The earliest and only photograph of a young Margaret was taken when she was about three or four years old. The occasion for the photograph is not known. It was finely executed from the photographic art studio of D.H. Spencer. The studio was
located on the ground floor, first door east of Comstock House on Main Street, Hudson, Mich. There are no dates to accompany the small cabinet photograph, just a name handwritten across the back, “Margaret King.” Sitting in a chair far too big for her diminutive size, Margaret seems to be thrust into a world she was not ready to embrace. Captured in that one moment of time and held for all eternity to see is a child of determination. A round full face and tightly wound curls hold piercing eyes and lips firmly together in a pose that reveals an emotion not often found in one so small. Margaret it seems did not want
her picture taken. Perhaps she did not want to sit in the overstuffed large chair. At the precise instant the camera flashed the bulb a tiny leg is thrust out from her skirt, its movement softly visible in the sepia toned portrait. When this happened, a sliver of her petticoat fell beneath the freshly starched and ironed dress for all the world to see. The photograph was not retaken. Margaret had to stop for someone else’s world, but she would make sure it became her own because after all, sitting for a photograph was clearly not what she wanted to do on that particular day. Margaret was the youngest, yet she was not going to let her birth order determine her fate. No, she would determine her own destiny and it was to begin that day in a photographic studio on Main Street, Hudson. Margaret would make her own way in the world, leaving Hudson far behind when she did
No comments:
Post a Comment