Vannoy Family Portrait, circa 1914: Paul, Ivan, Janet. Photographer A.C. “Al” Eckerman in Centerville, Iowa

I have scanned a number of family photographs from the early 1900s recently. I paused over this one, and returned to gaze upon this scene, time after time.  The baby of the trio, Paul, appears to have pulled the book, hard, his way, so that he can see what Ivan and Janet are smiling about.  Click on the photograph, to the attachment, and take some time to enlarge this group shot.  The children are not reading a book aloud, to keep Paul still.  They are looking at a photograph of three children. I imagine Paul, clambering up on the table while yelling, “Let me see! Let me see!”  When at last he sits still, photograph in hand, little Paul shrieks with delight.  “That’s ME!”

Then, in that moment of still recognition, Al Eckerman captured his subjects in this beautiful portrait.