A Lady from Ohio

One aspect I find particularly interesting about antique images is that they can tell us how people lived as much as who they were. A prime example is the chair in this photo from my collection, which features some amazing embroidery that would have been done all by hand! If we could only see it in color! One can occasionally find chairs like this in antique shops today. This carte de visite must have been taken during the early Civil War, by the size of this unknown young woman's hop skirt and the fact she has very large sleeves but the cuffs hug her wrists tightly. The ruffles on her dress are also quite fancy. From examining this image up close, I have discovered that she has a ring on the third finger of her left hand, which of course suggests that she was married and may have had this photo taken in her finest dress for a soldier away from home. The image was taken by A. Higgins, "Photographist" in Elyria, Ohio. Remarkably, more than 230 regiments were formed from Ohio during the Civil War, numbering more than 300,000 men. More than 6,000 of these brave soldiers fell in battle, so it's possible this young woman became a widow. Elyria is located in the northeast section of that state, in Lorain County, and was founded by Herman Ely, who was actually from Massachusetts. To learn more, follow this link: http://elyriapride.elyria.com/ehistory.htm