A nineteenth-century photograph from the archives of the Library of Congress, where I hoped to find a logical explanation, but found instead this note: "Summary: Photograph showing portrait of an unidentified woman wearing a fish-shaped object on her head and holding a fish-shaped object in her lap."
One idea re an altered photo is offered at Jiggsy.
Via A London Salmagundi.
Her costume made me think of a Goddess of some sort...so after googling this is what I came up with...seems possible...but the headgear is still odd. http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/goddess_of_the_sea.html
ReplyDeleteGillian, the guy apparently was a photographer of actresses in his early career, so that's possible.
ReplyDeleteBut it also kind of looks like the fish might have been added afterwards in the studio...
My guess: The young lady was crowned Fish Queen in her fishing town.
ReplyDelete