More Lovely Lady Ambrotypes

Enlarged to 300%

Enlarged to 500%

I sharpened it just a notch, and removed obvious flaws. This is a magnificent ambrotype, much better than average, although I wish the colorist had not been so conservative. The girl has had just a touch of color added to her cheeks and lips. It looks like there may be a little added to her neck as well, but I don't know why. I'd tentatively date this about 1860 or 1861, just about the start of the Civil War, so the girl would have been born about 1844.

I bought her for just the reason you see here; her hauntingly sad, wistful look. If we were to make a story out of it, we could say that she's looking sad because of the terrible war just beginning and the men she knew that would become involved in it. North or South, what does it matter? They were all Americans.