This is an ambrotype portrait by an unknown maker of Roxie Howe, the sister of a Mr. Bemis and the wife of Stephen Howe.

With the burgeoning daguerreptyping industry, itinerant artists set up shop wherever they could find room -- sometimes literally making portraits in the back of their wagons. This constant availability of the daguerreotypist made it easy, and popular, for anyone to have a portrait made.