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Graduation Portrait of Susan Cobb Beyer and Friend
Graduation Portrait of Susan Cobb Beyer and Friend
Graduation Portrait of Susan Cobb Beyer and Friend

Graduation Portrait of Susan Cobb Beyer and Friend

Photographer
Date1909
Mediumglass plate negative
Dimensions8 1/2 × 6 1/2 in. (21.6 × 16.5 cm)
ClassificationsPhotography
Credit LineAlbuquerque Museum, gift of Walter C. Haussamen
Terms
    Object numberPA1990.013.442
    DescriptionA studio portrait of Susan Cobb Beyer and her friend upon high school graduation at the Cobb Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The young women wear nearly matching outfits of long white lacey dresses with gigot puffed sleeves at elbow length. Their hair is parted down the center and twisted and pulled back with large dark bows. Susan stands on the left and looks down at her diploma as she unrolls it. She wears a locket chocker around her neck and a small horizontal pin is attached to the dress under the neckline. Her friend is freckled, has curly hair, holds one hand on Susan's shoulder and holds her rolled diploma in the other. There is a long chain necklace around her neck with the center piece tucked into the waistband of her dress. She looks at the camera and smiles faintly.

    Susan was the second of Eddie Ross Cobb and William Cobb’s four children. The Cobb family owned a photography shop, Cobb Studio, in New Town, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Susan was also a granddaughter of Edmund G. Ross, the New Mexico territorial governor from 1885 to 1889. Susan became one of the first female forest rangers for the United States Forest Service where she worked for thirty years. She married Clarence Beyer who was an engineer and flood commissioner for Albuquerque. Susan and Clarence had one daughter: Susan Willys Reid.

    Emulsion deterioration is occurring on the glass plate causing distortion and emulsion loss.
    On View
    Not on view