Figure 1.-- This cased Ambrotype shows siblings Martin and Emma Weldin. It is a rare cased potrait where we have the names of the children. We know this because there is a a paper identifying them stored behind the image. Unfortuntely for histiorians this was all to rare with the cased portraits of mid-19th century America.This is a charming 1/6 plate ambrotype of a brother and his sister, both with ringlet curls. The paper identifies the two as "Martin Luther Weldin, 8 years 9 months and Emma Josephine, 3 years 6 months." We cannot make out the "8", but the dealer who has the original iniosts that is what it says. Also stored behind the image are cuts from their hair wrapped in paper.

This cased Ambrotype shows siblings Martin and Emma Weldin. It is a rare cased potrait where we have the names of the children. We know this because there is a a paper identifying them stored behind the image. Unfortuntely for histiorians this was all to rare with the cased portraits of mid-19th century America.This is a charming 1/6 plate ambrotype of a brother and his sister, both with ringlet curls. The paper identifies the two as "Martin Luther Weldin, 8 years 9 months and Emma Josephine, 3 years 6 months." We cannot make out the "8", but the dealer who has the original insists that is what it says. Also stored behind the image are cuts from their hair wrapped in paper. Emma has thick, but short ringlet curls. She wears a dark colarless dress without sleeves. Martin has mis-length ringlet curls with a side part. Age 8 nearly 9 years is an unusual age for a boy to still have ringlet curls, even in America. Notice Maetin's long-sleve print blouse and button-on long pants. This was a very common style for boys in the 1840s and 50s. We see more boys dressed like this than wearing suits during at mid-century. We thinks that suits were an indicator of affluence, but giv that Martin still has curls at nearly 9 years of age, we suspecthat this was an affluent family, probabkly more imprtant than suits. The paper does not tell us the date or where the Weldin's lived. Of course the tight timeframe for Ambros (mid-1850s-early-1860s) provide a good indication as to when the portrait was taken.

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Created: 7:38 PM 7/11/2024
Last edited: 7:38 PM 7/11/2024