Item 102377 - "Aunt Hannah and Aunt Abigail," Kingfield, ca. 1898

Item 102377 - "Aunt Hannah and Aunt Abigail," Kingfield, ca. 1898
Contributed by Stanley Museum on deposit at Maine Historical Society
Item 102377
"Aunt Hannah and Aunt Abigail," Kingfield, ca. 1898
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*Credit line must read: Collections of Stanley Museum on deposit at Maine Historical Society
Image Info

Photographed in Hannah French Vose’s kitchen, this image titled, "Aunt Hannah and Aunt Abigail" demonstrates Chansonetta Stanley Emmons’ skill in making interior photographs using only natural light. Chansonetta posed her subjects near the window, allowing light to flow over the elderly women, picking up the white accents of their carefully selected clothing while also highlighting their hair, making the image appear three dimensional.

Having recently been widowed herself, Chansonetta’s portrait of widows Hannah Vose and Abigail Vose in 1898 is particularly poignant. Hannah French Vose was Chansonetta’s biological aunt, sister to Chansonetta’s mother, Apphia Kezer French who married Solomon Stanley. Abigail and Hannah were sisters-in-law. Abigail P. Otis Vose married Hiram Vose, who was the brother of Hannah French Vose’s husband, Lemuel Vose.

The photograph shows a domestic reality not normally photographed or offered in the market for sale. Abigail Vose died within a year, and Hanna French Vose four years after Chansonetta made this image.

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