These portraits were in my grandmother’s basement for decades. We have no idea who these women are. Their clothes say late 1890s. Once says “Newcastle, WY” on the back, but the others aren’t marked. I have three female relatives who were buried in Newcastle, but there isn’t anything else to compare them to…
And now these women only exist in images. I feel like that could be a sad thing, except that they do still exist!
They captured my attention at a young age. I’ve conjured up their fictional biographies in my head a dozen times. They hang in my living room, and may hang in my studio someday. I figure they were worth remembering, somehow.