{"id":20019,"date":"2026-05-23T23:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T23:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dejunair.com\/?p=20019"},"modified":"2026-05-23T23:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T23:33:11","slug":"this-1895-photo-of-a-girl-holding-her-sisters-hand-seemed-normal-until","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dejunair.com\/?p=20019","title":{"rendered":"This 1895 Photo of a Girl Holding Her Sister\u2019s Hand Seemed Normal \u2014 Until"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Davy\u2019s sisters, 1895. May they finally rest. Helen almost filed it away without a second thought. But then she noticed something odd about the smaller girl\u2019s hand. The way the fingers curled, the unnatural angle. She ordered a highresolution scan. What the restoration revealed made Helen understand why this photograph had been hidden for over a century and why the note said, \u201cFinally, rest.\u00a0This isn\u2019t just a photograph of two sisters. It\u2019s a photograph of a promise that lasted beyond death. The photograph arrived at the Boston Historical Society on March 15th, 2021 in a plain manila envelope with no return address.\u00a0Inside was a single sepia toned photograph approximately 5\u00d77 in mounted on thick cardboard backing typical of 1890s studio photography. The image showed two girls standing in what appeared to be a garden. The older girl, perhaps 10 or 11 years old, stood on the left wearing a white Victorian dress with lace collar and puffed sleeves.\u00a0Her dark hair was pulled back severely from her face. Her expression was solemn, almost haunted. Beside her stood a smaller girl, maybe six or seven, also in white. She was shorter, thinner, with the same dark hair and serious expression. The younger girl\u2019s right hand was held by the older girl\u2019s left hand. Their fingers were intertwined tightly.\u00a0Behind them was a backdrop of climbing roses on a trellis. Soft afternoon light suggested the photograph had been taken outdoors, which was unusual for the era when most portraits were done in studios with controlled lighting. At the bottom of the photograph, written in faded brown ink, were the words, \u201cLiy and Rose Davies, June 1895.\u00a0\u201d The accompanying note written on modern paper in shaky elderly handwriting, said only, \u201cThe Davy\u2019s sisters, 1,895. May they finally rest. I can\u2019t keep this any longer. Someone should know the truth. Dr. Helen Foster, age 52, had been curator of the photographic archives at the Boston Historical Society for 18 years.<center style=\"white-space-collapse: collapse;\"><\/center><div class=\"page-links page-btn\" style=\"clear: both; padding: 2px 5px; border-radius: 3px; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; white-space-collapse: collapse;\"><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Davy\u2019s sisters, 1895. May they finally rest. Helen almost filed it away without a second thought. But then she&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This 1895 Photo of a Girl Holding Her Sister\u2019s Hand Seemed Normal \u2014 Until - Best Food Recipes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dejunair.com\/?p=20019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This 1895 Photo of a Girl Holding Her Sister\u2019s Hand Seemed Normal \u2014 Until - Best Food Recipes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Davy\u2019s sisters, 1895. May they finally rest. Helen almost filed it away without a second thought. 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