Mary, Frank, and Blanche Shaw

Mary Shaw with Blanche and Frank

Mary Virginia Murray Shaw
(also called Jenny)
with Frances Edwin Shaw (Frank)
and Blanche Elizabeth.
 
This is a tintype photograph from the winter of 1908-09 as Blanche is just an infant and  Frank is about 4 years old. A tintype is produced on a metal plate so the photo comes out as a reverse mirror image.

This is actually a copy of a copy and I have used modern digital technology to restore some parts of the original. This was taken in a studio, since few people in 1908 had personal cameras, so I've wondered where they went to have it made. It is obviously very damaged so I also wonder if it was removed from its original protective cover and subjected to years of play by the young Shaw children.

standing - Mary, Aunt Lou, Edna; seated -Frank, Crilly, Blanche, Edith

There were a lot of children around. This photo was taken on the front porch with Blanche's younger sisters, Edith and Edna. Jenny stands on the left, next to Aunt Lou, a Murray family relation of hers who came each summer to help with sewing, Edna stands behind Frank seated on the left, next to Crilly a boy taken in like a foster child and raised as part of the Shaw family, then Blanche. and Edith the youngest on the right. Aunt Lou is on crutches and may have had an issue with a handicapped leg.