I have in my possession a portrait of a woman I am still trying to identify, more than 45 years after first seeing it. It is about 18 inches high and has convex glass over the convex shaped portrait.
My grandfather, Elmer Clark, died January 8, 1970. He was 74 years old, born December 6, 1895 in Red Oak, Ellis County, Texas. His parents were John Thomas "Tom" and Maggie D. (Pitts) Clark. Elmer had an older brother, Almon who was 2 years older than him. When Elmer was not quite two years old, their mother died. She was only 24 years old and probably died in childbirth. Tom moved into his parent's home so that his mother, Eliza (Reed) Clark could help take care of the boys. They felt right at home, because Eliza's youngest child, Nay, was the same age as Almon! Elmer grew up in southern Dallas County and northern Ellis County, where he met and married "Agnes" Maude Spurlock on July 31, 1919. They had only one child, a daughter, Dorothy Nell, who married Aubrey Delton Springer. Dorothy Nell and Delton are my parents. When Elmer died, he left all of his possessions, along with Agnes's belongings to Dorothy Nell.
One day, a few years later, mother shared a few of these possessions with me. Many of Elmer's and Agnes's possessions were in an old trunk that my mother had. I believe the trunk was actually a wedding gift from Delton to Dorothy Nell. Two items of particular interest to me were a doll that had belonged to Maggie (Elmer's mother) and a portrait of a lady dressed in black.
The doll and the portrait were passed on to me for safe keeping. I had become sort of the family historian, so mother entrusted me with these two heirlooms. The doll will be the subject of another story, so today we will concentrate on the portrait.
First off, there was NO NAME on the portrait. There are actually no identifying marks on it, at all. The picture on the left has some glare on the glass, but is the best I could get at the time.
Originally, I thought it was painted in ink, but learned later that it is black pastel chalk. I tried to clean the dust off of it at one point and caused some smearing of the chalk. Not a great choice! When we found the portrait in mother's trunk, the glass was intact, and the frame was either broken or missing - I cannot remember. The painting had some insect damage, but was in remarkable shape for being about 100 years old.
I carefully stored the portrait for several years and finally was able to get a new frame hand crafted by Connie's dad, Robert Archibald "Arch" Martin. He loved making things out of wood! So, now the portrait could proudly hang on the wall again!
But the Big Question was, "Who is she?" Since it was in Elmer's/Dorothy Nell's trunk, we felt very confident that it was from the Clark side of the family. But since Elmer never knew his mother, we could not confirm who she was. The lady in the portrait is dressed all in black with a black shawl. Could she be in mourning? Her dress seems to have a small lace stand-up trim at the neckline. That's the only color on the dress. Her hair appears to be pulled back and possibly in a snood. She has very straight bangs that come almost all the way down to her eyes.
So, I did a lot of online research to try to date it. I could not find anywhere any ladies with straight bangs like that. And the dress is simple enough that it doesn't lend itself to dating, So, I took the portrait to a couple of people who restore old photos. They both felt that it was created in the 1880-1890's. (So that didn't really help, since Maggie and her mother were both living in the 1880's, although Maggie would have been in her teens). Then I asked one of them to compare it to the other photos of Maggie and tell me if he thought it might be her. He said, based on the dates of the other photos and this one, he thought they were probably the same person - Maggie.
But for me, there's no way the convex portrait is Maggie! In my opinion, the woman in that portrait appears to be in her at least in her thirties or forties. So, my first thought was that she was Lucinda, Maggie's mother, since she appears to be too old to be Maggie who died in 1897 when she was only 24. Lucinda was born about 1830, so she would have been in her 50's in the 1880's. Besides, we have several photos of Maggie and she almost always has her bangs very curly and pulled up away from her face, as you can see.
I also researched a method called "Crayon Portraits" from the late 1800's. Here is an explanation of the process: http://sgarwood.com/node/52. So, it is possible that, if this is a "crayon portrait", that the original might be from an earlier period, perhaps even when Lucinda was a widow the first time, 1863-1868.
So I still believe it is Lucinda and hope that someday, I can find an identified picture of Lucinda and prove who really is in this portrait. This "Close Up" of a woman has been haunting me a long time!
'Til next time!
#52Ancestors
My grandfather, Elmer Clark, died January 8, 1970. He was 74 years old, born December 6, 1895 in Red Oak, Ellis County, Texas. His parents were John Thomas "Tom" and Maggie D. (Pitts) Clark. Elmer had an older brother, Almon who was 2 years older than him. When Elmer was not quite two years old, their mother died. She was only 24 years old and probably died in childbirth. Tom moved into his parent's home so that his mother, Eliza (Reed) Clark could help take care of the boys. They felt right at home, because Eliza's youngest child, Nay, was the same age as Almon! Elmer grew up in southern Dallas County and northern Ellis County, where he met and married "Agnes" Maude Spurlock on July 31, 1919. They had only one child, a daughter, Dorothy Nell, who married Aubrey Delton Springer. Dorothy Nell and Delton are my parents. When Elmer died, he left all of his possessions, along with Agnes's belongings to Dorothy Nell.
One day, a few years later, mother shared a few of these possessions with me. Many of Elmer's and Agnes's possessions were in an old trunk that my mother had. I believe the trunk was actually a wedding gift from Delton to Dorothy Nell. Two items of particular interest to me were a doll that had belonged to Maggie (Elmer's mother) and a portrait of a lady dressed in black.
The doll and the portrait were passed on to me for safe keeping. I had become sort of the family historian, so mother entrusted me with these two heirlooms. The doll will be the subject of another story, so today we will concentrate on the portrait.
First off, there was NO NAME on the portrait. There are actually no identifying marks on it, at all. The picture on the left has some glare on the glass, but is the best I could get at the time.
Originally, I thought it was painted in ink, but learned later that it is black pastel chalk. I tried to clean the dust off of it at one point and caused some smearing of the chalk. Not a great choice! When we found the portrait in mother's trunk, the glass was intact, and the frame was either broken or missing - I cannot remember. The painting had some insect damage, but was in remarkable shape for being about 100 years old.
I carefully stored the portrait for several years and finally was able to get a new frame hand crafted by Connie's dad, Robert Archibald "Arch" Martin. He loved making things out of wood! So, now the portrait could proudly hang on the wall again!
But the Big Question was, "Who is she?" Since it was in Elmer's/Dorothy Nell's trunk, we felt very confident that it was from the Clark side of the family. But since Elmer never knew his mother, we could not confirm who she was. The lady in the portrait is dressed all in black with a black shawl. Could she be in mourning? Her dress seems to have a small lace stand-up trim at the neckline. That's the only color on the dress. Her hair appears to be pulled back and possibly in a snood. She has very straight bangs that come almost all the way down to her eyes.
So, I did a lot of online research to try to date it. I could not find anywhere any ladies with straight bangs like that. And the dress is simple enough that it doesn't lend itself to dating, So, I took the portrait to a couple of people who restore old photos. They both felt that it was created in the 1880-1890's. (So that didn't really help, since Maggie and her mother were both living in the 1880's, although Maggie would have been in her teens). Then I asked one of them to compare it to the other photos of Maggie and tell me if he thought it might be her. He said, based on the dates of the other photos and this one, he thought they were probably the same person - Maggie.
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| Tom and Maggie - Possibly a wedding portrait |
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| Maggie Pitts Clark |
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| Maggie Pitts Clark |
I also researched a method called "Crayon Portraits" from the late 1800's. Here is an explanation of the process: http://sgarwood.com/node/52. So, it is possible that, if this is a "crayon portrait", that the original might be from an earlier period, perhaps even when Lucinda was a widow the first time, 1863-1868.
So I still believe it is Lucinda and hope that someday, I can find an identified picture of Lucinda and prove who really is in this portrait. This "Close Up" of a woman has been haunting me a long time!
'Til next time!
#52Ancestors
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