Family of ten in Montrose, Scotland
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This cabinet card has some damage, but I like it enough to share anyway. I suppose I’m making an assumption by calling these ten people a family, but so they seem. The photographer is T. Lyall of High Street in Montrose. This picture came from the same box of photos as these two here and here, also cabinet cards from Montrose, so while I don’t know what relationship the people in them might have had with each other, I assume they are all somehow distantly related to whomever assembled them in that box, and therefore possibly to each other. As for this picture, I love the way they’re all positioned, an arrangement that looks formal without looking too rigid. It appears that the girl down front and the young man on the far left are the only ones not dressed in black, and the young man standing center is the only one wearing a uniform, and yet in this composition, none of them is unnecessarily distracting. I am, as usual, fascinated by the choice of props, with two people holding books, two people holding flowers, and that boy holding a rather damaged racquet. Nobody seems to have any particular connection to what they’re holding, which makes me suspect they are just studio props. It’s sweet that they gave the mother a footstool, though it’s funny that the one on the far left is just sitting there unused. It’s also sweet that the mother is still smiling after producing at least eight children.
Pics of Then 
Dad was given a heavy tome to hold, representing the burden of supporting eight kids! The holy badminton racket looks a bit silly. Other than that, an excellent group portrait.
Ha! I like that idea about the book. Or maybe it’s the family bible, used to record births, and he has it at the ready in case there’s another one.
😂