Photographs
of Maria Russell are hard to find. There is one undated and one from c. 1894 with
her husband, Charles. Then there is a line drawing from a 1906 newspaper during
a court hearing. From the Pittsburgh Press for April 26, 1906:
And
– while you cannot recognise her – in one of the funeral pictures for CTR she
is pictured wearing a long dark veil, according to the identification made in
the St Paul Enterprise newspaper. There are two heavily veiled ladies in the
photograph and the other is likely her sister Emma.
From
the description by William Abbott in the funeral number of the St Paul
Enterprise newspaper for November 14, 1916:
But
returning to a recognisable picture of Maria, there is another example from what
will already be a well known photograph. Most will be familiar with the group
photograph of the first main Watch Tower Convention held in Chicago in 1893. It
was reproduced in the Chicago City Temple brochure in 1914.
Most
copies in circulation have low definition so are not easy to examine that
closely. One usually looks at the bottom right hand corner where you can see
Rose Ball and Ernest Henninges sitting next to each other on the grass, a
couple of years before their marriage. But in the middle of the picture, as one
would expect, is CTR. And next to him we must assume is Maria. Maria had a very
high profile at this time, and would no doubt have gone to Chicago because that
was where her brother, Lemuel, lived.
I
am grateful to Bernhard who has superimposed our known photographs of CTR and
Maria from this era, next to the selective enlargement from a better quality
print than is normally seen.
First
there is the portrait of CTR. Compared with another photograph from the same
era, while he appears a little thinner in the face from this angle; it is
obviously the same person.
Then
there is the portrait of Maria, compared with the two known portraits of her
mentioned above. There are some superimposed lines between the pictures to show
the similarities in features.
From
this evidence I believe we can safely assume that it really was Maria in the
1893 group photograph.
So
here is the ‘new’ photograph again.
3 comments:
Most fascinating glance at a time so long ago!
Thank you for your work.
German Girl
Thank you!
Wonderful research! Thank you.
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