or Hold on, this gets a bit creepy.So the theme of this post was holding still for a photograph. I was going to talk about how it is especially hard for kids and compare pictures of a little Wally with Prince George and how they were both trying to walk away in their family portraits.
Then I was going to use this as a lead in to a picture of my great, great grandmother, Anna, and how in her day they had to hold still for so long for a photo that they had stands to help with that. The interesting thing was going to be that you could see evidence one of these stands with the black bump on top of her head in the picture. Usually the stands were hidden behind hats or hair. But when I looked into the details, things didn't quite stand up. (Pun intended.)
First a bit of photography history that caused the confusion. The first photograph in 1826 took 8 hours of exposure and by Civil War time in the mid-1800s the time was down to 3 seconds. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, exposure time needed was under 1 second and they were starting to take snapshots. Anna was born in 1845 and died in 1926. So for most of her later life, photographs were taken quick enough that under normal circumstances, she shouldn't have needed any extra assistance from something like a stand.Then things turned strange and a bit morbid. While researching the stands, I learned that it was common to use them during Victorian times (late 1800s-early 1900s) to take pictures of dead people.* We don't know when this photograph of Anna was taken, but it looks like she was at least 60 and more likely in her 70s. That would make it likely that photo was taken in the 1900s well after the time that stands were needed for pictures. That begged the question, "Was this a picture of a dead Great, Great Grandma Anna?"
I promptly called Mary Ellen, my sister who is into genealogy, and asked her what she knew about the picture and did she think it was possible this was a post-mortem picture? She was sure that it wasn't, but had no evidence to support it. We both felt that that Anna was alive when the picture was taken, but circumstantial evidence suggested other possibilities.
Next step was to show the picture to Ward and Theo and get their opinion. They studied the photo carefully and said her eyes had too much expression in them to be from a dead person. So I conclued that she was alive in this picture and I had let my imagination get away with me.
What do you think?
*Lots of discussion on the internet whether this is true or not. The best I could sort out is that the practice did happen, but not everyone with a stand in the picture is dead as many believe. The timing of this picture is what raised my question.
But wait there's more:
Reasons Anna could be using a stand for the photo when stands were not common place any more.
1. The photographer was using an old camera.
2. The photographer believed that even with new equipment, that was still the best way to do things.
3. Anna had back problems and sitting up straight for the photo was a problem.
4. That's not really the top of a stand, but something else.
5. ?
