Below is a drawing sent to me by Shelley Canning, who is the granddaughter of Phyllis Vera Thorpe (nee Peters) (I’ll add a post about this later). Long story short, Phyllis was registered at birth as the daughter of Hannah Peters, Gramma’s mother, so, on paper, Gramma’s half-sister. Gramma’s older sister, Ellen, and younger sister, Edith, never married. Edith, as older adult, lived with Phyllis and her family. Shelley says this drawing is from Aunt Edie’s scrapbook and there’s nothing written on the back.
This drawing opened a pandora box of questions, and, of course, using observation, logic and conjecture and some discussion with my sister Carol, this is what I believe.
This is a self-portrait. As soon as I saw it, I recognized where the original picture came from and I recognized Gramma’s way of writing her capital “F”. (see her signature below). It is wonderful to have a rendition of the full photo that Gramma used as her passport picture.
So Gramma was VERY detailed in drawing this picture. She took alot of time to get every detail right, not something that a mother of 3 would have time to do.
- The whisp of hair on her forehead
- The watch on her wrist
- The slight slant of the indent between her nose and her top lip
- Something hanging from her neck – a necklace?
But there are few things that tell me SHE drew this and not her sister, Edith.
- Gramma’s signature upturned nose is missing. I believe there’s a possibility that her nose was a trait that she didn’t like, so she made her nose “normal”
- Who ever drew the picture, had the full photo
- The drawing is dated 1921, but Gramma wasn’t F. Gallson until 1922
- Edith would have written her full name on it “Florence…”
- I believe her darkened eyes show the depth of her depression
This last thought leads me to believe Gramma drew this while she was in the hospital.
