Smiling Ancestor Photos Reveal Lighthearted Side

Smiling Ancestor Photos might be faded by time, but their joy shines across centuries. Far from dour prudes with Zombie Stares, these people laugh, tease, pose and enjoy life.

We live in a time when people are judged in a nanosecond by their photos. From curated smiles with plumped lips at perfect angles to Gen Z stares, our choices have consequences. People quickly decide whether to swipe, hire, believe, include or reject. Just as quickly, we judge people of the 19^th century as humorless, stern folks.

These smiling ancestor photos tell a different story. We hope they make you smile, even when the world is not so funny.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s. Image: Vintag.es.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Rare Historical Photos.

2-Pretty Flower seneca of the heron clan 1908 (1)

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s. Image: Vintag.es.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: Nanny With Child, c. 1800s. Image: Patrick Ailliot’s Facebook Page.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Rare Historical Photos.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c.1800s. Image: Rare Historical Photos.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s. Image: Vintag.es.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Rare Historical Photos.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: Queen Victoria, c. late 1892 . Image: Rare Historical Photos.

Don’t Say Cheese!

From the first photo taken in 1826, emerging photography of objects presented technical challenges. Human portraits presented special challenges. For starters, subjects had to hold still for several minutes without quivering or their face would look fuzzy.

Chief Blur Buster of BlurBusters Forums explains that early shutter times wee too slow to capture humans sitting still, let alone anything in motion. With any motion, images:

“motionblurred because camera exposure (persistence) was a full 7 minutes! At this level, blurring becomes so faint and prolonged that moving objects are rendered imperceptible.” .” (BlurBusters Forum)

Try holding a smile for seven minutes without quivering. As a result, early portraits were stiff and formal, suggesting that subjects were humorless and cold. In some cases, this might have been true. Certainly Civil War daguerreotypes portrayed soldiers who had little to smile about.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s. Image: Vintag.es.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s. Image: Rare Historical Photos.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: Monsheeda (Dust Maker), and his wife Mehunga (Standing Buffalo), of the Indigenous Ponca tribe, c. 1900. Image: Wikipedia.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s. Image: Vintag.es.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s. Image: Rare Historical Photos.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Rare Historical Photos.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s. Image: Vintag.es.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: c. late 1800s-early 1900s. Image: Rare Historical Photos.

One Woman Sidestepped The Technicalities

The National Library of Wales holds what is possibly the first of the Smiling Ancestor photos.

Mary Dillwyn took the photo of her 18-year-old son Willy in 1853. Flaunting the challenges of early photography, Willy managed to hold a Mona Lisa smile for several minutes as he posed for his close up.

According to the Wales Library, Mary Dillwyn was Wales’s earliest female photographer and she is also one of Britain’s most notable early female photographers.

She preferred smaller cameras that required shorter exposure times. This gave her the ability to capture candid moments. Among her most famous are the shots of Willy smiling and a shot of a snowman.

Mary Dillwyn also caught the first known photobomb when a small girl peeped over the backdrop while she was taking a portrait. (Library of Wales)

Smiling Ancestor Photos: Willy Dillwyn Smiles, c. 1853 by Mary Dillwyn. Image: National Library of Wales.

Smiling Ancestor Photos: Possibly First Photobomb, c. 1853 by Mary Dillwyn. Image: National Library of Wales.

What’s With The Sad Face?

Smiling Ancestor Photos are definitely outnumbered by Sour-puss portraits. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Many people were scared of the new technology and their expressions offer permanent proof. Photographs were also expensive. If you had only one photo taken in a lifetime, you chose your expression wisely.

It’s also true that Victorian values were in full swing. Among them were prudence, diligence, temperance, self-control, thrift and self-reliance

In The Origins of Modern English Society (1969), Historian Harold Perkin writes:

“Between 1780 and 1850 the English ceased to be one of the most aggressive, brutal, rowdy, outspoken, riotous, cruel and bloodthirsty nations in the world and became one of the most inhibited, polite, orderly, tender-minded, prudish and hypocritical.”(Harold Perkin)

But along with technological advances the Industrial Era triggered changes in social behavior and moral standards. Personal restrictions were loosening like the ties of a suffocating bodice.

People were moving into cities. Advances in transportation, including the simple bicycle, gave people infinitely more freedom. Women were gaining independence and entering the work world. People had more discretionary income and at least a little free time to play.

While society loosened, photography improved dramatically. These Smiling Ancestor Photos prove that some people were enjoying these new freedoms.