Often, images of our ancestors are difficult to come by. Before the invention of the camera, paintings were the only way of preserving the likeness of an individual, but these were extremely expensive and time consuming to produce (between sitting for the portrait and the actual painting of it itself).
With the Calvert family, there are very few images that remain into today, particularly of Rosalie and George Calvert's nine children.
As you can see, the only images that remain of the children are a childhood painting of Caroline, images of George Henry and Charles Benedict (of which we have a few of), and a single painting of Julia. Preserving these sorts of images, and those of their descendants, is an essential part of preserving the history of the Calverts who lived at Riversdale.
That's why the newest donation by Calvert-descendant, Ned Fenwick, is so important. Not only did he donate family hymnals, bibles, prayer books, a guest ledger, and minutes for the Patapsco Hunt Club, but also family photo albums. Thanks to him, we now have images for four generations of Calvert women: Rosalie Calvert and Julia Calvert Stuart we already had, but we can add to that likely images of Margaret Stuart Hunter (1837-1893) and her infant daughter, Julia Calvert Hunter Kennedy (1868-1946).
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