The black and white and hand-colored images of Chansonetta Stanley Emmons' “Noonday Meal” feature Lucy Butts Carville, her sister-in-law Nancy J. Butts, and her brother, Reverend Emery Butts in their home in New Portland, wearing their best dresses, aprons, and waistcoat.

Nancy J. Butts wears a gigot revival puff sleeve dress popular in America in the late 1890s—therefore still fashionable in Maine in 1898. The gigot, or leg of mutton sleeve, first appeared in the 1830 and 1840s, and made a brief return in the 1890s. The formality of the outfits and table set with bone china teacups and crystal water glasses counters the metal enamel teapot held by Lucy Butts Carville.

Although the tinted lantern slide shows signs of damage, Chansonetta and her daughter Dorothy Emmons' careful rendering of their relatives shows sensitivity and tenderness. The colored pigments on the glass metaphorically breathe life into the sitters, especially since all of the subjects in this image were deceased by the time of the hand-coloring in 1925.