Owing to the chosen profession of my Great Grandfather, William Blacker, I am fortunate to own a substantial collection of photographs of Elva during her childhood.
As the only girl, and second of three children born to professional photographers, William and Clara, many of Elva’s girlhood hours were spent dressing up and posing for photographs which were then reproduced and sold as postcards.
I am not qualified to comment on the integrity or merit of Williams photographic techniques but there are clues in the albums that suggest a talented and successful achiever of substantial means, who provided comfortably for his young wife and three children.
There was still a huge discrepancy between the haves and have not’s of Edwardian England but while some children were walking to school with no shoes, Elva it seems had access to an enviable dressing up wardrobe as well as her normal, everyday clothes.
In her young adult years, Elva took over the family business and continued making postcards. My father was her chosen mews and it was a shock to find pictures of him in the albums as a small boy. I think the modern term is, it really got me in the feels.
Please see my Family Albums page to see Elva the model in ‘action’.
Did anyone in your family receive an Elva postcard? #whatsinyourattic