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"Barbara Reading" or "Stolen Fruit"

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Frances and Mary Allen were photographers of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and they often used their relatives in their photographic illustrations. This is Barbara Allen, one of their nieces. Her sister, Eunice, also a frequent model in their photographs, helped at the shop the sisters ran to sell prints of their photographs. One day in 1917 when Barbara chose to help--a rare event, since she preferred to play outside--they sold, according to one sister's diary, "nearly $25 of small prints, which is more than we have done for a year." Barbara is dressed as a young girl of the Puritan era, a theme the Allens commonly used in their photographs. They were very aware of the history of Deerfield and used it, not only as inspiration for their photographs, but to help sell them to the many visitors the town attracted.

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