This is another Trunk Family photo, although I don’t know which family members are represented here. The original photo is shown below – thank heavens for the wonders of computerized photo manipulation!
There are four young women, one older woman, one young man, two boys, one girl and two dogs. Also interesting is that if you look at the window to the left of the family, you will see someone in a straw boater. I assume this person is inside the hotel. I wonder if they owned the hotel?
For a proud Sepia Saturday submission, I give you the Trunk family, probably from the Youngstown, OH area. Benedicta is the girl kneeling in the front in the dark dress. She is lovely. In fact, I’ve really not given the rest of the family any attention at all because Ben draws my notice so. There is a note indicating that the girl hugging Ben is Ruth, her sister. There is another photo from this same day but in front of a railroad office. Maybe one of the family was leaving on a trip?
The family must have been large, as here we have notations for John, Leona (?), Rosa, Ruth, Min, Ann, another R name, and Ben, all around an older woman. I’m aware of another sister named Gertrude, and possible a brother named Joseph. The photo above had been pasted into one of those old black page photo albums at some point, and then cut out of the book and placed into another photo album.
The second photo album is what I have come across. It’s quite interesting, with a celluloid cover of white, with an art deco font stating “Remember Me.” Sadly, this album wound up on eBay. Many of the photos are missing, I assume collected by the children or grandchildren of the brothers and sisters. I think Ben may have never married, and if so, it’s sad that she was left behind.
Babies are cute regardless of when they were born. Here is little Benedicta Trunk as an infant, maybe as young as 3-4 months as she’s sort of laying on the chair and not holding up her head very much. You can see the inscription below the photo that someone wrote “Ben Trunk.” I’m guessing this was her nickname. The photo was taken in Youngstown, Ohio by Blackburn.
Little Ben was born in 1889 in Pennsylvania. There’s lots of work to do on this story, so check back again as I have several other photos of Ben and her family.
This lovely photograph is of Bendicta and Ruth Trunk, left and right. Based on some other information found with the photo and the great comments on a previous post, I believe this is a photo from their First Holy Communion. One of my readers said that these pins are Communion badges. The photographer was Davies Bros of West Wheeling VA, which is just across the river from Ohio. I’ll date this photo between 1910-1920. There will be more to come on Benedicta and her family so stay tuned.
Today I attended a class on historical hair. Yes, I learned quite a lot about women’s mid-century hair styles and how to achieve them. It got me thinking about some of the hair styles I’ve seen in these many old photos. Click the images to enlarge them. The photo above, taken in Philadelphia, PA, is a CdV probably from the early 1870s based on the CdV card itself and some clothing dating. Of interest to me today is the hair. (I doctored this photo quite a bit so it would be easier to see as it is incredibly damaged and yellowed.) This lady has her hair parted in the center and pulled back with her ears exposed, and there is some treatment in the back.
The next CdV was made by a photographer known to have been in business in 1864 in Nashville, TN. The hair is elaborate, with a crown of some sort above a top braid and obvious side braids in the back. This is one of my favorites.
Here we have not only a lovely gown, but a simple hairstyle with side puffs or twists, it’s a little hard to tell. The hair is rolled back from the face and probably over a small “rat” which is basically a wad of hair sewn into a pad and inserted under the hair to add volume. Instead of rolling the hair out and over as we would be inclined to do today, the hair is rolled out and under, adding width to the face. This CdV was made in Cumberland, MD.
This image from Troy, NY also features the simple side twist over a rat, but possibly a top braid and also some sort of ribbon or lace day cap. I just love the pagoda sleeves on her dress!
Here we see a chignon in the back and what is possibly a top braid. The chignon was any sort of twisted hair arrangement on the back of the head, not restricted to the sleek vertical chignon we see today. This is an international CdV from Frankfurt, Germany.
Finally, my favorite, though I won’t be arranging my hair this way because it doesn’t look good on me. She has her hair crimped in front providing the waves, then pulled toward the back probably into a chignon, and sausage curls dangling to the side. This CdV was also made in Troy, NY.
Who Were They? 