As usual with the Sepia Saturday theme posts I never know which way I'm going to go until I start perusing my photo collection. My mind was leaning one way until I came upon this cabinet card from the 1890's and I laughingly corresponded it to the book clubs of today. The photo shows a group of young people consisting of six women and three men circling around the two people in the center who are holding a book which is unfortunately unidentified. Wouldn't it be great if we knew what book they were reading? Of course, this photograph was probably just posed by the photographer and they were not really reading the book at all, but we can pretend otherwise.
Unfortunately none of the subjects of this photograph were identified The photographer was Charles R. Babcock, born in Iowa in December 1864 a son of Celagh and Jane Babcock. In 1894 he married Lottie M. Snyder the daughter of John H. Snyder. By doing an Internet search on the photographer I found a number of his photographs, but very little further information.
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