Chansonetta Stanley Emmons often photographed scenes in West New Portland, a village in the town of New Portland. Joan G. True (1823-1901) sat in the table chair, playing “Grandma” in stanza five of Chansonetta’s poem that she self-published into a booklet titled, The Old Table Chair.

Today, documenting everyday life in photographs is commonplace in American society, so much so, the impact of this image from 1900 might be missed. Chansonetta’s decision to show Joan True shelling peas, a very mundane occurrence, was deliberate. Unlike most photographers working at the time, Chansonetta understood recording and celebrating the lives of rural women was important, because their labor and accomplishments were otherwise invisible.