Peg and Ray, studio portrait of a couple, circa 1925

About this postcard

A man and woman stand side by side before a painted studio backdrop showing a draped curtain and a paneled wall. She wears a dark coat with a white corsage pinned at the shoulder, a close-fitting cloche hat, and strapped shoes; he wears a dark suit and tie. The names Peg and Ray are written on the front of the card, the only identification the sitters left. The cloche and the corsage place the sitting in the 1920s, when the snug bell-shaped hat had displaced the wide brims of the decade before and a florist's corsage was standard dress for a formal portrait. Local studios turned out sittings like this as real photo postcards, printed in small batches for the family to mail or keep.