We haven't had even a hint of winter yet in southcentral Pennsylvania. So we'll have to settle for vintage photographs of snow. This sepia-toned shot measures four inches wide and features snow-covered outdoor steps, a figure who appears to be using a shovel and bushes and branches weighed down with wet snow.
To me, it looks like it's a photograph of a photograph. In the lower right, down the steps, there is cursive writing that must have appeared on the original photo. It states:
Merry
Xmas
Lairdis [or Laindis, or Lairdia, or Laindia, or Lairdie or Laindie]
There's a date in the extreme lower right. But I cannot decipher it with any certainty. The second number is either an 8 or 9. The third number might be a 1 or 4 or 8.
1880s? 1910s? 1940s? [1940s was my first gut instinct, but the more I looked at it, the less I was sure.]
There's nothing written on the back of the photograph, so we have no further clues to go by.
What do you think?
Related snow posts
- Vintage photographs of kids playing in the snow
- Vintage snapshot of a man, a woman and a snow shovel
- More snow in southcentral Pennsylvania
- Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.
- Old photo stirs up a blizzard of mystery
- Two postcards of Japan's Kinkaku-ji (Rokuon-ji) in winter
- Saturday's postcard: Sami girl and a reindeer
Is it possible the writing was scratched into the negative and prints made from that? This could have been sent to multiple people as a Christmas card. Maybe as a joke. The date looks like 1949 to me.
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