Eternal Images: Photographing Childhood


Lawrence Plante with a fish he caught, c. 1920

Lawrence Plante with a fish he caught, c. 1920
Item 11981   info
Abel J. Morneault Memorial Library

Unlike many of the other portraits of young boys, this example shows a boy in fairly casual attire and with props that are stereotypically boyish, rather than props than are intended to suggest status or elevate the child beyond boyhood.

Lawrence Plante, the son of Alfred and Elise Plante of Van Buren, was probably about 8 when this picture was taken.

His father had worked in the woods, although the family moved to Massachusetts sometime during the 1920s and Alfred Plante began working in a department store.

Lawrence was the only son among about eight Plante children, a fact that might have affected this pose.

Item 26 of 28