I have never heard of such a thing....I would bet it was not something that is "done"...but rather unique to the situation. Perhaps not mourning...maybe the little girl was the woman as a child?
How big is the card? What era? What can you tell by the clothing? Does the woman appear to be in mourning dress, or have on an arm band? Could it be a mourning carte de visite that someone pasted the child's picture on to?
I often say....if only some of this old stuff could talk, what tales it might tell!
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: cartes de visite

Very good questions and ideas Linda. I have no idea how to date old photographs by clothing and such. It is a postcard (and the normal size of a postcard)- with no writing on the back. And it's labeled Crystal Post Card And Portrait Studio (Dallas, TX). The woman is wearing a long dark skirt and white long sleeved blouse with a dark chocker around her neck and a very pretty hair comb (hair is short and in waves or curls). A basket of roses is on the table. It's hard to tell, but I think there is a wedding band low on the ring finger of her left hand which is resting in her lap. Or she is maybe holding something that is hidden by her hand. Maybe 1920's?

It looks SO staged. If you put those cartoon bubbles on it they would lead straight from the top of the woman's head to the little girl. Like a thought bubble. The woman is obviously posed to look pensive and sad.

I'm going to work on getting it scanned so I can post a copy of it here - I'm sure that'd be better than my descriptions.

And the little girl is pasted on? Can you tell if she is the same paper af the picture on the card?
The costumes and the "studio" could very well be 19th century.
I think it's a mourning Carte de Visite....and she was not able to get a picture of the child....maybe lost at sea or eaten by wolves (!!...sorry fishing for answers here!) so they took a picture of mother and pasted on the child's photo.
Maybe someone else will weigh in here.
Linda C

Well, it's not pasted "on", it's pasted "in" - like photoshopped :) in the same paper.

It's so strange. I hope someone else will have a clue. I'll do some research on mourning Carte de Visite and see what I can find.

Thanks for your ideas. I can only imagine what would lead to making a photo like this!

Edit to add: I found this info at Family Tree magazine online -

What is unusual about this image is the fact that the photographer superimposed a small photograph of the girl on the casket. This was added in the photographer's darkroom and was an attempt to bring the girl's spirit back to life. These "spirit photographs" gave the illusion that the person was still living. Instead of the common photograph of the body in the casket, the family chose to depict her as living against the backdrop of her funeral arrangements. Since in this superimposed photo she is shown leaning against pillows in a nightgown - obviously ill - it was probably taken shortly before her death. Postmortem photographs enabled family members to mourn the deceased individual and to remember them after death. Taking these pictures was a universal practice.

We're getting soem where....
Check below.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: spirit photos

Thanks for the link Linda, you've been such a big help!

I looked through all the photos at the link (very interesting stuff!!) and what strikes me most about them is that the images appear to be more ghost like, while the one in my picture is more obvious and amateur (does that make sense?).

Maybe what I have hear is a photographer experimenting (or not yet very experienced) with spirit photography. It's not a 'trick' of photography that was used - it was one image of the girl superimposed into another image of the woman. A sort of combination of mourning and spirit photography.

I sure wish this card had a name on it! Do you (does anyone?) have an idea of a date this was taken based on the clothing, etc?

If the hair was typical, it looks like 1930.....but it could be that the woman just didn't wear the style of the day.
My best guess is 1890 to 1910, based on the type of picture it is.
I think it's a spirit photo....by one of the less skilled photographers.
Keep searching! never know just what you might find!
Linda C

Thanks Linda. I think you're right about it being taken by a less skilled photographer. I'll keep searching, it's fun!

Interesting! The link below will take you to a photo taken at the Crystal Post Card and Portrait Studio in Dallas. The subject, Calvin Rigsby, was born in 1891. How old does he look to you in this picture? Twenty or so? That will give you an idea of when the studio was in business, although of course there could be a long span before and after.

Early 20th century jibes with Linda's guess. My mother was born in 1910, and the clothes in the pictures of her mother at that time look similar to your post card.

Here is a link that might be useful: Calvin's photo

And....note the painted back drop is the same in both photos! Do you suppose they charged more for a table in the picture? LOL!
What did we ever do with out the net?
Linda C

Oh wow! That is the same background, and the same floor, too. Good find Alisande, thank you! I'll have to do some more research on the photography company, too.

Yep, more $ for the table. And double for the roses, lol!

this is so fascinating-------thanks for sharing.

Florence/zeffyrose

The spirit image is placed onto the photo in the darkroom using a process of 'dodging'. First, mask is made with a cut out roughly matching the outline of the little picture to be dubbed in. The photo paper is exposed with the little picture while the mask is moved about slightly to blur the sharp edge. Next the mask is removed and a handheld 'dodge' with a shape slightly larger than the little photo is held above the first image and the main exposure is done. The little dodging mask is dithered, moved about a bit, so that its edges are not sharp and to blur the shadow of the wire holder. I've seen cotton balls used for dodges. This is where the expert part of the photo-finisher come into play. After the final exposure, the photo paper is developed in the normal way and there should be the small image floating on the larger one. Often, the photofinisher has to make several tries to get it right. If this picture was made for a commercial card, the original would be used as a master and duplicated with photo techniques. To print many copies, a printing plate would be made. I have several greeting and birthday cards that were sold in Illinois ca 1900 through 1920 and a German card company is imprinted on these.

Your picture appears to be an original print and possible by an amatuer, maybe someone in the family. From 1880 through 1930, there were many self taught photographers in the central US. My uncle was one of these. They made a few extra dollars by applying their hobby to grammer school pictures and family gatherings. For example, my uncle moved to Noxon, MT in 1918 and was the only photographer in the area, so it was he who did several school group shots in that period.

Your photo is most definitely posed. The table, chair and floor are real, but the backdrop is a scene on paper or cloth. The floor pattern seems real enough, but a nice floor could also be simulated by laying down a piece of linonleum over an otherwise rough floor. The table may have been a necessary prop, literaly a prop to help steady the subject. Exposure time may have been realtive slow, about 1/25 sec. Require exposure time in early photography, (daguaerrotpye [tin type]) was slow until better lenses were developed. Sometimes, unseen was a support rod in back of the person to hold their upper torso still. The subject pressed themselves against this rod and held a facial expression that they thought they could hold for a couple of seconds. This may explain the dour expressions seen in many early photos plus the fact that many people did not like to be photographed.

One item that helps to date a photo is shoe styles. If her shoes have button and hook fasteners, this is an indicator. I can't bring to mind when shoe laces became the norm, but shoe laces did replace button and hook fasterners in a relatively short time.

Her hair style says 1920s to me.

In tin types, the image is reversed from left to right. Thus a right handed person will appear as left handed. For many years, it was assummed that Billy the Kid was left handed based on the side he wore and held his gun until it was realized that the image was reversed left to right. Therefore, expect to see wedding bands on seeming the right hand.

When a print is made from a negative, the right and left sides are righted again (this is, if the photofinisher did not make a mistake on which side was up on the negative).

One thing to remember: There was no photography before 1840. The patent for the daguerrotype was filed that year. Also, about that time, an English astronomer developed a camera lense with better light gathering power and photography advanced beyond the "pin hole" era. The wet glass plate was developed ca 1950 followed shortly by the dry glass plate. Kodak developed emulsion on paper in the 1880s and the first of these were primitive indeed. Kodak soon improved this technique with a transparent film on an opaque paper backing and photography was off and running. However, large format studio cameras used frames loaded with film with a dark slide in front of it. The frame was inserted into the back of the camera and the dark slide pulled out before an exposure was made. After the exposure, the dark slide was put back into place so that the frame could be removed and transported to the dark room for developing.

Many techniques were found and employed after 1890 to produce picture post cards and novelty photos.

So if someone hands you a photo and says it was made in 1830, be very skeptical.

Rather than the post mortem or ghost photos that were popular this looks a lot like an advertisement for a medium. I once worked with a lady who had a relative that had been a fortune teller type. She was lucky enough to have inherited all her possessions and those pertaining to her "work" as a medium were very cool! This person was actually in the business to "contact" your loved ones from the beyond. She also read palms, told the future, etc. It was apparently a very popular thing to do in the late 1800's early 20th century and because of this, there would have been plenty of "mediums" to visit. When I saw your picture I was immediately reminded of an old advertising postcard she had shown me when we were looking through her family member's things. There were a very interesting bunch of advertisements, letters, a deck of cards and some things she had no idea what they were. The thoughtful look on her face looks a lot like she's trying to conjure an image, just like the one I saw. I'm sorry to say I no longer work with her and have no idea how to contact her, otherwise we could compare the two photographs for similarities. Maybe you could do some research from that perspective and come up with something. Good Luck!

Someone else who saw the photo also suggested it could be an advertisement - that the woman looks to be conjuring up the 'spirit' of the little girl.

Jemdandy, thanks for all the history, all very interesting. The shoes are too blurry to see well, but if I had to guess I'd say laces.

There's a mistake in my post above. The wet plate process came into use in 1850, NOT 1950.