Four Generations Family Portrait

Identifier

PUA_MS154_016

Title

Four Generations Family Portrait

Description

Three adult women and one baby pose for a family portrait, probably in or near Forest Grove, Oregon. This appears to portray a baby, their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. The great-grandmother, who is holding the baby, sits on an ornate curule chair, while the mother and grandmother stand behind them, giving the portrait a triangular composition. All the subjects gaze directly into the camera. There is what appears to be an oil cloth rug on the floor and a plain backdrop behind them. This photograph was taken by amateur photographer William Alonso Clapshaw, probably in his home studio around 1910-1914. The people in the image may be his relatives or friends. Several other photographs exist that were taken in the same setting. For another version where the grandmother is not smiling, see Image PUA_MS154_021. Flaws in the image are due to deterioration of the emulsion layer on the glass plate negative.

This is one image from a set of glass plate negatives created by William Alonso Clapshaw. Clapshaw was a clerk and shopkeeper who lived near Forest Grove, Oregon for most of his life. He was born in 1880, probably at the family's home in the Hillside neighborhood of Forest Grove, on what is now Clapshaw Hill Road east of Gales Creek. Around 1910-1914, William took an interest in photography and created a set of glass plate negatives documenting scenes near his family's lands as well as images of himself, his friends and family members. He most likely used a silver gelatin dry plate process. The photographs were donated to the Pacific University Archives in 2023.

Creator

Clapshaw, William Alonso, 1880-1993

Date: Year(s)

1910/1914

Date: Display

circa 1910-1914

Subject

Photographs of families

Portraits

Women

Place

Forest Grove, Oregon

Medium

Gelatin silver negatives

Source

Pacific University Archives

Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/