Fashionable Friday - Stylish 1880's Atlanta, GA Woman

Lillie Allen Draper ca 1884-1885 Atlanta, GA

Recently at an antique show I bought a number of cabinet cards from what I believe were the same family mostly from Alabama.  This very stylish young woman was photographed in Atlanta, GA and is idenitified as Lillie Allen Draper.  She is wearing a beautiful bustled dress with fitted bodice.  Note the lace sleeves and lace around the neck and upper chest as well.  I originally thought this cabinet card was dated from the 1870's but further investigation makes me believe this photo most likely to be dated around 1884 - 1885.  I believe Lillie would have been about 18 or 19 in this picture.

The fringed chair was usually seen in 1870 photographs but the front of this cabinet card is maroon, a color which did not  come in use until around 1884 and was popular until 1895.    The earlier dark colored cards (maroon, green, black) were only dark on the front with the back being  grey or natural. Although the chair is most likely an 1870's chair, it was not uncommon for a studio to keep using a piece  of furniture such as this after it lost its popularity with other photographers.

I had no luck finding any information on the photographer,  Edwards & Son, Successors to Edwards & Dorman, Photographers, No. 56 1/2 Whitehall St. (or Sq.), Atlanta, Ga.  I did however find Lillie and her husband John. R. Draper in the 1900 DeArmanville, Calhoun, Alabama census.  Lillie was born July 1866 in Alabama, her father in Georgia, her mother in Alabama.  She and John married in 1889, had four children, Emmie born 1889, Robbie 1894, Lewis 1896 and Essie 1898.  Her husband died before 1910 because she is listed as a widow in that census and is living with the same children and two more, Lucino (Lucien) and Clifford.  I also found her in the 1920 and 1930 censuses.  She died 13 Jul 1954 at the age of 88.