Sunday, November 13, 2011

Four Generations (Unidentified Glass-Plate Image)

8/29/2018 update — At last we have found out who these women are! Clockwise from the upper left: Frances Heidtmann Diedrich (1872-1956); her daughter, Grace Diedrich Rutz (1892-1983); Frances' mother, Sophia Gousloff Heidtmann (1836-1909); and Sophia's mother, Mary Heintz Gousloff (1814-1910). This information comes to us from Diann Van Stright House, who is Grace's granddaughter. We can thus date the photo prior to May 9, 1909, when Sophia died (Indiana Death Certificates) … and since Grace seems to be in her early to mid-teens, probably no earlier than 1905. The Heidtmann family appears in Hobart in the 1880 Census and the 1900 Census (two households), but the surviving members had moved to Hammond by the time the 1910 Census was taken.

Diann adds: "The mysterious lady in the picture frame I am almost positive is Sophia's daughter and Frances' sister, Mary Heidtmann (1867-1887)."



Four Generations 1
(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


… or is it five? Clockwise from upper left, I think we have mother, daughter, grandmother and great-grandmother, but whose portrait is that on the wall? — great-great-grandmother's? … No, probably not. Her sleeves (woman's in the portrait, I mean) look like the early 1890s, but her face is young. Perhaps she is the mother, 20 years earlier.

This photo is identified only as "No. 53."

The photographer took another shot within a few seconds, probably, identified as "No. 54."

Four Generations 2

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obviously the flash didn't go off on 54. The woman in the potrait is a sibling to someone in the photo, either now distant or possibly deceased. Photo by Haas?
Any photographer name?

Ainsworthiana said...

We don't know who the photographer was. Some of the envelopes these glass plates are in have notes on them, but none of those notes includes the photographer's name. Of all the prints I've seen with Haase's name on them, none matches any of the glass-plate images.