dirondack chronicler and biographer Maitland De Sormo described Seneca Ray Stoddard as “gentle, easy-going, (and) unassuming.” He was not above poking fun at himself; even when a life-threatening mishap was the subject of his humor. One of the emerging technologies that he helped pioneer in the 1890s was nighttime flash photography, using magnesium metal powder, which was flammable in March 1890:
