I have inherited hundreds of prints from my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. The vast majority of these images are unlabeled. I don't know most of the people and I can only infer rough dates. Hence, it's a delight to come across pictures that have descriptions on their backs. This shot was taken around May 12, 1917 - more than a hundred years ago. To quote the handwritten note on the back, "Here is a picture of Robert and Verna taken in front of the house we live in. I think it is very good for an outdoor picture, don't you? They were just in their school clothes and a man came along and took it." Street photography was in its early days in 1917. Film speeds were ridiculously slow, (12 ASA was considered fast), and lenses were rarely faster that f 3.0, so shutter speeds were long: 5 to 20 seconds or more. You had to hold a pose to get good results. In this picture, Verna moved her eyes. They didn't have red-eye in 1917 but blurry-eye was legion.

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