Three Sisters, 1882

Since this detailed photo includes the names of the subjects, just a little internet searching revealed that the three women were sisters. Rhoda Farnham Scammon, (1809-1896). Sarah Bracket Foss, (1899-1894) and Phebe Whittemore Woodruff (1807-1885) were born in Maine. Sarah and Phebe were early members of the Mormon community and died in Utah. I couldn’t discover if Rhoda also became a Mormon; her grave is in Kansas. Another copy of the photo, without the elaborate mounting board, is held at the Utah State Historical Society.

What are they wearing? I had to turn to the experts at Vintage Fashion Guild for help with the accessories, since my own spotty knowledge ends at 1900. According to fashion historian Jonathan Walford, they have house bonnets on their heads, “old fashioned for the 1880s but commonly worn in the 1840s-50s when these women were young.” Jonathan and Mary of The Vintage Merchant helped with their similar necklaces. They are called slide chains, used to hold watches that would fit into small pockets on their bodices. Women who needed glasses also used these chains to hold lorgnettes.

For help with their clothing, I consulted the wonderful book Dressed for the Photographer by Joan Severa. Rhoda Scammon and Sarah Foss were both widows when this photo was taken and their dresses were almost certainly black. Sarah’s simple dress, with dropped shoulders and most likely a gathered waist, was a style popular in the 1860s. The only decoration is dark fringe extending from the shoulder to the bodice and small tucks at the cuffs. Rhoda’s outfit is also austere, with only the underskirt beneath her high collared jacket showing some decoration. Her long jacket without a waist seam, called a Polonaise, was popular in the late 1870s.

Phebe Whittemore Woodruff wears the most elaborate outfit. Perhaps this was because her husband, Wilford Woodruff, was still alive and was a very important figure in the Mormon Church. (She was the first wife of nine. After her death he became Church President and ended the practice of plural marriage.) Her outfit has two distinctive markers for clothing in the late 1870s—the more elaborate skirt detail and the long cuffs that reach from the lower arm to the wrist. Her Polonaise jacket has a distinctive trim, perhaps gingham, repeated at her wrist and on the lower flounce of her skirt. There is a bow decoration at the center of her skirt and little rosettes at the top of the first row of trim. Her cuffs are especially fancy, with one row of dark lace like material, then the gingham, and a last row of shiny fabric.

A friend found this photo in a thrift store in the Woodland, California near Sacramento. I suspect it was originally taken in Utah, where two of the sisters lived. Did one of their descendants bring it with them to California?