Woman with a tall hat in San Francisco
Click here to view it larger.
I went to a rare book fair today, and while I did buy a book, I couldn’t resist the dealers selling old photos. This is one of the ones I bought. It’s a cabinet card (4.25 x 6.5 inches), and the photographer is W. I. Williams & Co of 914 Market Street in San Francisco. (It’s always fun for me to find photos from the city where I live.) It’s undated, and there’s no identifying information, though this is scribbled in pencil on the back:
I can’t read that, so I don’t know if it’s a name, or if it’s even relevant to this picture. In any case, I loved this image. She has a good, strong look. I’m not sure what she’s holding in her hands, but it appears to be some sort of card or letter, along with a strand of ivy. And it took a moment for me to notice that she’s wearing gloves, though it seemed obvious once I did. I’m intrigued by the choice of plants, and by the way no effort was made to disguise the pot.
Pics of Then 
The studio setting is sort of a hodgepodge. I like her jacket. I think the writing says “Don’t know.”
You may be right about the writing. Funny to not know what it says and then it turns out to say “don’t know”. Yes, the setting makes me wonder if they didn’t have much to choose from. Otherwise, what is the setting they were trying to convey? And yes, the jacket is beautiful.