The Durgin Family in One Remarkable Portrait

Frank Durgin, Bridget Kennedy & five children captured together in an early Maine family photograph

Old family portraits do more than preserve faces. When the people are identified, they can reconnect an entire generation with the places, families, and stories that came after them.

This formal family portrait preserves Frank Durgin and Bridget Kennedy with their children Jenietta, Sturgis, twins Susan Amarilla and Katherine Marie, and young Alton Bray.

Seven members of one family appear together before the photographer, carefully dressed and arranged for a portrait intended to last.

Unlike so many early photographs whose names have disappeared over time, this image retains the identities of the people pictured.

That makes it an especially valuable piece of Durgin family and Maine history.

A FAMILY GATHERED BEFORE THE CAMERA

The photograph is carefully composed.

Frank sits on the left and Bridget on the right, forming the outside edges of the family group. Their children fill the space between and around them.

At the center, the twin girls, Susan Amarilla and Katherine Marie, are particularly striking. They wear matching plaid dresses and have their hair styled in nearly identical long curls.

Behind them stands another daughter, while the family’s youngest children are positioned with their parents.

The portrait includes:

• Frank Durgin
• Bridget Kennedy
• Jenietta
• Sturgis
• Susan Amarilla
• Katherine Marie
• Alton Bray

The photographer arranged the family so that nearly every face is clearly visible. The result is not simply a collection of individual portraits.

It is a portrait of a family as a family.

THE TWINS AT THE CENTER

The matching girls seated prominently in front immediately draw attention.

Susan Amarilla and Katherine Marie were twins.

Their clothing makes that relationship visually unmistakable.

Both wear matching dark plaid dresses with broad shoulder details, long sleeves, and nearly identical styling. Their hair falls in long curls, parted and arranged in the same manner.

Twins were often photographed in matching clothing, emphasizing the bond between them while also creating a balanced studio composition. Here, they effectively become the visual center of the portrait.

Their similarity is striking, yet small differences in expression remind us that these were two individual children with their own lives and personalities.

CHILDREN IN THEIR SUNDAY BEST

Every child in the photograph appears carefully prepared for the occasion. Formal photography was not an everyday event for most families. Clothing was chosen deliberately. Hair was arranged. Children had to sit or stand where the photographer placed them.

And everyone was expected to remain still long enough for the image to be successfully made.

The youngest children wear lighter clothing, while the older girls are dressed much more formally. One young boy wears an enormous plaid bow that nearly dominates his outfit—a detail that instantly gives the photograph character.

The baby, dressed almost entirely in white, seems far less interested in the photographer than everyone else.

That small moment of distraction makes the century-old photograph feel surprisingly familiar.

Anyone who has ever tried to gather an entire family for a photograph can recognize the challenge.

FRANK DURGIN

Frank sits solidly at the left side of the portrait. His clothing is formal but straightforward: dark suit, white shirt, and striped tie. One of the younger children sits directly with him, while another child reaches a hand across his shoulder from behind.

That physical contact makes the portrait feel less rigid than many formal family photographs of the era.

Despite the carefully arranged studio setting, there is still a sense of family connection. Frank’s presence in this photograph also gives later generations something written records cannot provide.

A face.

Genealogical records can preserve names, dates, marriages, occupations, and property. A portrait lets descendants actually look into the face of the person behind those records.

BRIDGET KENNEDY

On the opposite side sits Bridget Kennedy, dressed in a dark, high-necked gown.

Her clothing is noticeably formal, with gathered fabric and decorative detailing across the bodice. She holds the family’s baby securely against her lap while looking directly toward the camera.

The positioning is significant.

In photographs of large families, mothers were frequently arranged beside or holding the youngest child, creating a visual connection between generations. Here, Bridget anchors the right side of the portrait just as Frank anchors the left.

Between them are their children.

The entire family history is contained within that arrangement.

A PHOTOGRAPH FROM ANOTHER MAINE

The world surrounding this family would have looked very different from Maine today.

For families living in rural communities, everyday life depended heavily upon household labor, family cooperation, practical knowledge, and strong relationships with neighbors.

Homes required constant work. Food had to be prepared and preserved. Clothing was washed, repaired, and often made to last. Wood had to be cut for heat.

Children gradually became part of the household workforce as they grew older. Travel was slower. Winters were harder. Communication beyond the immediate community required much more effort.

Family was not simply part of daily life.

For many rural Maine households, family was the structure around which daily life operated.

RAISING A LARGE FAMILY

A household with five children represented an enormous amount of work. The routines of childhood looked different from those familiar today. Children learned responsibilities early.

Depending upon age and circumstances, they might help with:

• carrying wood
• household chores
• tending gardens
• caring for animals
• helping younger siblings
• gathering food
• carrying water
• cleaning
• seasonal work
• assisting adults around the home

Childhood still contained games, friendships, exploration, and mischief.

But children also occupied a much more active place within the working household. The five children pictured here would each eventually move beyond this single moment before the photographer.

Yet here they remain together.

THE IMPORTANCE OF AN IDENTIFIED PHOTOGRAPH

Many surviving family photographs eventually lose their names. One generation knows everyone pictured. The next recognizes most of them. Another remembers only a few.

Eventually, someone opens an album and asks:

“Who are these people?”

That is why this photograph is so valuable. The identification has survived with the image.

We do not simply have:

a man, a woman, and five children.

We have:

Frank. Bridget. Jenietta. Sturgis. Susan Amarilla. Katherine Marie. Alton Bray.

Those names transform the photograph from an interesting antique into a family record.

SEVEN PEOPLE, SEVEN STORIES

One of the fascinating things about a family portrait is knowing that every person pictured would eventually have a story extending far beyond the photograph.

The camera captures only a fraction of a second.

Afterward came years of ordinary life:

• Birthdays.
• Work.
• School.
• Marriage.
• Travel.
• Loss.
• Celebrations.
• Changing homes.
• New generations.

Historical events that no one in the room could yet foresee. The children would grow older. The world around them would change.

But the photograph permanently holds the family together at this particular moment.

That is one of photography’s great gifts to family history.

LOOKING AT THE DETAILS

Beyond the names, the photograph preserves many smaller pieces of history.

Clothing

The contrast between Frank’s suit, Bridget’s dark dress, the twins’ matching plaid outfits, the older girl’s elaborate collar, and the younger children’s clothing shows how age and occasion influenced family dress.

Hairstyles

The girls’ carefully arranged hair reflects the effort made before a formal portrait session.

Studio Background

A painted woodland scene provides an idealized backdrop, a common feature of studio photography from the period.

Posing

The family’s arrangement is carefully balanced, with the children grouped between the parents.

Expressions

Few people smile.

That does not mean the family was unhappy. Serious expressions were common in formal photographs, when subjects were expected to remain composed and still.

Together, these details tell us how a family chose—or was instructed—to present itself to the camera.

FAMILY HISTORY BECOMES LOCAL HISTORY

The importance of photographs like this extends beyond genealogy. Families are how communities are built.

Every town’s history is ultimately made from thousands of family stories layered together over generations.

• People married.
• Children were born.
• Households changed.
• Neighbors helped one another.

Families worked in local businesses, farms, forests, schools, camps, and community institutions. Their descendants carried names and memories forward.

Local history begins with people.

And photographs allow us to meet some of them face to face.

THE VALUE OF PRESERVING FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS

Old photographs can be fragile. They fade. They become scratched. Albums fall apart. Pictures are separated from identifying notes. Families move, estates are divided, and boxes of photographs pass from one household to another.

Once identification disappears, recovering it can be extremely difficult. That makes preservation especially important.

When possible, old photographs should be kept together with information such as:

• full names
• maiden names
• family relationships
• approximate dates
• locations
• photographer information
• handwritten notes
• connections to other photographs

The photograph preserves the faces. The information preserves the story.

Both matter.

ONE FAMILY, PRESERVED TOGETHER

There is something especially powerful about looking at a family portrait more than a century after it was made.

The photographer could not have known who would eventually see it. Frank and Bridget could not have known how many generations might come after them. The children certainly could not have imagined their photograph being studied as part of their family’s history far into the future.

Yet the portrait survived. And because the names survived with it, these seven people are not anonymous figures from an earlier Maine.

They remain recognizable members of a family.

FROM THE DURGIN HILL ARCHIVES

DurginHill.com preserves photographs, documents, family records, and local stories connected to the Durgin family, Durgin Hill, West Forks, The Forks, the Dead River, the Kennebec River, and generations of life in the Maine woods.

This photograph preserves something particularly valuable:

Frank Durgin & Bridget Kennedy

Jenietta & Sturgis

Twins Susan Amarilla & Katherine Marie

Young Alton Bray

Seven members of one family, gathered together for a photograph—and still together more than a century later.