Holding Hands…..

With a steady gaze, the sisters remained perfectly still during the exposure of their sixth plate dag. Taken circa 1848, they are held in a nice case of the period. While the dresses, tinted a lovely shade of blue, are nearly identical, the girl on the right appears slightly older. The girl on the left holds a nicely pin-pricked “Indian” purse. These beaded bags sometimes seen around this era of daguerreotypy.  The plainness of the backdrop, the simple, yet offset posing suggests that the image was taken by an itinerant maker. There was a whole subset of makers that traveled around to set top shop in various towns for a short time. As about all the locals had had their images taken, then the maker would pick up shop and move along to the next town.