ANTIQUE FAMILY PHOTOS: A Teenage Lena

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.

Friday, June 11, 2010

A Teenage Lena

We don't have a date for this photo, but Lena looks somewhere around 13 to 14. She still probably lived with her parents, Susan Perkins and John Ryder, who was a poor farmer. Susan must have had some money or was very anxious to help Lena get married, because these photos were expensive to have made, and Lena was already a snazzy dresser. She was first married 1900.