Look at these three images and ask yourself, “Who wouldn’t like to be Naomi’s friend?”
At this age – a wagon, a great hat, a kitty and a long-suffering dog, and parents who dote on you: life may never be better!
Everything about these images indicates very moderate circumstances: They are not the work of a professional and were likely taken by someone in her family; the camera and lens were not of high quality (the image is not sharp, the paper is thin, coarse fibered with a matte finish, the edges are not masked). Cameras were a significant purchase at the time for anyone of average means, but someone wanted to have mementos of Naomi’s childhood. The prints were never mounted on card and show no indication of having been in an album, so their survival is remarkable and they are in quite clean condition after a century. Scrawled on the back of one print is her full name in a childish penmanship that may have been her own: Naomi Ebellon(?) Ebright(?).
Sad, perhaps, that her photos are now lost to her heirs; but they can be enjoyed by you and a wider audience than she or her family ever could have imagined.