By Megan Cooper on June 9, 2020

In the early age of photography, portraits of people were few and far between, but they had one thing in common: serious faces. Nowadays, you’d expect to see an emotionless face in these old-timey photographs, which is why the recent discovery of an image of a young woman smiling from nearly 130 years ago is really unusual and utterly fascinating. The photograph taken in 1894, which features a Native American girl named O-0-dee of the Kiowa people, was found at an auction in 2019 and is now protected by the Smithsonian Institute. Since its discovery in the George W. Brentz collection, O-o-dee’s bright smile has captivated people around the world via social media. One Redditor comments, “Wow. What a smile can do. Suddenly it looks like this photo was taken a lot more recently.” Another says, “Very cool picture. I think this is the first old picture I’ve seen of someone smiling.”

So why is it that most photos from this era feature straight-faced people? There are many theories as to why […]

Continue reading: 130-Year-Old Photo Shows Rare Smiling Portrait of Indigenous Woman