That’s her. Her name is was Lydia. She was the sister of my great-great grandfather. That photo was taken probably sometime in the 1880 or so, when she was about 23 or 24 years old. I think about her sometimes.
Today I was tooling around with Twitter, following more folks and checking out profiles and profile photos. Some photos are a little non-descript; I hope mine isn’t. I use Lydia’s photo as my profile photo wherever I go. I like it because it’s old-fashioned, and because she is was pretty. And because of that really funky hat with the ostrich feather, and her velvet-brown handmade dress. Nice touch, just enough whimsy and Victorian prudishness to appeal to me.
Anyway, while surfing the Twitter profiles and going back to my own Twitter profile, I wondered what Lydia would think about all this. About all this electronic stuff. Just think about it- it’s *only* been 120 years or so since we even got the LIGHT BULB! In the realm of history, that’s a very short blip of time. 120 years ago, people lived their lives a lot like they had been living them for thousands of years previously. But the 20th century REALLY turned everything upside down didn’t it? Since those agricultural days of the 1880s, we are now so urbane and have means of mass communication unimagined by people then (except by John the Revelator, of course). The biggest invention up to 1880 was Gutenberg’s printing press! (Which, by the way, is still considered to be the greatest invention of all time). Think of all the things the 20th century has produced:
- Electric lighting, LED lighting, flourescent lighting
- Telephones, satellite phones, cell phones
- Mass transport, like cars, airplanes, space shuttles.
- Computers, digital cameras, camcorders, memory cards, VCRs, CDs, DVDS!
- Fiber optics, lasers, weapons of mass destruction
- Antibiotics, x-rays, gamma rays, organ transplants
- Radio, TV, the Internet, satellite
- Refrigerators, can openers, washing machines, toasters!
- The CIA, FBI, DHS, ATF!
It just blows my mind. We exist in a totally, completely different world now. It’s pretty cool to think about it; but it’s also a little unsettling, because our lives are no longer built on tangible stuff like wood and stone and agriculture, but plastic and virtual reality and virtual money. I often wonder what Lydia would say and do if she were suddenly transported from then to now. She’d probably think she was on another planet, or in another dimension- IF they even thought about dimensions back then. Hey, has anyone ever seen the movie Time Changer ?? It’s all kinda like that!
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July 21, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I love Lydia’s photograph. What a beautiful thing to have. I’m sure she would be awestruck at how her image is appearing world wide!!
July 22, 2009 at 10:37 am
Fantastic post. I’ve often wondered if that picture was one of your ancestors - thanks for sharing about Lydia. I imagine she would be shocked and confused to find out where her picture is seen and how. I agree that it’s amazing and somehow disconcerting to think about how much the world has changed in just a short period of time. It’s all preparation for the day soon coming… :-D
August 21, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Yeah. After fainting (they DID still have corsets back in her time), and being revived with smelling salts, she’d probably shake her head in astonishment.. and then switch on her iPhone to see what’s happening on Twitter!