This portrait of my 2nd great-grandfather Joseph Skeen was well-loved! My copy is a photo of a photo that I found in my grandmother’s collection. It looks pretty rough:
The damage is to the original, not my copy, so I can only guess what the splattering is from. Because this photo is one of so few images of Joseph, I took my time and really cleaned it up. I knew it would take a while and I would get bored (shhh! don’t tell Joseph), so I broke it up and spent about 12 minutes at a time. Here is my editing progression:
Surprisingly, his suit coat was the hardest part.
The back of the photo doesn’t offer any information about the photo date or occasion:
What a treasure! I am so grateful for the privilege of being the steward of so many family treasures. ❤️
Two quick updates:
1 — I recently shared a portrait of Joseph when he was older and the discovery that he was blind in one eye. I couldn’t find any information about that beyond the WWI Draft Registration. His grandson, my grandpa’s only living sibling, called me recently and I (thankfully) thought to ask if he knew about Joseph being blind in one eye. He did. He shared that Joseph lost his sight in one eye when someone threw a snowball at him that had a rock in the center. He couldn’t recall any other details including how old Joseph was when this happened. Joseph must have been very forgiving as he didn’t write about this incident and its effects on his life in his rather long personal history.
2 — The same Uncle, and a few of his cousins, helped me with an update to the labeling on this photo.
Happy Thursday, I hope you will scan a share a favorite family photo very soon! xoxo