Photograph, Cabinet

Description

Writing in the revised and annotated edition of The Shaker Image, prepared by Dr. Magda Hotchkiss, this photograph is described as follows: "The young visitor is the daughter of the photographer, James E. West. The 'elderly sister' was identified on a stereopticon [i.e., cabinet card (No. 37) produced by James West] as 'Sr. Annie M. Moody', but this name does not appear in any Mt. Lebanon census or journal. From the 'North Visitor's Room' (1891-1903) manuscript we know that she visited Mt. Lebanon N[orth]. F[amily]. from Malden, MA, July 26th, 1897. At any rate, we can suppose that the elderly visitor may have simply put on a Shaker cap and posed with the little girl for Mr. West." Describing: photograph number 26 on page 66. While a delightful story, it raises a few questions. James E. West and his wife. Kate (Bristol) West had only one daughter, Maud Marinda West, born in 1880. The earliest photographs known to have been made at the Lebanon Shakers are from the early 1890s. The young girl appears to be only five or six years old, so if this is truly Wests daughter, he was photographing earlier than originally thought or it is not his daughter. The woman in the photograph identified as non-Shaker, Annie Moody, seems comfortable in her pose. She is wearing a Shaker cap and also a thimble on a finger of her right hand. It is not impossible that a visitor, especially a friend, of the Shakers would be doing some hand-work during a visit, but it does raise the question as to whether she may be a Shaker sister indeed.