All Happy But Two (Unidentified Image)

(Click on image to enlarge)

Today's unidentified image comes from the DeWell family archives. The original was found in the attic of Louise Sapper DeWell's Hobart home.

I've shown it to a few long-time residents; no luck, so I'm putting it on the blog as a last resort. Maybe someday, somebody somewhere will see it … (The trouble with that theory is — the people most likely to know who these folks are, are the least likely to use the internet.)

This looks like a family group; mother and father in the front row with their youngest children, combining dignity and affection; young lady in the back looking perhaps a bit reserved, though not forbidding; but those two young men! — what are they so mad about? Especially the one on the right. If I were the photographer, I'd be thinking about making a run for the door.

The décor is modestly genteel, but the room looks well lived-in.

The photo is undated. If I had to guess, I'd say perhaps around the first decade of the 20th century; I'm basing that mostly on the young woman's blouse-and-skirt combination and her hairstyle, and the tall, stiff collars on the young men. (Come to think of it, those collars might account for their bad moods.)

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[3/23/2012 UPDATE] A reader writes in from California with a possible ID on this family portrait:

We think we may be able to help you with the picture that was found in Louise DeWell's attic. We believe it is Fred and Anna Schavey with five of their nine children. Fred and Anna are the parents of Edward Schavey who was the first husband of Louise (Sapper) DeWell. There were six boys and 3 girls in Fred and Anna Schavey's family. We are not sure which children are in the picture. … We have an older picture of Fred & Anna, so we are pretty sure that photo is of them.

Thank you, D.E.!