Friday, April 17, 2009

Mystery Photo: Can You Help Identify?


Deep within the highly organized and accessible Archives are a few back-room boxes of forgotten history. Several boxes of unlabeled photos featuring beloved aunts, cherished sisters, and memorable outings are shelved in a back storage room. With each passing day, the chance of identifying these photos grows incrementally smaller. These photos, and the stories of the Ypsilanti lives they depict, are falling through the sieve of collective memory into obscurity. Can you help save this photo from that fate?

You can see the original scanned, faded version and a version I sharpened a bit. The photo depicts a woman holding up a dog treat for her eager dog. The photo has no label, number, name, or any other identifying inscription on the back.

But we are not without resources. The photo shows many clues that could help us pin it down.

1. The photo shows what appear to be the fronts of 2 neighboring houses. The closer house has a distinctive porch lattice.

2. The woman's dress likely dates from a particular time period. Is there a kind reader who is knowlegable about the history of fashion?

3. Similarly, from what period is the rather ornate wooden chair?

4. The woman is wearing a necklace. Is it a rosary? Does the necklace signify she was rather well-off, or was it more common in her time period for women to wear somewhat large-ish necklaces in general?

5. The structure at the left middle distance has a roof with two distinctive chimneys. What is this structure?

What other clues am I missing? Do you have some ideas to contribute in "comments"?

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