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Eve Rehrer Doebler Battdorff, Pennsylvania, circa late 1860s-early 1870s
This carte de visite portrait depicts Eve Rehrer, photographed late in life, likely in the late 1860s or early 1870s. Born on 23 April 1802, Eve lived through nearly the entire 19th century, witnessing profound changes in both daily life and technology, not to mention including the arrival of photography itself.
She married Henry Doebler around 1825, and following his death, married Daniel Batdorff circa 1827. Eve appears to have spent her entire life in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, where she remained rooted across generations and is also buried.
By the time this photograph was taken, Eve would have been in her sixties or seventies. Her clothing reflects practicality and tradition rather than contemporary fashion while her steady, unsentimental expression conveys a lifetime shaped long before photography became commonplace. Images like this were often made not for novelty, but for remembrance: a deliberate effort by families to preserve the likeness of an elder whose life bridged earlier eras.
A later, non-original attempt at colorization is visible in the image (purple splotch), but the underlying photograph remains a powerful and dignified record of a woman whose life spanned from the early republic into the post–Civil War world.
Eve Rehrer Doebler Battdorff, Pennsylvania, circa late 1860s-early 1870s
This carte de visite portrait depicts Eve Rehrer, photographed late in life, likely in the late 1860s or early 1870s. Born on 23 April 1802, Eve lived through nearly the entire 19th century, witnessing profound changes in both daily life and technology, not to mention including the arrival of photography itself.
She married Henry Doebler around 1825, and following his death, married Daniel Batdorff circa 1827. Eve appears to have spent her entire life in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, where she remained rooted across generations and is also buried.
By the time this photograph was taken, Eve would have been in her sixties or seventies. Her clothing reflects practicality and tradition rather than contemporary fashion while her steady, unsentimental expression conveys a lifetime shaped long before photography became commonplace. Images like this were often made not for novelty, but for remembrance: a deliberate effort by families to preserve the likeness of an elder whose life bridged earlier eras.
A later, non-original attempt at colorization is visible in the image (purple splotch), but the underlying photograph remains a powerful and dignified record of a woman whose life spanned from the early republic into the post–Civil War world.