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"Parker, Mrs. F.W. -- between February 1894 and February 1901." The wife of one Dr. F.W. Parker. 5x7 inch dry plate glass negative from the C.M. Bell portrait studio in Washington, D.C. View full size.
She's a lovely woman. There is a mottling (or maybe freckles?) on her face that my eye can't pick out in other portions of the image - would this have been the hand of a retoucher at work, or an artifact of the preservation of the photograph, or perhaps an effect of the wavelength sensitivity of the photographic emulsion (for the last I'm thinking of the strange skin effects seen with tintypes)?
[Customary Bell Studio retouching. -tterrace]
Mrs. Jennie C. [Hamlin] Parker, April 20, 1871 - February 23, 1953, was married to one Frederick W. Parker (1868 - 1937), who was a dentist, on November 2, 1892 in the District of Columbia. They had one daughter named Grace Marion Parker born circa June 24, 1895. Their home in 1910 is at 233 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, and her husband has his practice in their home. By 1916 she and her daughter were living at 30 Girard Street NW, but she is now divorced from Dr. Parker. She was supporting herself by taking in boarders and working as a picture artist.
By 1930 she and her daughter, now Mrs. Grace Curtis, and son-in-law, Richard, were living with her. She gave her occupation as "artist" for the 1930 U.S. Census. By 1940 both Jennie and Grace show that they are widowed in the U.S. Census. There is no occupation listed for Jennie, but she does have several boarders. Grace is now working as a secretary at the Navy Department. Their home in both 1930 and 1940 is at 1361 Taylor Street NW.
Grace later remarries to a man whose last name was Smith, and she dies on October 30, 1977. Both Jennie and Grace are buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.
(Comment title from "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone)
I submit that part of the reason this woman seems more accessible, aside from her beauty, is the absence of a hat.
The lovely image is fit for Shorpy's "Pretty Girls" gallery but this woman has such a fascinating quality that might require a new section called "Unconventionally Pretty Girls." In any case, I'd call her the original cool girl.
I'm dying to know what color they are.
What an incredible lovely woman. Those eyes are mesmerizing.
I'd give a lot to have pictures of that kind of quality of my great-grandmothers, who would have been near this lady's age! One of them hadn't yet come here from Russia, two didn't have the kind of money for top of the line photography like this. The fourth, we do have a photograph of this quality of, taken about 15 years later, along with her parents and grown siblings. It's one of my most prized possessions!
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