Restoration of Aline Hughan, 1881, please

[Wiggy]

Lovely photos - she doesn't look overly happy does she.    Good work restorers!

I thought the dolls head-dress looked like a crown in the first photo.     

 I wonder what was going on in her life? 

Wiggy   

[sherro47]

My goodness...this is brilliant. I go away for the afternoon and come back to find beautiful restorations and fascinating input. Thank you to Carolyn and Di for carrying out such fabulous work-I can't believe what a difference the removal of all those spots makes. China, thank you for the information re. the NY gifts- I had never noticed the opened box of chocolates beside her until today. Wiggy, you seem to be getting the same vibes as me with these sisters. I am so lucky to have quite a good collection of photos from my Hughan branches, but for years I have found myself returning over and over again to these sisters. There is so much sadness there, and not just knowing in hindsight the sad lives that they led. I am attaching, just for interest, a couple more photos of the girls from the 1870s...the expressions on their faces are not just sad or solemn, they seem to be downright wretched and miserable!

[sherro47]

The previous two photos were of Minnie-the one with yet another doll taken in the month of her 8th birthday-February 1875. These two are of Aline aged 4 years 10 months, taken August 1876, and Minnie-the girls are sitting on the same cover-thingy, but I don't think the photos were taken at the same time. Minnie was four years older than Aline, but in the second photo doesn't look like she is eight,(in fact, we have a photo of her as an 8 year old for comparison) and the photo is backed by different board. I wonder why Aline's hair is so closely cropped like a boy's in this photo?

[chinakay]

Such beautiful girls! And dated too...you are very lucky to have these pictures annotated, because the vast majority of old photos like these have very little in the way of dating clues. And children are notoriously difficult to date, because the clothing styles didn't change much and children's clothing was likely to have been handed down for years, even decades.

And here we have what I think is a handed-down dress. The off-the-shoulder thing Aline is wearing in the 1876 photo is an 1850s style. The shoulder sash came later, and we have seen lots of these, but not the low shoulder. She would be much more comfortable wearing something like this given the climate of Noumea I think!

And speaking of the climate, I wonder how long a box of chocolate truffles would last. Turkish delight sounds more reasonable. I think

And yes, they do look sad, but children did in old photos because 1) smiling was not encouraged in photos, children or adults, because a serious look was seen as an expression of good character in Victorian times, and 2) they had to hold the pose for a few seconds. So we may be reading too much into it. Maybe

Cheers,
China

[saddles]

Hi...I was'nt sure if you wanted this photo restored or not?.

Carolyn 

[chinakay]

How lovely, Carolyn...what a sweet photo.

I found the Hughan family in someone's tree and see that the girls' dear papa died in 1883. How awful for them all

[sherro47]

Thank you for the lovely restoration on Minnie, Carolyn....I only put the extra photos up I case anyone was interested, but that doesn't mean that I am not thrilled that you have improved her so much for me!  :-) 
  China, Allan, their father, and his eldest daughter Ruth, both died in 1883, just months apart. Allan died in November, and in the preceding August had taken a self-portrait and inscribed it for his niece back in Australia (my great-grandmother, Olive Bishop).At the time of his death, aged 46, his daughter Minnie was 16 and Aline was just 12. Their mother was of a very "fragile" temperament...she had several "nervous breakdowns" and ended her years in a private asylum in Sydney, suffering, amongst other things, from the delusion that the Catholic Church was trying to blow up her residence, and that she was being spied upon by her brother-in-law in disguise. Very, very sad, and I imagine very difficult for her young daughters to cope with.

[chinakay]

  How awful for them all 

[Brit2015]