1880s African American Affluence Bleeding Kansas Studio Cabinet Photo

Atchinson was founded by a pro-slavery Missouri senator only a generation before this sitting. His town lay only 50 miles from the site of the Lawrence Massacre that spurned deadly retaliations from John Brown and other abolitionist groups. In 1858, Atchinson voted on a new charter & turned their formerly Missouri newspaper into a free state publication. Fashionable, assured sitters here (mother left, either sister or young bride right) are likely a southern family involved in the Union Pacific railroad boom.

Light contrast & consistent soiling.