A pretty easy prompt photo for this week’s Sepia Saturday! The prompt photo featured a series of portraits of a baby, and boy do I have baby photos since my great-great grandmother, Jessie Battin, was apparently obsessed with baby photos! There are a few that are identified, but many appear to be of friends – some may be family, but they’re unlabelled and baby photos can be so hard to match up to adult photos. In the above set are two labelled photos. On the left is Earl William Powis, born 15 October 1896 in Pennsylvania. On the right is Olga Mary Louise Powis, born 27 August 1900 in Pennsylvania. Even though they’re only 4 years apart, the photos were taken by different photographers and even used different gowns! The face on poor Earl just gets me though – what a grumpy little face he has on.
While I have lots of these old baby photos, I thought I’d finish off the post with these two. On the left is Harry Oscar Frederick “Fritz” Powis, born 1 May 1903 in Pennsylvania. On the right is an unidentified photo of two babies who I assume would be twins! It was probbaly taken around the same time as the others (late 1890-1910 or so) and was done at a studio in Pittsburgh, “J. H. Truxell.” All the photos here are from different photographers around central Pennsylvania – three from Coalport and one from Pittsburgh. So, to wrap it up, just a few old (over 100 years old!) baby photos to fit with the theme this week.
Those gowns! I’m amazed eseecially since I know what goes on under them with babies not controlltheir needs at all! Lots of laundry for mamma.
I agree with Barbara, they are beautiful gowns, but I wonder how the mothers coped with baby ‘poo explosions’ back then. Laundry bleach must have been in high demand!
What fabulous photos – in each case more gown than baby. They look a little lost in them and were probably glad to get them off as soon as they left the photographers’ studio.
Earl and Harry seem to have the same Christening gown (or the hems are very similar, at least!). And I’d have a grumpy face on, too, if I had to wear one of those things…
Did Earl grow up to be a judge? He has that judge sort of scowl. Or perhaps a poker player?
He definitely wasn’t a judge, and I’m not sure about poker! The scowl didn’t really stick with him though, there are lots of photos of him smiling and being silly. 🙂
Love the photos, love the gowns. A good match to the prompt!