of the former gardener’s cottage of Beleden if you wish. As well, thank you for providing the link to my photo in the past, and most especially for doing so honorably!!
Linda
Daniel,
Here is the link to the Gardener’s Cottage of Beleden if you decide that you want to update the link in your description above:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40361995@N02/3913622001/
I can’t tell definitely from the above photo if the roof is slate, copper or another material. Going forward, I must try to be more attentive so that I can include these details with the photo.