A site visitor, Helen Joy of Bournemouth, England recently contacted us about two prints, both copyright 1900, found behind the framed photo of one of her husband’s ancestors. I recognized one of the prints from her description, but the other was new to me. The prints are interesting for a couple of reasons. First, although Beatrice Tonnesen spoke about having an international clientele, these are the first that we know of that have surfaced overseas that don’t bear the name of a US publisher. Second, while I recognized one of the prints as the romantic image of a woman shown blowing bubbles, the other print, a whimsical image of a woman holding the leaf of a corn plant over her head, shown in this slideshow courtesy of Helen Joy, was new to me. Not only that, the woman in the corn seemed to be part of a series of agriculturally-themed images that were most likely taken at the same time. When I see a series of prints like this, I can almost imagine how Beatrice Tonnesen spent one of her workdays, posing one image after another, each appealing on its own, but illustrating a theme when seen altogether.
The images, in the order in which they appear in the slideshow are: Untitled image of a woman with a corn leaf, courtesy Helen Joy; and “Pigs in Clover”; “Country Gossip”; “A Hay Seed”; and the untitled image of a woman blowing bubbles, all by Tonnesen Sisters and all shown elsewhere on this website.
Copyright 2014 Lois Emerson
