Aunt Lil (Elizabeth Agnes “Lillie” Killeen) worked almost her entire adult life as a nurse in a doctor’s office in Portsmouth, Virginia. While it seems she had a good job, she lived a meager life. Upon her death, her things were divided among nieces and nephews since she had no children of her own. My dad got some old pictures that had hung in Lillie’s apartment and in the home of her mother (Daddy’s grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh) before that.
The pictures had been torn from Gody’s Magazine and Lady’s Book and inserted into cheap frames. When I got them, I took them to a frame shop to see if they could be rescued. The paper was quite yellow and brittle. The shop did a beautiful job:
The one picture has a definite scar from having been folded at one time, but I don’t care. The fact that these pictures once belonged to my great-grandmother makes them very special to me. This was the “artwork” that adorned their home -- pictures torn from a magazine.
Gody’s Magazine and Lady’s Book was published in Philadelphia from 1830-1878. The magazine was famous for the hand-tinted fashion plate included in each issue along with a pattern and directions for sewing a dress. Usually there was piano music as well for a waltz or maybe a polka. What I like about these particular prints is the purple. The pictures are the perfect complement to the purple bedroom where they hang today.
©2014, Wendy
Mathias. All rights reserved.
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ReplyDeleteoops, misread because I am at work! LOL
ReplyDeleteLove your pictures, they are beautiful!
So beautiful! The photo reminds me of an old photo that I've seen in various ways, where it has all the special moments in a woman's life, in a row. I like how it's all put together in the room, such a calm and peaceful setting.
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