Items

Unidentified Girl Next to Chair, undated
Cabinet card studio portrait of an unidentified young African American girl standing beside an upholstered chair, photographed in Atlanta in the 1890s. The child wears a long, lace-trimmed dress and holds a small bouquet, posed formally against a studio backdrop. The image reflects the traditions of childhood portraiture and the importance of documenting family life and respectability in African American communities in the late nineteenth century. The child may possibly be Selena Sloan Butler as a young girl, though this identification is not confirmed.