As you’ll recall from part 1 of this post, I was trying to determine the identity of the girl in the photo at the right. I began the process of inductive reasoning to try to figure out who this endearing young girl was. I wanted this to be a photo of my great grandmother, Gertrude Scott, but barring new evidence, I would have to rule out all other possible persons in order to be reasonably certain that this was Gertie. But then along came some new evidence, which saved me a lot of work, and which will save you a lot of reading.
The photo above is the photo I was originally analyzing. In my most recent trip to my grandmother Harriet’s house (late August, 2012), I found another copy of the same photo that had been made into part of a photo collage:
This photo is in much better shape than the first version I was working with. On the lower right of the front side of the cabinet card of the second photo, in what I believe is Harriet’s writing, is the name “Gertrude Scott.” The glue she used to make the collage had become old and brittle in the 30–40 years since the collage was made, and the cabinet card was easily removed from the poster board backing without any damage to the card or the photo.
On the back of the cabinet card was what appears to me to be a near-contemporaneous legend, written in pencil” “Gertie, daughter of Frank & Maggie Scott, age about 3 years.”
Given these inscriptions, I’m reasonably satisfied that the girl in the photo is indeed Gertrude Scott. Gertie was born on July 9, 1897, so assuming she was indeed about 3 years old when this photo was taken, the photo dates to about 1900.
According to the Directory of Minnesota Photographers, created by the Minnesota Historical Society, the photographer (Amanda Wahlstrom) was active from 1898-1899 and in 1902. If their information is correct, then I would revise the date of the photo to 1899, and would revise Gertie’s age downwards to 2–2.5 years old.