I found this old photo in my Mother's things after she died, it has no markings on the back so I would guess it had something to do with her family. My Mother was raised in the San Angelo Texas area and her Mom's people were down around Beeville Texas, so this could have been some of them traveling to visit.
People in photo include: Katherine Bunce
This is amazing! The photo has no identifying information, but notice the covered wagon, sofa, cooking tools and the hats. With all these clues do you have an idea of when this might have been taken?
any idea what state this is from ? ranchers used covered wagons a chuck wagons up into the middle to late 40's I believe. It doesn't look like a large wagon they might travel in .
The submitter thinks that it may have been from Texas because the photo was found in her mother's belongings in Texas. There is little additional information if you click the link to the original.
The same style of the bonnets makes me wonder if this was a re-enactment?. Also, sofa looks more modern than wagon and clothing and one woman in the front row is wearing a short dress and shoes with heels.
1910-1920. Men's hat styles seem later than the actual era when the settlers would have posed, also the bonnets look like reproductions as they seem to have the same pattern and don't look authentic. My guess is a posed pic to look like they were settlers...
The bonnets look like slat bonnets... old oatmeal containers were cut and used as bonnet stays. Or so I was told many years ago by an elderly Texas woman.
I doubt Texas women were the only ones to use old oatmeal containers for stays. Also, we can't know what was used in these bonnets. But, man, that one bonnet is long!
The bonnets look similar, but they're not all the same. I had an aunt who still wore a poke bonnet to work outside, and she was a farmer's wife in Georgia in the 9140s.
AncientFaces definitely...I used to do living history and, I don't know, maybe it's just a vibe I get? Lol it seems pretty staged. Maybe it's the covered wagon in the background that's throwing me off more than the rumble seat...
This all says 1930s snapshot to me. If it were the era it is pretending to be (1870s), it would be a much better photograph (likely made by a professional). There wouldn't be any shadows on their faces.
This reminds me of Grandma Seward telling me stories about how they traveled from Tennessee to here in Indiana that would have been early 1900s maybe around 1910 covered wagon pulled by ox.
No living history. I did that at Cowtown museum for 10 years. The clothes are wrinkled like they would have been back in mid 1800s. You dont see that at our living history museum
You can tell by the dog! Let's see, 1 year in the life of a dog equals 7 human years...... Times that by the number of people, add all of the rings in the trees, divide that number by 1000 add 3, and I think you have it? I'm going to have another beer and relax...... Exhausted 🍺
Looking into the history of women's bonnets, or sun bonnet, they were largely used around 1850 and lost popularity within a decade. Women continued wearing them as late as 1920 particularly those who farmed, gardened, etc. Based on this information and taking into consideration the development of photography, I'd say it was a later date, in the early 20th century. Also, some of the girls and ladies had shorter skirt which was uncommon in the 19th century.
That's true Jennifer York. I thought the two to the right were older but maybe still quite young. It's difficult to tell with photographs but still very interesting.
Jennifer York - would hand-me-downs be an explanation for shorter skirts? It was common (at least into the 1960's!) to have hand-me-downs for activities like picnics.
My grandmother was from Texas. She sewed her own sun hats. She worked the fields in 1900 when she was sixteen and the hats kept the sun off her face. She was also a migrant farm worker and wore the hats in 1939. She wore the hats until she died in the '60's.
I think the female in the front row with her dress hem to her knees and legs showing does not go at all with the time period of the other dresses to the ankle.
I'd say somewhere from around the last 1890s to about 1905 or so. The poke bonnets that the women were wearing were still in use in the very early 1900s, especially in rural areas and on farms. The covered wagon was still in use in some parts of the country until around 1915 or so, but this one looks like it's more for use in hauling things around a farm than for any real traveling.
Looks like maybe a family reunion.
Cookware, pails, and basins like those were in use all the way into the 1940s and 1950s, especially in farm and rural families. I saw this sort of stuff in use all the way into the early 1960s in fact. You just didn't throw away a good pot of pan; they got handed down in the family.
I'm basing my guesses on what I've seen in relatives' kitchens. My dad was born in 1901, the eldest of 9 children (his youngest sisters were as much as 20 years younger than he was) and my mom (a farmer's daughter) was born in 1908...so, I had lots of aunts and uncles that we visited...and I was born when my folks were in their 40s, in 1948, so I saw the cookware and such still in use firsthand and still have many photos of the family from before 1925.
Well, with 9 in my dad's family and 12 in my mom's (2 oldest were my grandmother's stepchildren), and parents who were as old as a lot of my friends' grandparents, I had a lot of exposure to the old days and old ways! LOL!
So true...they never threw out anything....gals wud let dress hems out when they cud....i have pics of gal relatives that i noticed swapped blouses and even blouse collars in several pics during a visit...
my ancestors took an ox cart like this, think they were heading to Illinois where other family where, about 1870. Sadly 3 of them died on the trail, no clue where they are buried, somewhere between there and Ky.
Agree it must be an enactment of some sort. The children in the front are wearing homemade dresses but one's looks victorian. Some of the men in the back appear to be dresses as Union western Calvary, one resembles a Confederate officer by the hat. Two ladies on far right are wearing definitely victorian style blouses and homemade skirts. Maybe a Settlers Day event popular in that era.
I can't see how the blouses were strictly Victorian style. The Edwardian Era lasted from about 1900 through 1910 (my father was born at the beginning of that era), and women's blouses and skirts didn't change drastically during that time from the styles of the late Victorian era. Especially in the rural areas, the newest styles didn't come into use for some time after the styles hit the big cities. It could still be a reenactment, but the style of clothing and hats aren't good clues for that.
Another thing that seems out of place are the men's hairstyles, it's hard to see how short they are actually, but to me the lack of longer hair and beards, which were more common in the late 1800s, also reinforces the reenactment thought.
my guess... The 30's or early 40's. My mamaw made and wore this style bonnet. I still have some. The ox drawn wagons were used into the 40's in the south.
I dont know where people get the idea that wagons etc were not in use after cars were invented. My ggramma died in a wagon accident falling from a wagon which tipped on a bridge and she fell down into a dry river bed in OK in 1922. The family did not have vehicles til the late twenties or thirties... This pic doesnt look staged to me although posed
My grandmother was born October 1900. She told the story of how she migrated from Texas to Oklahoma by covered wagon when she was pregnant with her oldest. This looks to be early 1920s.
They started wearing those bonnets are 1910-1920's... when my grandpa and family moved from Oklahoma to Texas in around the early 1900's he moved family in an old truck and they brought there wagon.. So to figure for sure the early 1900's
This pic looks authentic to me as the women are wearing sun bonnets, those whom worked in fields, and perhaps they have set up a picnic for lunches and the children to nap. An assortment of cookery from each household brought to work. Wagon might be transportation to fields! An interesting pic as there are more women and perhaps the men folk were off to some war! Only suppositories here.
I thought it might be authentic too until I heard everyone's feedback...The reason I think it might not be is because the photo seems pretty 'staged' for the time..
my guess would be around 1929...my Grandma was traveling with the family of 6 or 8 ...on the Oregon Trail...stopped in Beaver City, NE...where Grandma & Grandpa wedded....
I would guess, and I know it's a long stretch but between 1880's and 1920...many people still drove horse and buggy after the invention of the motor car because some were just not comfortable with them and because of the cost of motor cars. As for the pic it's really hard to date.
Im thinking this is a photo from an historical reenactment. There are so many contradictory items and the clothing and hats are all over the place . Its still a cool picture though.
The dress lengths indicate 1890s to 1910s! My grandma wore bonnets like that all her life and even made them for my 6 sisters in the 60s! I think it was a family gathering in the teens! The stamped tin wash pans and kerosene can date from that period !
I think you're all overthinking this. A family took their wagon out to the country for a picnic or reunion, bringing along their equivalent of sunscreen in the form of sunbonnets. The dresses on the younger two women at right, along with the photographic process used to make the picture (looks like the type of square image made by a Kodak Brownie camera), date it pretty precisely to 1905-1910 period. Sunbonnets were worn well into the 20th century in many areas, including my area of east central Pennsylvania. The women look like typical Pennsylvania farm women to me. But the hats on the men suggest something farther west—Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, or somewhere else with a concentration of PA Dutch settlers who wore sunbonnets.
Kristin Miyagishima, I have a family picture that I also thought was a history setup, found out I was wrong, mine was taken in 1900. I would say this might be 1890-1900.
Here's a dated photo from my collection for comparison's sake. My grandfather is the smallest kid and he was born in 1902. I'd say he was about 5 in this picture? That puts it at about 1907. It was scanned as a color photo, so this is what the original looks like. (edit: taken in Nebraska)
Kathy Wait Bjorklund Would LOVE it if you shared at AncientFaces along with any details you have. We have over 1million vintage photos and we'd love to have this as part of the collection
Here's another that's dated 1911 with the same 2 kids and their younger brother who was born in 1907. The shape and coloring of this one reminds me of the one above. (edit: taken in Nebraska)
I have a family photo much like this one. It was taken c.1915 when the family came back to Missouri from Kansas. They did pose for the picture but it is not staged.
The sofa looks like a wagon carriage seat that was removed from the buggy/wagon and set out for seating. I think this was maybe some type of historical re-enactment. I am guessing 1917-1924 era.
Depends a lot on what part of the country. My grandmother's family used a covered wagon to move from one town to another and for everyday transportation well into the 1910s. She grew up in Colorado and motorized vehicles were few and far between. Pictures of her in the late teens and early 1920s have her dressed very similar to this.
My ex mother-in-law told of moving from Kentucky to Indiana as a child in the 30s in a covered wagon. Covered wagons during the Depression were entirely plausible.
Yes, my grandmother rode a pony to school and her father used a wagon to deliver milk from the ranch where they lived to customers in town. That would have been in the 1910s.
That buggy seat was put down for elders to sit on and blankets for ladies and for babies to lay on. Could even be a camp out but not seeing sleeping stuff...
The first photo had women dressed in clothing that looked in better shape than the Benton woman's; however, by 1923, if a family was still living in a covered wagon, they were probably transient, maybe sharecroppers, and poor.
The first photo did have a feeling of re-enactment to it, but even if it was one, it still had the look of the early 1900s, maybe the teens. Maybe the fact that ALL the women were wearing the poke bonnets made it seem like it was a costume rather than everyday wear, but it wasn't far off from when a lot of women still did dress like this. I have a photo (tucked away somewhere!) of one of my aunts, who was a farmer's wife in Georgia, wearing a poke bonnet to keep the sun off her while she worked in the garden, and it was taken in the early 1940s.
As I mentioned before, the cookware and stuff are not good clues. As you do with your 70 year old cast iron pan, I still use a French butcher chef's knife that my uncle used when he was a chef for a railway line in the 1920s.
Without seeing the photo up close and under a magnifying glass to look for any possible anomalies, it's really hard to tell.
The texas pic linked is a living and traveling situation. My ggrandparents and family followed the cotton from texas to oklahoma then back again many times up to 1920
I am unsure about the direct american setting of this image and the ideas of reenactment or traditional dress, but the Womens' attire (Shirtwaists and skirts) strike me as 1900-1906 - however depending on the age of the clothing when this image was taken I would put an estimate of 1900-1910 to be safe. Very interesting image :)
That elderly lady told you right, Darcy. I still have my great-grandmother's hand-sewn bonnet, with the pasteboard slats she cut herself in Stephens County, Texas.
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My mother is Pamela Thompson. My dad is Richard William Russell. My mom grew up in Fenwick Michigan. My dad grew up in Hart Michigan. They had 2 kids together. Living in Michigan.