The Whiting Sisters

Evelyn Virginia and Laura Alice Whiting

I have a lot of vintage photographs here. Some of them I purchased at various auctions over the past ten years and some of them were given to me. It is quite a collection. In order to pay bills I've been selling them over the past summer. It was hard to give up some of them but, although I can be sentimental, practicality wins out most of the time.

I rarely know much about the photographs I sell. Many of them wind up in estate sales and I often wonder how families can give up such treasures. But most of them have no labels or names and I imagine the current generation just doesn't know who those people are anymore. No one asked their grandparents about those old pictures and the stories of the people in their families were lost. In later years they may regret the loss of such interesting family information.

This little photograph, for sale on my web site, is of two little girls. They are identified on the back as Evelyn Virginia Whiting, Age 6 years, and Laura Alice Whiting, Age 3 years, 9 months and 6 days. They are wearing identical lacy dresses and little necklaces and even have their hair cut in bangs in similar styles. They were from the Newport News area of Virginia and photographed by Mr. Tennant of Newport News. Sadly, as a little research showed on the Internet, they have even more in common. Five years later, this family lost both of these lovely little girls. Evelyn died in April of 1911 and Laura died in June of the same year.

So many stories. I have another photograph on the site of "Little Laura - Dead." So much heartache revealed in these three words. But life is made up of so much pain, so much loss. And so much joy. Life goes on and is filled with memories and love and days of pleasure as well as sadness.

Take a moment to think about these little girls who never grew up to know how full and rich life can be. As long as there are pictures, they are never completely forgotten.