1880-1889

Janet E. Finley Collection of Quilt History Photographs

Bloomington, Illinois, United States

Cabinet Card, dated 1883
Photographer: T.P. Garrett, Bloomington, Illinois
Size: 4.25" x 6.5"

With information gleaned from geneaology records, the mother, Julia Moore, was 23 at the time her baby Julia passed away on August 28, 1883, at 8 months of age, in Carlinville, Macoupin County, Illinois. Carlinville lies southwest of Bloomington, Illinois. Thomas P. Garrett was considered one of the most skillful photographers of Bloomington. His portrait studio was located at No. 221 North Main Street. A native of Delaware, born to Quaker farming parents, Thomas remained at home until he was sixteen years old. After completing his primary studies, he attended the Normal School for three years and then went to Wilmington, Delaware, and learned photography. At the age of eighteen, on July 10, 1864, he enlisted and served in the 1st Delaware Artillery until the end of the Civil War. He resumed his photography profession in the ensuing years in Kansas, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania before settling, in 1879, in Bloomington, Illinois. He married, had children, and remained in Bloomington in his chosen profession the remainder of his life.

-- With permission of the publisher, excerpted from Janet E. Finley, Quilts in EveryDay Life 1855-1955 (Schiffer Publishing, 2012).