Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images.
It has been a long time since I’ve done a Sepia Saturday post, but when I saw the prompt, I knew I had the perfect picture, so what could I do?
Here is a photograph of my grandmother, Eveline Hoskins nee Coates, standing in Walnut Creek near Mystic, Iowa with her dress hiked up just a wee bit in back.
Eveline Coates
She looks happy, with a slight smile for whomever is taking the photograph.
I wanted to take a closer look at her dress, but I must have scanned this from someone else as I don’t seem to have the original so I can’t scan again for better resolution. It’s been over a year since I accessed all of my old photos and moved them to another room, so maybe I’m just not looking in the right place. Doesn’t say much for my organizational skills – or my memory, does it?
Here’s another picture taken that day at the creek.
No smile for this picture and Eveline is partly obscured by the shadows. It looks like there is a lot of debris behind her on the left. Wood scraps? Branches? I keep trying to imagine this photograph in color. I’m sure it was a beautiful setting with the shadows and reflections.
I’m working at blogging regularly and I’m almost there, but what I haven’t been able to get back to yet is the reciprocity. As I incorporate each additional thing to my routine, it takes a bit of effort. Reading and commenting on blogs hasn’t hit the the top of the list yet. That said, I’ll make every effort to get around to as many Sepians as I can since I am participating this week.
Please join me as I happily wade through the posts submitted by other Sepia Saturday participants.
I’m so glad you could join us again Kathy and I hope you are well. You’ve chosen a lovely photo for your first return post, and I can see what you mean about imagining the colour.
Thank you! I am doing well – just regaining strength and stamina – and hoping to overcome the bit of chemo brain that still plagues me. Reading the other blogs today is reminding me of how much I enjoyed participating.
That first picture of Eveline is a treasure & perfect for this week’s challenge. Perhaps she’s not smiling in the second photo because she suspects, & rightly so, the lighting where she’s sitting won’t make for a good picture? Now-a-days, of course, using a digital camera, one can adjust for that sort of thing on one’s computer.
I wondered if the shot of her sitting was taken first and she lightened up about having her picture taken by the second one. Those that know are long gone. 🙂
You must have a room full of family pictures, all good. And I am glad to get them, mainly because that means you are doing well in your recovery. Plus you have been a taxi and cook for Martin, its all good!!!!!!!
Don
Yes! I am getting my life back – or maybe it’s a new life. It is all good!
The first photograph is lovely! Keep on blogging.
Thanks Jo.
Glad to see you back Kathy.
That first photo of your grandmother is so appealing.
The black and white photos can have more character than colour but sometimes we do miss the benefits of the scenery.
I do really like the shadow on your grandmother’s face in the second shot. I think it would be an interesting shot to crop and enlarge just a portion.
I did want to do a bit more with it.
A lovely photo to re begin your blogging. I just hope that cooling their feet helped to cool the rest of the body too on a hot day.
I think it did as she looks happy in the wading pic.
I’m trying to make out what the structure (statue?) is just to the right of her in that first picture. Something overgrown?
As you say an ideal picture for this week.
So good to see you back.
Thanks, Bob. I think it must be brush, shrubs and rock.
The unrestricted clothes of the era in that photo look so comfortable.
They sure do.
I love her dress — it looks like thin fabric that would be breezy to wear on a hot day. The little pool of water would have been a perfect cooling-off spot, especially under all those trees. I wonder who was with her.
Me too! Was it her future husband, a cousin, or a girlfriend? If it was one of her nicer dresses I’d suspect grandpa.
She looks like she is relaxed and enjoying herself in the first picture, but sort of stiff in the second more formal pose.
So happy to see you back. Blogging is good for the brain but you can wear yourself out fast. Don’t worry about reciprocity. The dress on your grandmother is very interesting. Do we call that “shabby chic” now? She sports a very serene smile.
Thanks, Helen. Yes – she does look serene and shabby chic.
What charming photographs! Your grandma was a very pretty young lady. I love her slightly shy smile. I guess it wasn’t an everyday thing back then to have your photograph taken, which made folk feel a little self-conscious about the whole business. In truth this lady’s parents, your great grand parents, would probably not have smiled at all. I have one studio photo of my great grandparents on their wedding day, staring poker-faced into the middle distance. That photo session was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them, and their objective was to look dignified rather than happy. Isn’t it funny how things change? It’s amazing how immediate the past becomes when it appears in a photo. Thanks for sharing your super photos. All the best, Bonny
Yes, I have a few pictures of some really stern looking ancestors. Not sure I’d want to cross them from the looks on their faces!
What a great pair of photographs! Do you know an approximate year? She looks to be about late teens, early 20s and I’d say the dress makes it somewhere in the 1920s. Is that about right?
She was born in 1900, so I was thinking maybe when she was 18 or so – give or take. You are spot on!