Young woman from Milwaukee, Wisconsin
By: usermattw
Tags: CDV, Milwaukee, photography, vintage photography
Category: Wisconsin Album, Women
What it is:
Carte de visite (CDV) measuring 2.5 x 4.25 inches.
What I know about it:
Photographer is C. M. Hasse of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Otherwise undated and unidentified, but see comments below.
Comments:
This is another one from what I’m calling the Wisconsin Album, for lack of a better term, since the photos I’ve been able to pull out (that aren’t too stuck in this fragile old album) have all been from Wisconsin or nearby. Several have revenue stamps, dating them to the 1860s, and it seems they are all from around that same time, give or take. I’m operating under the assumption that it’s a family album, and that, unless it was messed with by a previous owner, the photos show members of the same family (or close associates). I guess it’s my romantically wishful thinking that hopes this album is basically as it was when it was first assembled, and that the people gathered here all meant something to each other. Funny how, even though I have no connection to or knowledge of these people, I want them to have some connection to each other, as if that would give these otherwise random images more meaning to me. Anyway, I hadn’t posted this nice portrait yet, so I selected it. I think she looks unusually pretty.
Pics of Then 
I think she is very beautiful which is unusual for photos of that time. Imagine her with her hair down. I would kiss that face. All day.
I agree. It’s a face (and overall look) that conforms so well to contemporary standards of beauty, like a modern movie actress in a period film, that it makes me wonder if she was considered equally beautiful then. I assume she was, but the thought still crossed my mind.
That is a very good question, as to how she was viewed in her time. My guess is she was thought most exquisite, but it is just a hunch. Perhaps women who could pull an ox cart were held in higher esteem.
LOL, they would certainly have been valuable. Our woman here seems to conform to what I’ve read about beauty standards of the time, but, of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the sort of woman who would impress at a cotillion may not necessarily be the sort of woman you’d want to ravage in the hayloft. (If that sounds sexist, I’d argue something similar could be said of men.)
All I can think is how much time that hair must have taken. Please, dear lady, tell me you didn’t have to do that every day.
Oy.
Yeah. And curling irons were heated in the fireplace.