This picture was taken in May, 1893. My grandmother on my father's side is the girl seated in the front left with her hands on her knees. She is 10 years old in this picture. She died when my dad was 6 years old, in the influenza epidemic in 1920, so I never knew her.
I guess the photographers never said "smile" in those days. They are such a somber bunch!
9 comments:
What a wonderful photo. I have one of my grandmother with her many brothers taken around the same time and not one of them is smiling either.
Even though they are not smiling ~ this photo made me smile. Photos are the best treasure to pass onto family.
J~MT
Back in those days, they never smiled when photos were taken. The exposure took too long, and it was just too uncomfortable to hold a pose for that long.
What I love, though, are all the boys with crossed arms - like the LAST thing they want is to stand still for a photograph!
I love old photos, and this is a great shot, Wanda. Thanks for sharing.
They look "solemn as boiled owls" as my Shakespeare professor used to say. Hope you had fun today.
I have some old photos my mother passed on to me and it seems they never ever smiled at the camera. Is that all family?
They are all so thin! Almost no child in a contemporary class photo would be thin!!!
Love the photo!
Pattie's right. Smiles don't hold still for longer than a fraction of a second, so when exposures still took a full second or longer, having everybody freeze in a "serious" expression was a safer bet. Secondarily, when photography was still rare it was also a lot more formal. It was a modernized version of the painted portrait, and when you think about portraits, people generally have somber or stern expressions. Goofy grins are pretty rare.
Somber, yes, but what a wonderful photo!
This is a fantstic heirloom! Not only family history but fabric history too. I wonder how many scraps of those clothes made their way into quilts? Is it a school photo? The children look to be different ages.
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