The search began for a Civil War Era photographer with the last name Richardson who made this carte de visite in Lowell, Massachusetts. This is an authentic, antique CDV (carte de visite) of an unidentified young lady with a cascade of long sausage curls. Her day dress has a high collar with a little white ruffle and tiny buttons down the front. This CDV has no tax stamp so it cannot be perfectly dated to the Civil War years, but her hairstyle parted in the middle and the curls drawn back from her face date the image to before about 1865. The image is on a cream colored thin cardboard mount with square corners which overall measures about 2 1/4" x 4". The artist's mark is on back: "Richardson, Lowell, Mass."
I have yet to find photographer Richardson living and working in Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1860’s, but using Federal Census it seems that there was a photographer named Orlando B. Richardson, born April 1842 in Massachusetts. He was the son of George B. Richardson, born about 1807 in Maine, a Dealer in Ice and Fruit with $4,600 of personal estate in West Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts in 1850. In 1850, George B. Richardson’s wife was Mary A. Richardson, born about 1814 in Massachusetts and the children listed were: George E., Orlando B., Elenor W., Francis E. and Ella R. Richardson.
By the 1860 Massachusetts Census, Mary A. Richardson is a widow and farming with a personal worth of $8,000. Orlando B. Richardson, is aged 17 and working on the farm. The children at that time were: Orlando B., Elenor W., Frank E., Wendall E., Ellen R. and Mary L. Richardson. On both the 1850 and 1860 Censuses, Samuel Wilson born 1787 and Mary A. Wilson born about 1792-1794, both in Massachusetts are living in Mary A. Richardson’s household.
Orlando B. Richardson, Photographer, first appears on the 1870 Census for Massachusetts in Middlesex County in Cambridge’s Second Ward. The young photographer was 28 years old and married to Malvinia S. Richardson who was born March 1844 in New Hampshire. The young couple had a worth of $7,000 and were living in the same household with John Wilder, a wealthy real estate agent, his wife Persis D. Wilder and a 10 year old Albert F. Wilder.
In 1880, Orlando B. Richardson, Photographer, is enumerated on the Middlesex County, Massachusetts Census in Somerville. His address is 142 Clarendon Avenue. His wife is Malvinia and the children are: Edith W., Albert W., Persis E. and Madeline who was born in June 1879.
In 1900, Orlando B. Richardson surfaces on the other side of the dark period of the lost 1890 Census, but he is working as a boot and shoe salesman. He and daughter Edith W. Richardson, a teacher of drawing and design, are living at 8Warland Street in Cambridge. On the 1900 census, Orlando B. Richardson and his wife each indicate they are married, but they are living apart, Edith W. living with her father and the remaining children with Malvinia Richardson: Persis C., Madaline, Odline, Albert W. and two younger children. Their son, Albert W. Richardson says he has been married 6 years, so the two youngsters: Leslie and Roland may be his children.
In 1910, Orlando B. Richardson, boot and shoe salesman and his daughter Edith W., an architectural draftsman are still living at 8 Warland Street with William A. Thomas and family.
The genealogical clues tying the photographer to the salesman are that both Orlando B. Richardsons are the same age and listed their birthplace as Massachusetts, his father Maine and his mother Massachusetts. Both have daughters named Edith W. Richardson born 1871/72 and Persis Richardson born 1877, with a mother born in New Hampshire.
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