A Girl’s Captured Expression

Originally published March 2022 · p. 23

This young girl’s facial expression tells it all. The sadness is clearly visible in her blank stare. Any war, during any time, always has casualties at home.

From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs. (Library of Congress)

Poignant image of a young girl is wearing a plaid dress, gilt jewelry and silk ribbons. She holds a framed photograph of possibly her father in uniform with a saber and Hardee hat. Perhaps he died during the Civil War or she is holding the photograph because it is dear to her. One thought is that she is wearing a purple and black mourning dress. Wealthier westerners would often turn to purple in mourning to stand out from the crowd, and because they could afford the dye. The technology by which photographs were produced displayed colors in black and white differently than modern films. Yellows and reds appear dark, while blues appear light. But she is certainly dressed for a special occasion. The extravagance of her outfit is emphasized not only by the large scale of the plaid fabric of her dress, the (probably silk) ribbon decorations on her sleeves, but also by the dots of gold paint highlighting her jewelry. Image colorized in Adobe Photoshop. Medium: photograph: sixth-plate tintype, hand-colored; 9.5 x 8.4 cm (case) Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-36863

A Girl’s Captured Expression — photograph 2 from the original article