Flowers for Erica

Speaking of funeral flowers, the Hobart museum has one such photo (not a glass-plate negative) where we know for whom the bell tolled, as it were.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The typewritten caption reads:

In the late 1800s & early 1900s, the vogue was to take photographs of the casket of the deceased. This photo is of the casket of Erica (Alfred Eric) Pearson, 253 Michigan Av., who died Feb. 27, 1912 at age fifty. She was the mother of Cecilia (Frank A.) Helin; Selma (Ernest V.) Strom; Victor Eric & Emil Eric Pearson. Cecelia and Selma: Hobart residents. Victor of Chicago and Emil of Exeland and Milwaukee, Wisc.

In this case I think the photograph was taken inside the family's home, just based on my impression of the décor.

As luck would have it, the museum also has a photograph of the Pearson home.



(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

A handwritten caption reads: "Alfred Melin Pearson/Michigan Av. Home." The individuals are not identified, so we can't know if one of those ladies was Erica.