Could this be one of my great grandmother’s sons?
QI found this picture of a boy in a frame behind a photo of my great grandmother, Janet Barr Wilson (born 1839, Kilmarnock, and died 1911, Edinburgh).
She married James Roxburgh in 1860, and they had a large family. There is no writing anywhere on this boy’s photograph, but I assume that he’s a member of Janet’s family. I am especially interested in the photograph’s time period, since that might link it to one of Janet’s sons.
Bill Hately
AIt is not uncommon to discover a photograph concealed in a frame behind another picture. There is rarely evidence to suggest anything strange going on; perhaps our ancestors liked to rotate the family photographs on display, and slipping the original print behind its replacement photograph kept it safe from damage or loss. In cases
where this occurs, there often (although not always) seems to be a close connection between the two pictures.
Your ‘hidden’ photograph is a professional card-mounted portrait, probably a carte de visite. Without studio details or a printed mount design to aid dating, we can only date this from the visual image.
The boy wears a late-Victorian knickerbockers suit accessorised with the usual black woollen stockings and leather boots – an outfit suitable for both school and ‘Sunday best’. His Norfolk-style jacket and starched white Eton collar were becoming popular by c1880, and I estimate that this photo dates to the 1880s or early 1890s. He must be between about five and nine years old, so was born in the mid-to-late 1870s or 1880s. Many Victorians had babies up until their early/mid40s, so I assume Janet had her last children in the late 1870s or early/ mid-1880s. Your records might indicate whether he could be a son. Jayne Shrimpton
1PAINTED SET
Sometimes studio sets help when you’re trying to date photographs. The painted woodland backcloth, fake stump, rock and suggestion of vegetation underfoot collectively date this scene to at least 1880.
2BIRTHDAY PORTRAIT?
Children typically had photographs taken around the time of their birthday, or, especially with boys, when they started school or progressed to a new school.
3ETON COLLAR
The heavily starched white Eton collar was first introduced as uniform for privileged pupils at Eton, but became widely worn by schoolboys everywhere in the late 1800s/early 1900s.
4POPULAR JACKET
The Norfolk jacket, featuring vertical stitched-down pleats and cloth belt or large pockets, as here, originated as a man’s sporting jacket, then became a fashionable boys’ garment in the late 19th century.
5SUMMER GARB
Young Victorian boys often wore or carried straw hats when photographed. This wide-brimmed boater was a popular summer style, suggesting the season was warm at the time.