These are the May sisters, as someone wrote on the back of this portrait. It was taken at Hargrave Portrait Studio at 68 West 23rd Street, date unknown.
Were they three ordinary sisters posing for a family photo, or a trio of singers or actresses known in New York City at the time? Interestingly, a November 10, 1908 New York Times article may shed some light on who they were:
“Marguerite May, sister of Edna May, who is the last of the May sisters to take up the stage, will have an important part in Fritzl Scheff’s new comic opera, ‘The Prima Donna,’ which Charles Dillingham brings to New York soon.”
Could it be the same May sisters? We’ll never know.
Tags: Hargrave Portrait Studio, Old portraits, turn of the century New York
December 21, 2008 at 10:22 am |
Edna May was extremely well-known – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_May
This link confirms that there were in fact three May Sisters, and that the Edna mentioned in your quoted news article was the same as the one above –
http://www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/th-frames.html?http&&&www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/may/may-e.html
I have prosopagnosia so I can’t at all judge as to whether any of the girls in your photo is Edna, but perhaps someone who can properly judge faces could confirm or deny?
December 27, 2008 at 5:59 pm |
I’ve been trying to figure it out too, but it’s really hard to tell. Does anyone want to take a stab at it? In any event, thanks for sending those links on.
June 13, 2009 at 4:42 am |
I’m absolutely not an expert in this sort of thing, but I enlarged all the photos on the site given by owl tiem as well as the photo on this site, and gave it a shot.
It’s really hard to compare a ‘bare’ face to one on which cosmetics have obviously been used. The shape of Edna May’s mouth doesn’t seem to fit in with any of the three girls above, but Edna’s is expertly shaped and coloured. The shape of the eyes seems to be at least very similar, though the eyebrows don’t match up. And yes, I do know eyebrows can be reshaped, but a natural arch can be hard to change.
The shape of Edna’s face is similar to the girls above, but I can’t say it’s the same as any of them. Furthermore, Edna May’s true last name was Pettie, although that doesn’t necessarily mean her sister’s mightn’t have pursued acting careers under the stage name May. I can’t find anything that tells what surnames they used.
A picture of Edna’s wedding to Oscar Lewisohn does include sister Jane, and I had a hard time matching her to any of the three girls above. http://footlightnotes.tripod.com/ArchiveTextM/EdnaMay003.html for that picture.
And don’t feel like weeding through and changing a statement above – I apologise – but I did find a reference to one sister as “Miss Marguerite Pettie”. Make of it all what you will.
June 13, 2009 at 4:45 am |
And there I go contradicting myself – the wedding picture linked above does show sister Jane referred to as Jane May. So now I’m more confused.
June 13, 2009 at 5:18 am |
Well, whoever they are, those are some great photos. Thanks for your detective work! I wonder if some face-recognizing software program could help.