Thursday, March 7, 2013

Those Places Thursday - Fairlamb Home, Fairmount, PA Late 1880's

Fairlamb Home - Fairmount, PA ca late1880's L-R Retta Fairlamb, Oscar Fairlamb,
Stella Fairlamb, Mary Fairlamb, Bob Walker, Mary Diller, Annie Fairlamb

Last week for my regular Women with Hats post, I ran the picture below of Retta Fairlamb in the large hat.  I recently bought a large lot of photos, over 175 in all, and am finally getting around to going through all of them.  Retta in the flowered hat was one of the first ones I pulled out of the box. I was quite pleasantly surprised to find several more with the name Fairlamb identified on them including two more with Retta so I decided to post them here today.  I realized after I looked at these that the information I posted originally about Retta was incorrect, she was not Margaretta Fairlamb, she was Maretta Vernon Fairlamb (25 Mar 1869 - ?) and if you take a look at the original post you can see the corrections.  Interesting enough both Rettas were music teachers.  

I originally wanted to date the photo above in the early to mid 1880's, but have changed my estimation to the late 1880's due to the type of card this photo is mounted on.  I have cropped it above, but the last photo below shows the entire photograph.  These type of over-sized pictures on natural finished cards were not seen until the very late 1880's and most usually in the 1890's.  Using the Fairlamb girls' ages I am sticking to a late 1880's date as the absolute latest date possible.

Retta Fairlamb Apr 14, 1889 Age 20
Retta Fairlamb Oct 1, 1898 Age 29

Here are two photographs of Retta's older sister Mary Fairlamb 6 Sep (1862 - 5 Dec 1926) who married ? Harkness.  She is in the very middle of the large photograph above in the black dress leaning against the tree.

Mary Fairlamb Nov 1887
Mary Fairlamb Harkness Late 1880's

I also have another photographer identified on the back as Annie Fairlamb (1865 - ?) with a question mark and the date of 1888, but I question it validity as the dress dates it well into the 1890's.  She has a definite resemblance to the other women.

Annie Fairlamb ? 1888
 


There are a number of people with family trees listing the Fairlamb girls, I will contact some of them to see if there is interest in these photographs.

Fairlamb Home Fairmount, PA late 1880's



2 comments:

  1. What a lovely yard the Fairlambs enjoyed. A hammock for resting after a game of tennis - how luxurious for them.

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  2. There is indeed a feeling of leisure and even luxury as Wendy notes. The portraits are beautiful. Is there a traditional hat associated with married versus single women?

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