Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)
Our last post featured a lovely portrait of Edith Mae Roberts (later [McMurray] Luck), and this image is most likely from the same sitting.
The previously published post image is probably the same as the picture sitting on the family piano with George A. Roberts, Edith’s father, sitting in his rocker in their beautiful home. (See “George Anthony Roberts, Sr. of Jasper County, Iowa“)
Thankfully the folder from this portrait has been preserved:
How lucky to have a folder with embossing telling us the name and place of the photo studio! We know that Newberg Studio was doing business in Iowa City, Iowa, as early as 1916 and as late as 1922, though they probably were in business both before and after these dates. (More research would give more accurate dates.) Edith was part of the class of 1918 at Prairie City High School in Jasper County, Iowa, and probably graduated in May or June. She attended the University of Iowa, likely starting in September of 1918. In these photos, she looks more mature than her high school graduating class picture. (That will be posted soon.) So these photos could have been taken when she was in college, possibly as she was joining a sorority or the literary society.
Alternatively, they could have been photos taken around the time of her wedding to Edward A. McMurray (Sr.), which took place on 25 Nov 1921.
The portraits could instead have been graduation pictures- Edith graduated 5 Jun 1923 with a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology plus a Certificate from the School of Education for her additional coursework in the Science of Education and Psychology. (She would have been able to teach with that combination of classes.) It was very unusual in those days for women to earn a degree in Zoology- women were not even allowed to vote when she started college! Her major had originally been music, but she changed it when she realized the classes in zoology were much more interesting. Edith’s beautiful, soft and feminine look in the portraits is quite a contrast to the tomboy she said she sometimes was, including at the university where students had to catch their own specimens for study.
Edith Mae (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck was quite an interesting woman, especially for her time!
Notes, Sources, and References:
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- Family treasure chest of photos.
- “Edith M. (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck, and a Wonderful Start in Family History,” published on Heritage Ramblings on 01 Dec 2019,
http://heritageramblings.net/2019/12/01/edith-m-roberts-mcmurray-luck-and-a-wonderful-start-in-family-history/ - “George Anthony Roberts, Sr. of Jasper County, Iowa” published on Heritage Ramblings on 19 Nov 2019, http://heritageramblings.net/2019/11/19/george-anthony-roberts-sr-of-jasper-county-iowa/
- Newberg Studio ad in Abel’s Photographic Weekly, Vol. 30, No. 778, p558, p588, 18 Nov 1922; via GoogleBooks.
- Newberg Studio ad in The Transit, the annual published by the College of Applied Science, University of Iowa, 1916, p2 (II), via GoogleBooks.
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