1902 · [Philadelphia]
by [African Americana]. [Women]. [Gertrude Easton]
[Philadelphia]: C.M. Gilbert, 1902. Very good.. Albumen photograph, 5.5 x 4 inches, on a cardboard studio mount. Minor surface rubbing, dust-soiling, and edge wear. A wonderful original photograph of Gertrude Easton dated in March 1902, and produced by the C.M. Gilbert Studio in Philadelphia. In the present photograph, Gertrude Easton (1878-1950) is dressed in a domestic servant's uniform. A later vernacular photograph of Easton is also present here, and sheds clear light on Easton's work via the manuscript notation on its verso: "Gertrude Easton originally from New Haven, Conn, went to work for Rebecca & Grellet Collins in Wynwood Pa. at 16 yrs old. Spent later life at Dott & Mort Gibbons Neff." The older photograph here has a small printed sticker on the back belonging to Grellet Newell Collins with his address in Philadelphia. Collins was half-owner of Dill & Collins Paper Company in Philadelphia. An interesting pair of photographs capturing a young African-American domestic worker in her young years and then her later life. (Inventory #: 5398)