This is a photo of Donna Wright with her cousin, Earl Wright, taken in 1938.
I don’t know exactly when in 1938 this photo was taken, or what the occasion was. The print has a processing date of September 23 stamped on the back. Presumably it was taken days to maybe a month or two before that date. That would make Donna 3½, approaching four. Earl was less than a year old, surely.
This photo is such a study in contrasts! Donna is small for her age, Earl is not. Donna looks pensive, Earl looks happy. Donna’s shoes are dirty and well-worn (no doubt because she was always on the go), Earl’s are clean and white (no doubt because he wasn’t even walking yet).
I wonder why only Donna and Earl are in the photo. Donna’s sister Clara would have been about 1½ years old when this photo was taken. Seems strange that she wasn’t in it, too. A third sister, Kathryn, had arrived just three months or so before, so it is less of a surprise that she was not included.
This previous post includes a photo of the Lloyd Wright family taken within months of this photo.
Earl looked “very Earl” at an early age! Donna is so pretty and healthy after being born a “premie”! I thought that Earl was living in California at the age he is in this pictures. Maybe they were just visiting?
Such a cute picture! So amazing, really, how identifiable they both are.
Pensive Donna. Nice image. That’s uncannilyEarl!
I imagine when you wrote “nice image,” you were referring to the composition, which certainly is nice. You might be interested to know that the print is also technically impressive. It is much higher quality than any other amateur photo I have from that time period. For one thing, no sign of fading at all. I almost didn’t believe it was printed in the ’30s. I wish we could know who took the photo and with what equipment.
I did not know of the existence of this picture (probably true of many others!). Earl still looks like that! That is so obviously him!