My mother, Sylvia, has written on the reverse of this gelatin silver photographic print from Elsie's collection, "Elsie's grandmother." I see so many aspects of my grandmother Elsie's face in this particular portrait of Delilah, her paternal grandmother. I love Deliah's beads and wonder what kind (trade beads?) and what color they are. I wonder about her dress, too--it might not be black!
Marilyn, who descends from Delilah's only daughter, Eldora Hill, also has a copy of this studio portrait of Delilah Ann Oxford Hill. Both Marilyn and Patsy confirm her identity--thank you!
Delilah looks like she might be about 75 years old. If that estimate is correct, we might date this photo to circa 1920, which corresponds with her style of dress. Delilah's dress is most likely her "Sunday-best" and, judging by the lace trim, is possibly a mass-produced "catalog" dress.
The dress is definitely post-WWI and reflects the looser, more practical style of dress that women adopted after almost a decade of the women's suffrage movement, which culminated in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.
See http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/dress/historic/earlyart/earlyart.htm for a good website on "Historic Dress: Early Art Deco (1911-1929)."
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