(Click on image to enlarge)
Like her disgruntled contemporary, this teenage girl was forced to stand for a portrait in Showman's Gallery (ca. 1893-1898) to commemorate some special occasion. She endured the ordeal stoically … even catatonically.
The occasion was probably her confirmation or her eighth-grade graduation. (If it were her high-school graduation, I think her skirt would be longer.) She's holding her diploma, or certificate of confirmation, in her right hand.
The photographer didn't focus the camera quite right: the clearest part of the picture is her feet.
Unfortunately, there are no notes on the back to identify her.
When I was a teenager myself, I bought a used (battered, really) book, Cartoon Cavalcade,[1] which I still have. It's a collection of American cartoons from 1883 to what was then (1943) the present. It includes this episode of the "Katzenjammer Kids" from 1904 that comes to mind just now:
(Click on image to enlarge)
You'll notice that the photographer boys' command isn't "Smile!" — it's "Look pleasant!" The subjects respond with angelic, half-smiling expressions.
This makes me wonder what the photographer in Showman's Gallery said to that teenager, if anything, just before he pressed the shutter.
I did a tiny bit of online research into how we went from the serious expressions in photographic portraits of the 19th century to the modern obligatory smiles, and came across a number of interesting articles, including this one, which cites a more academic monograph arguing that Kodak marketing was responsible.
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[1] Simon and Schuster; Thomas Craven, ed.
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