I’ve just added the first video slide show to come out of my work on Fredonia (“Dona”) Clowes Wilson’s album of cabinet cards, cartes de visite, and tintypes. The album was compiled from images made from the 1870’s to the early 1890’s.

Fredonia Wilson, a native of Milton, married Wiliam C. Lofland and moved to Lewes after 1890, where they managed a hotel. She became the postmaster for Lewes in 1916. Before the move to Lewes, she was active in social causes, most notably the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. The first image in the album, a group portrait of nine young Milton women including herself, made probably before 1890, is the subject of this slide show. It’s prominence in the album suggests the importance that this group held for Dona. The women came from different social classes and had widely varying levels of education, but they found common cause in the Temperance movement and in the work of Christian service to the community.

Click here to navigate to the tour page and launch the video.