Daguerreotype postmortem of Helen Maria Spalding, 1849
The beautiful baby girl, pictured in her coffin, is Helen Maria Spalding who was born on March 8th, 1848 and died at 10 months old on January 10, 1849. In the velvet pad a little knot of white ribbon, likely from her white gown and an obituary clipped from a newspaper:
.
Died
In this village, on the morning of the 9th instant, Helen Maria, only daughter of Ebenezer and Frances L. Spalding, aged 10 months.
Sleep on, loved one, sleep on.
So early gone;
To Earth, a child is lost,
To Heaven, a cherub won.
source: Beverly on Flickr
