Essay: Pictures through Time (revised)

Ooops, I was just told that I made a serious faux pas with the first picture, the family in Oregon. The bearded man is on the right, not the left. I guess I was thinking their left and not my left. Sorry for the confusion! Anyway, I tried to lighten the picture to make him more visible, but the software I use at home is from MicroCrap, so whaddya expect? If I could find my PaintShop Pro CD, I might have better luck.

I did have a couple questions regarding my great grandparents and why they weren't smiling in either portrait. According to this documentary I saw once upon a midnight dreary, to smile in the late 1800s early 1900s meant that you were up to no good. Smiling was usually seen on people who sold snake venom as medicine, and used car salemen today! Not smiling was a convention of the generation they lived in and not necessarily of portrait making. I have seen home pictures of them smiling: at Christmas, family get togethers, and other less formal events. Just never with portraits like what I've posted.