Same Props (Mystery Monday)

Here are two photographs, both Cabinet Cards, with different subjects but the same props.  There’s a hint!

Both of these photographs came from the collection of Amanda H Davis Edmonds.  Amanda was in born Fayette County, Alabama but moved to Hill County, Texas when she married.  The photographs in her collection would likely be friends or family of the Edmonds, Davises, or Olives (Amanda’s stepfather). 

The photo of the young man is clearly marked as being from Texas, but up until this week I had thought that the photograph of the woman was from Alabama.

I was thinking about using the woman’s photograph for a Mystery Monday post, but decided to send it to a distant cousin who still lives in Fayette County, Alabama, first to see if she looked like his branch of the family.  No resemblance.

While I waited for a response from Alabama, I looked through more of my old photographs because I thought the small table in the photograph looked familiar.  Amazingly, I found a match.  If you look even closer at the two photographs, you’ll notice that the backdrop is also the same between the two.  Bingo!  Even though the photograph of the woman is not marked, it was likely taken by the same photographer.

The woman’s blousy sleeves place the timeframe in the 1890s, and the markings on the young man’s photograph puts the location in Hill County Texas.

Now, instead of looking among the Alabama relatives for the woman, I know to look in Texas.  The world just got a little smaller.

Hmmm…Maybe she’s his older sister…