Who Were They?

Sepia Saturday this week encourages us to look at women, and although I don’t have a photo of women talking on the phone, operating office machines or other possible directions the prompt could go, I do have some women from a recent purchase that I am ready to explore. These three photos have rather odd cropping.

This cabinet card has the deckled edges popular in the 1890s, and the clothing also suggests that same time frame. You notice the image appears to have been cut in a rounded fashion along the lower portion of the girls’ bodies, and then placed on a brown field. Just under the girl on the left it says “me here” I think. The back identifies them as Ida & Catherine Rudd.

Another cabinet card with the strange rounded cropping. The clothing is indicative of the 1890s again, so my first impression that it was a photo cut out of another photograph and remounted. That could still be the case, but it isn’t an older photo reprint, as was often done. This one was identified as Emma Rudd.

This image was clearly cut from another and reprinted. You can see behind the curls of her hair, a lighter backdrop than the dark brown one used here. The cutting was done carefully, but it is still possible to see where the scissors changed direction on the rounded edge at the bottom of the image. This is definitely another Rudd family member as the facial resemblance is quite strong, but it was not identified. None of the photos have any photographer’s information so at first I wasn’t even sure where they were from geographically. However, another photo in the batch was made in Los Angeles, CA, so that gives us a jumping off point for genealogical research. More to come with this family as I have a variety of cabinet cards, snapshots and possible even some postcards (mailed ones even!) to explore.

For other images of women doing interesting things (oh my!) click over to Sepia Saturday. You will be happy you did!