 The title of this black and white photograph is “Mrs. Bradley’s Home – The Morning Consultation”. Millionaire Lydia Bradley and her business manager Peoria attorney W.W. Hammond are seated at a small table, which has been covered with a length of dark cloth. There are business documents, letters and an inkwell on the table. Mrs. Bradley sits in a rocking chair on the right side of the picture and faces the camera. Mr. Hammond sits across from her. Mrs. Bradley’s chair has a high back and it has been pulled up tight to the table so that we see only the upper part of her body and a hint of her skirt below the short table liner. Her left hand rests on the paper she is signing. She has raised her pen from the paper and looks directly at the photographer. Her expression is one of tolerance, her eyes are small, her mouth set tightly. She wears wire-rimmed glasses. Her hair is white and combed loosely off her face. It is probably gathered in a bun at the back of her head. She wears a plain, dark satin or silk dress with a narrow white lace collar. She is known to wear black, yet the color of the dress shown in this picture appears to be brown or green. At the top of the shoulders and across the bodice is a row of black cotton fringe. The leg-of-mutton sleeves are full from the shoulder to 5 or 6 inches above the wrist. The wide wristband is tight and is edged with a narrow piece of cotton lace. Mr. Hammond looks down at the legal-size paper on the table before him. Only his right side is visible. He is likely in his forties. His light brown hair is thinning. It is short and neatly trimmed. He has a full mustache. He wears wire-rimmed glasses. His jacket, vest and slacks are wool. His stiff, white collar stands high on his neck, and he wears a small necktie. Behind Mrs. Bradley is a tall, iron radiator. The dark wallpaper is punctuated with large, white urns of flowering plants and trailing ivy that connects the designs together and gives the room a busy appearance. Oval-framed portraits of Mrs. Bradley and her deceased husband Tobias hang above the mantel. A clock in a wood casing and a tall, painted flower vase are on the mantel. | |
