Family Portrait

It gave me a pleasant surprise, almost a shock, to see the picture at the bottom of page 67 in the April/May issue of A MERICAN H ERITAGE showing the three children burying their pet rabbit. I knew that picture as a child and never before saw its duplicate.

Many years ago peddlers roamed the countryside with merchandise for sale or trade. My mother obtained a large, colored, framed copy of that picture from such a huckster. She traded two hens for it. That must have been about 1913.

My mother was attracted to this picture because her three children were the sizes of the ones in the picture. My brother, Harold, had a brown wool suit like the one in the picture. My younger brother, Marvin, wore a “Russian suit” and golden curls as the picture shows. I was the girl.

I still have the picture on a wall in my home. It gives me great pleasure to read the biography of the artist. You called this photograph one of his “more arresting failures.” We don’t think so—we always liked it!