Here is a studio portrait of Florence McClain at three months old.
There are at least three copies of this photo in the archives. All were printed on postcard stock. In fact, all were actually sent through the mail as postcards. Considering that, they’re in pretty good shape. The postcards were sent by Grandma Addie to her sisters-in-law Clara and Nellie and her parents-in-law Nathan and Mary. They were mailed in November 1910. It is interesting that over the years the postcards ended up back with Mom.
Close examination of this photo will reveal the usual enhancements: darkening of the baby’s mouth and the limbal rings of the eyes.
This has nothing to do with the photo itself, but it so happens the message on one of these postcards addresses a question that has come up in this blog regarding Grandma Addie. The question arose when we first started into Grandma’s photo album, which was given to her by a student (but it wasn’t clear what Grandma taught). It came to light in subsequent posts (here and here) that Grandma did teach piano, but there was still some uncertainty about how long she did that: Did it end when she got married? When she had her first child (Mom)? When they moved to Tallman (as Mom’s recollection seems to suggest)? This postcard doesn’t answer those questions completely, but it does establish that she was still teaching piano after Mom was born.
