Scan of the Week: Pretty girl of long ago

Ruth Wilson
Mar 19, 2008 at 4:15 PM
3 comments

No, this isn't from the Library's local history collection. I bought it at an antique store about 8 years ago--one of those "Instant Ancestor" photos, none of which have any names on the back.

What I love about this is the complexity of her expression:

Img_youngwoman045

She gives the impression of smiling, but she is not smiling. The faintest shade imaginable plays around her mouth, making her look like she is about to smile, or was smiling a moment ago, or is trying not to smile.

Absent information to the contrary, I believe this is what is happening in the picture: The young lady is very conscious of wearing an extremely pretty new dress, and of having her hair beautifully done up (probably more elaborately in the back than we would guess from the front), of her smooth satin bows arranged just so, and of feeling just as pretty as any young woman ever was before--conscious of all this, I believe, she wants to look nonchalant about it.

Yes, I think she wants to give the appearance that all of this not a special occasion, not at all unusual for her, and not the sitting down for the portrait-taker, either. So she will not smile and give away her pleasure and excitement. But I think despite her attempt at fooling us with nonchalance, the little shadow by her mouth says her dress is new, the occasion lovely, and the world poorer for being robbed of her smile.

Update: One of my librarian friends has pointed out, with justice, that people from this era usually did not smile for their picture-taking. I like how this thought changes the picture for me: perhaps what we can read here, in this complicated, sidelong glance, is that she might suppress her smile for a moment, but never her charm and gracefulness.

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This also appears in:

Tricks and Manners

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That is a heck of a blouse, isn't it? It almost overwhelms her. Almost. She's too pretty to miss in all that fabric. She looks to me, Miss Ruth, that she is going to say something to someone. Like maybe a mother or a sibling is off to her left and she says something..she might be old enough for a husband too.

I like the pic, thanks for sharing. Picture taking was considered serious. Another explanation for the lack of smiles in most photographs of that era is that the exposure time was very long. Have you ever seen an old photograph of a city scape? The buildings come out clear but the action on the street is a blur - that is why. So for a portrait, you had to sit very still or you would come out fuzzy and it is hard to keep a smile in place for an extended period of time. However, most people look very serious and sometimes even stern in old photographs. This is a lovely picture because, as you said, you feel like she is smiling even though she isn't. A rare find indeed.

Thanks for commenting! I added a graph to the post about the seriousness angle. I like her even better for in light of that new thought.

Scan of the Week: Pretty girl of long ago

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