ANTIQUE FAMILY PHOTOS: Lena: the mystery begins

ANTIQUE PHOTOS BLOG

I love antique photos. You can learn so much about how things have changed, and again how little has. We inherited 3 trunks of photos from the late 1800's to the 1940s and 50's. Most came from an enigmatic, extremely hard working but photo-loving woman named Lena, an ancestor of my husband, born in 1879. She had more contacts, more postcards (several hundreds) and more photos of herself taken than anyone who is not a well know celebrity. She seems to have collected antique photos from all around her. She unfortunately didn't identify many, only writing "Lena" on many given to her. I think she assumed she would remember, and of course after that it wouldn't matter!

We are still sorting through all the stuff trying to piece together Lena's fascinating and sometimes tragic life. Meanwhile, here are a variety of photos, including some of the highest (and lowest!) fashion.

I have also included the very old family photos I have from my mom's side of the family.

I hope you enjoy, and thank you for visiting my blog.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Lena: the mystery begins

We have a picture here of Lena and Charles Lee Smith, taken in 1901. I supposed that this was a wedding picture; until I found the wedding records and a picture of their wedding (coming next blog) for 1904. So this may be an engagement picture; we have nothing more dated until the wedding picture 1904, And no other identifiable pictures with him in them; and absolutely no records except the wedding record for her (1904) husband Charles L. Smith. No birth or death records, if that is the correct name. No records of him, or reference to him we have found after the wedding . Not in the voluminous letters, post cards, etc we have of Lena. And, as you will see, the mystery deepens after the marriage in 1904.