A Brief History…

My mother had a pretty interesting life. Her father was born in 1849.

Here he is with his sister, Anna, at about the age of five or so. This is from a Daguerreotype, which was printed on a copper plate that looked like glass.

Invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839,[4][5][6] daguerreotype was almost completely superseded by 1860 with new, less expensive processes yielding more readily viewable images. In the late 20th century, there was a revival of daguerreotypy by a small number of photographers interested in making artistic use of early photographic processes.

To make the image, a daguerrotypist would polish a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish, treat it with fumes that made its surface light sensitive, expose it in a camera for as long as was judged to be necessary, which could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting; make the resulting latent image on it visible by fuming it with mercury vapor; remove its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment, rinse and dry it, then seal the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure.

The image is on a mirror-like silver surface, normally kept under glass, and will appear either positive or negative, depending on the angle at which it is viewed, how it is lit and whether a light or dark background is being reflected in the metal. The darkest areas of the image are simply bare silver; lighter areas have a microscopically fine light-scattering texture. The surface is very delicate, and even the lightest wiping can permanently scuff it. Some tarnish around the edges is normal.

So the method was only ten years old when that image was made.

Here he is as an adult, acting in a play. There is an amazing likeness to his grandson, Arthur G Kerrison, who served in World War II.

There is Arthur G, also known as “Bud,” a common nickname for a junior in those days. He is holding me up between him and his sister Marian. Another sister, Ruth, often known in the family as “Little Ruth” since mother lived with them until 1926 and was often considered an older sister.Ruth was born in 1916 when mother was 18 years old. Marian was born in 1917 so they were not that far apart in age. Ruth and Marian would later function as babysitters for me as they were 22 and 23 when I was born.

My mother’s mother was born in Canada and her birth name was “Bridget,” which she did not like and changed to “Della” while in school.

This is her photo as an adult and probably not long before she died in 1926.

She and Joseph Mileham met in Aurora Illinois where she was working and living in a rooming house owned by Joseph’s sister Anna.

They married and mother was born as the fourth child, and third surviving child, 18 months before her father died of pneumonia.

Here she is as an infant, probably around the time her father died.

Her sister is here.

She is quite young and her husband Art is with her.

Her brother, Joseph Jr is here with his wife Marie.

Mother at 18.

Here she is in 1925 at age 27 with two boy friends on vacation at Lake Delevan.

In 1926, her mother and brother both died. She traveled to California to stay with relatives and remained until 1929.

Here she is dressed as a typical flapper with her cousin, Merle McHenry. She returned to Chicago after 1929 as the McHenrys were hit hard by the Depression.

She married my father in 1937 and I was born in 1938.

Here she is with her sister and brother-in-law and with her niece Marian.

That would be around the 1960s. And here she is at her 100th birthday.

She lived a full life in three centuries. Born in 1898 and died in 2001.

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