Sons of Alexander and Francis (Henry) Wilson, 1870s-1880s

A formal photograph of four of the five sons of Alexander and Francis (Henry) Wilson. Three of the sons are clearly older; two stand on either end of a bench, while the other sits. They all wear suits and fur caps, with longneck rifles in hand. The fourth son, a young boy, sits left to his older brother. He also wears a fur cap, though his is lighter in color, and a long sleeve jacket with what appears to be a fur collar. His hands rest on a dog who stands in front of the bench. A backdrop of a painted forest is drawn up behind the young men, while a rug is bunched up at their feet. This portrait was taken at the Elite Studio on 22 Clinton Street in Iowa City, Iowa.

Alexander and Frances (Henry) Wilson lived north of Coralville and had eleven children, five of which were sons: Frank (1861-1923), James A. (1863-1944), Charles W. (1866-1945), John E. (1874-1949), and Joseph H. (1880-1971.) It is unknown which of the five brothers are pictured here.

While Joseph eventually moved to Iowa City with his wife Sophia Winter to work as a letter carrier, his brothers stayed in Coralville where they mostly worked as day laborers. Charles kept shop at Koser's Store, and John fought in the Spanish-American War (Lovetinsky et al., p. 129).

Elite Studio

Coralville Public Library. Coralville Digital History Library.

1870s-1880s

Educational use only, no other permissions given.

jpeg

English

Iowa City, Iowa