This sun-dappled view shows what is believed to depict Old Main Street-then a dirt road- at the very beginning of the 20th century in the Historic Deerfield village section of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Fine examples of American homes in the Federal and Colonial style, many of which today are now museums open for public tours, can be glimpsed on either side of the street. In effect, the view is an homage and pictorial document to the Deerfield the Allen sisters called home and loved.

Print details in graphite on verso:

center titled in cursive writing: Deerfield Street  (Childs)

additional details:

Mrs Maxon.
0835-156  1.25

1900-1910

ink stamp:

FRANCES and MARY ALLEN.
DEERFIELD, MASS.
All Rights Reserved.

print condition:  some staining, waviness and loss to three corners

This photograph also represented by a duplicate silver developing out print (DOP) contained within a small album of ten photographs by the Allen sisters held in the Frances and Mary Allen Collection of Photographs of Deerfield, Massachusetts (PH 1). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst. The album is described as follows:

This small album contains ten photographs by Frances and Mary Allen depicting their beloved Deerfield, Mass., in the years shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. The majority of the images are artfully composed views of Deerfield Street and the colonial houses familiar to the Allens. Among these are two photos of the house the sisters inherited from their Aunt Kate Allen in 1895, which subsequently became their home and studio.

Original copy for this entry posted to Facebook on September 24, 2012:

Old New England towns like Deerfield, Mass. are one of America’s treasures preserving historical architecture and worthy of a visit. Native sisters Mary and Frances Allen, who had lost their hearing before the end of the 19th century, were undeterred by their own handicaps and pursued the art of photography there, documenting neighbors and street scenes like this one that were in effect a love letter to the town itself.