Laura Denman Booth – Two Pictures?

I am trying my hand at face matching across pictures and present these two as an example.  The first is a digitized image of the daguerreotype taken of the Ladies Graduates at Oberlin in 1853 which was the class Laura Denman graduated with.  In the Spring of 1853 she would have been just about 25 years old.  At the time I first received this image from the Oberlin Archives, there was no list of the women graduates clarifying who was pictured, with the exception of the middle two who were Mrs. James Dascomb (Principal, Women’s Department) and President Charles G. Finney.  I did not know which one was Laura Denman.  I wrote about Laura finishing at Oberlin several years ago and included this image.

The second picture is one taken much later in Laura’s life, although I don’t know exactly when or where.  I was able to find this one by putting out a request to all the various Denman researchers I have been in contact with over the years.  One of them, cousin Debra, was able to send this to me thanks to her brother-in-law’s having digitized and sent it to her.  I included this picture (as well as one of her husband Joseph W. Booth) when I wrote about Laura’s ending her memoir.

At some point more recently it occurred to me that I might be able to use this second picture of Laura to figure out which one of the young women she was in the Oberlin group picture.  Clearly she had light colored eyes (probably blue) and her mouth and chin seemed like they might have stayed much the same across her lifetime.  The hair styles in the earlier pictures did not (mostly) show any of the women’s ears so they couldn’t be compared.  The set of her head and the shape of the eyes, along with the very light color, pretty much convince me that the last picture on the lower right in the earlier set of pictures is Laura.  The mouth also seems similar in shape and to have a similar expression.  What do you think?

1 Comment on “Laura Denman Booth – Two Pictures?

  1. Good sleuthing to find these photos. And a fun idea to compare the two. I think you’re right, although the young woman in the top row second from left has a lot of similar features – some fullness below the lower lip, shape of face considering her youth. Nose is a little shorter tough, and eyes a bit larger and perhaps a different shape, wider spaced. None of the others are contenders. Its amazing that the 1853 photos survived – the earliest I’ve ever seen.

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