Description:
Beginning in the 1880s, Frances Allen and her sister Mary Allen began work as photographers after progressive deafness forced them to give up their careers in teaching. Working within the social aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts movement, they took photographs of houses and furnishings and created Colonial Revival pictures by asking their neighbors and friends to dress in period attire. Once praised as “The Foremost Women Photographers in America,” their prints were included in many of the significant early twentieth-century exhibitions and publications but since have been all but lost from view. Photograph on paper, image depicts a woman seated in a chair in front of a fireplace, the interior has two arched doorways to the right and left of the fireplace, the fireplace mantel has several glass vases, and a pair of candlesitcks, above the fireplace are three framed prints of Old Master paintings, to the left of the woman is a table with a cover and a large bouquet of flowers in a vase, A pencil note on the reverse from Peter Spang reads, "Mrs. Tack (G. Fuller's daughter) in the Abercrombie owned house." Stamped on reverse in ink, "FRANCES and MARY ALLEN/ DEERFIELD, MASS./ All Rights Reserved" Condition: Paper is slightly toned and there are four areas of glue in the corners on the back where it was stuck to another piece of paper or page.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2018.42.2 |
