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We have some information about the Agnew family in Pennsylvania. Here we see an older boy with his baby brother. The children are Carson and Mc Agnew. A reader related to the children and interested in geneology has provided some information about the family.He has also provided portraits of their oparents when they were children with the grand parents. Thus we have a range of clothing types and hair styles ranging from the mid- to late-19th century.
Our reader has forward portraits that he beieves to be the father and grand parents of Carson and Mc. There are two portraits. The first is a portrait of Mc and
Carson's father as a child, sitting on his father's knee. It would therefore date from the early 1850s.
The portrait is one of a pair, in wooden frames about 14"x 11". The images themselves are paper, about 8 1/2 x 6 1/2" ovals. One portrait is labeled on the back: David Agnew (1811-1894) ..... William Chalmers Agnew (1849-1923). The second portrait is labeled, in the same handwriting: Ellen Carson McNaughton (1825-1881)
..... Mary McNaughton Agnew (1848-1934). In other words, these are supposed to be pictures of the future mother and father of Mc and Carson when they themselves were children. The boy sits on his father's knee and the girl sits on her mother's. They face each other. These two families lived in two Pennsylvania towns about 10 miles apart (Mercersburg and McConnellsburg). Both families were staunch Presbyterians and storekeepers. So, they might have known each other from an early age. But, could some itinerant photographer really have just shown up and taken these pictures, with complementary poses? Then there is the fact that the images are on paper. Albumen paper prints were not made in the 1850s. So we are guessing that these are copies of Dags or Ambros taken in the 50s and enlsrged so tht thy could be hung on the wall. Presumably a grown up Mc or Carson had this done so he could hang up portraits in the wall. Such detailed inscriptions are usually accurate and the hair styles seem appropriayte for thr 1850s.
The children here are Carson and Mc Agnew. The older boy wears a kneepants suit. He has a big bow with a large white collar. Unfortunately we can't tell if it is an Eton collar. We are unsure about the color of the boy's suit. The long stockings seem to match the suit. The baby wears a white lacey dress with dark long stockings. The back of the cabinet card reads, "For Uncle and Aunty, Mc. and Carson Agnew". The way that it is written, the card may have been sent to an uncle and aunt, but the children in the portrait are probably Mc and Carson. It looks like the For bit and the names were written at two different times. We believe the boy is MC and the girl Carson. The photographer was LeRoy and Terril in Youngstown, Ohio.
A reader tells us, "I am pretty sure that both of them are boys. Specifically, I think they are Duncan McNaughton Agnew (1874-1943) and James Carson Agnew (1882-1943). The former was known as Uncle Mc, and the latter (my grandfather) as Carson. James Carson was born in Youngstown, Ohio, where the family moved from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Their mother, Mary Ella McNaughton Agnew (1848-1934), was a graduate of Mount Holyoke and their father, William Chalmers Agnew (1849-1923) was a civil engineer. So, they would have had middle class values and dressed their boys accordingly.
We don't know who 'Uncle and Aunty' were, but the odds favor the McNaughton side because Mary Ella had seven siblings alive in the 1880s. The Agnew side had no more than two." [Agnew]
Having the year of birth helps us date the image more precusely. Duncan looks about 8 yeats old. As he was born in 1874, the portrait would have been taken in 1882.
Agnew, Carson E. E-mail message, July 16, 2008.
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