A photo of an unknown child. John Rapier Photographer, No. 18 Front Street, Meridian, MS
This photo was obtained by Historic Clarke County in MS whening purchusing the Gavin-Huff house in Quitman MS. The photo album contains pitcures mostly from Alabama/Mississippi. Any information in identifying the baby in this picture is appreciated.
Date & Place:
at R S Gavin Album in Meridian, Mississippi USA
Interesting, in that era with her hair that short she may have been through a serious illness, maybe within the previous 6 months? Not sure how long it would take for hair to grow to that length but they used to cut hair off with high fevers.
If you look at the hair above the ears, that looks like a short cut. I have hair about that length and you can tell the cut lines. Vitamin deficiencies also cause hair loss, the four Russian grand duchesses during their captivity (1916) lost their hair.
Off topic:
Quitman, Mississippi?
Doing my husband's family tree, his 2nd Gr Grandpa's name was Quitman C Wiginton, and they lived in Mississippi before migrating to Texas. I've always wondered the origin of the Quitman name. Now me thinks I must look up the origins of Quitman, Mississippi!
One reason people didn't freak out is sex was a private act, it wasn't on the big screen or in TV shows, it wasn't happening in public and it wasn't broadcast by the news media. People weren't proclaiming loudly I'm heterosexual or I'm gay.
I was wondering about that, too. Boys did wear dresses until a certain age back then. But, I don't think that their ears would have been pierced, and, it looks like the child in the photo is wearing earrings.
Look at her legs people that is a little girl and Jesus I think people weren't as whacked as our time. And In the Victorian era the dresses u elude to were for toddlers because it was easier to change the kiddos diapers.
Boys only wore dresses until they were 2 or 3 years of age. They did not wear them this late in age. This person is wearing earrings and their jacket is very feminine looking with a lacy border. This is either a girl that had to have her hair cut off due to an illness or lice or her parents were poor and sold her hair for money or maybe the mother had so many sons she wanted to dress one of them up just once to see what it would be like to have a girl. Believe it or not people do that.
I have always heard that boys wore dresses until about five or six -- sometimes a bit later. But, considering the earrings, I do think that this is a girl.
I know her bangs are short but her hair could be pulled to the back.Is there a hint of a bow in the back behind her hand. Boys didn't wear earrings then. Also it looks like she has on a necklace. Girl shoes.I would just take it at face value. A pretty young girl.
Photos like these seem to carry whole life stories of mystery with them, I always wonder who is looking out those eyes and what has been their life experience
Because little girls did not have short hair unless they had been very ill (high fever) or suffered from a vitamin deficiency. So, yes, hair can tell us a lot about the era/time.
She is very still for being on a swing. Do you see her left hand(right to us). It looks limp. Though the other hand looks like it is grasped around the rope. I have found several photos in my family photo box(most unidentified) that were of deceased children.
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I had thought of that, the swing is easy, it is probably a prop in a photographer's place, but I thought her eyes looked too "there" to be deceased. Too aware, not empty, hard to explain.
This is the second photo of a child that I've run across in the past twenty-four hours on Ancient Faces that viewers have commented they thought was of a post-mortem child. Really, people; do you genuinely believe that a parent or photographer's studio would morally permit such a thing as posing deceased children - and pretending that they were still alive - for photographic purposes? Regarding viewer Elsa Cumming's comment (above) that the child is "very still", there is a perfectly sensible reason for this, and not because she is deceased. In the early days of photography the exposure time was sometimes several seconds. Therefore, photographic subjects were required to remain perfectly still in order to guarantee a clear, focused image. If the subject were to move his / her image would appear as a moving blur. Also, if this child were deceased it would be awfully difficult to maintain her position on such a precarious location as a swing without her toppling off. I give a hearty thanks to the extreme majority of you who, like me saw this little girl as how she appears; alert, adorable, and very much "alive."
My ex husband was born and raised in Quitman MS,, I went there only ones in all the year we were married and it's very small, maybe he knows something about where the photo came from.
Both of this child’s hands appear to be severely chapped, particularly her right hand. Maybe she was recovering from some form of illness, or a burn injury.
You aren't being mean, but it is a proven fact that little boys had to wear dresses in those days, they were black! I screwed up on this one, it is a girl! Ppl were not allowed to smile either if a photographer was taking their pictures!
It's not that they "weren't allowed to smile" it's that pictures took so long to take back in those days that they didn't want to hold a smile for that long. Also boys only wore dresses up until about 2 or 3 years of age and every picture I've ever seen they were always white.
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