Figure 1.-- The photograph here shows the twins (Elizabeth and Charles) in September, 1901. They both were now 6 years old. Charles sits on his grandmother's lap while Elizabeth stands by her side. Charles looks as though he might be wearing the same sailor suit he wore a year earlier although we can't be sure. Elizabeth wears a similar white dress but without the cape-like addition around her shoulders. Image courtesy of the Hillman Library archives, University of Pittsburgh.

Charles Hart Spencer and his wife Mary Acheson Spenser were a prominent upper-middle-class family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Mr. Spencer worked for Henry Clay Frick, one of the wealthy aristocrats of Pittsburgh, whose name is often associated with such other elite millionaire families as the Mellons and the Heinzes. We don't have any photographs of the father yet. We assume that he was busy taking most of the family photographs himself. The family album also included photographs of the grandparents, although we do not yet know their names. The photograph here shows the twins (Elizabeth and Charles) in September, 1901. They both were now 6 years old. Charles sits on his grandmother's lap while Elizabeth stands by her side. Charles looks as though he might be wearing the same sailor suit he wore a year earlier although we can't be sure. Elizabeth wears a similar white dress but without the cape-like addition around her shoulders. The image seems to have been taken in the Spencer's garden.

A HBC reader writes, "Let us notice that on this photograph, it is Charles who is on the lap of his grandmother. It is a tender sign coming from a little boy. In my experience, little boys are more tender than the little girls with their mother or granmother. My Granmother preferred boys, probably my mother too. It would be interesting to more about the inter-relations of this family."

Created: February 4, 2004
Last updated: February 6, 2004