Chansonetta – Stanley Museum

Chansonetta Stanley Emmons playing guitar in the sitting room of the Emmons home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, circa 1897. Like many of her brothers, Chansonetta was an accomplished amateur musician on both piano and guitar. Stanley Museum Archives.
“Portrait of Herself by Herself.” Chansonetta took this self-portrait using her new Century 5”x7” View Camera in her Newton, Massachusetts home in 1904. She would use this trusty camera for the rest of her career. Stanley Museum Archives.
Chansonetta (under camera cloak) photographing on location in South Carolina in 1928. Chansonetta was a master of interior photography, making use of all available light even when it required her to set up a shot outside. Stanley Museum Archives.
Chansonetta’s last self-portrait, Newton, Massachusetts, circa 1935. [NOTE: this is not a Stanley Museum image; it comes from Culver Pictures, New York.]

Chansonetta, only sister of the Stanley twins, was the sixth child born into a family of 6 boys. Her name, in French, loosely means :”little song.” Chansonetta was born and educated in Kingfield. Netta, as she was known, grew up shy, retiring and headstrong.. She attended Western Maine Normal School (now UMF) and studied painting. Always striving for her best, she later became an excellent photographer.Charming and endearing to the old folks, her photos defined an era that was rapidly passing, as machines and cars became available and the old ways gave way to the new. When taking pictures of people, they were posed to strengthen the moral aspects of country living as it had always been. Netta mixed chemicals and developed her own photos in whatever pots, pans and darkened areas were nearby. Many of her glass plates were handpainting by Netta herself. Chansonetta married in 1887 and her husband died in 1898. After he passed away, her brothers would go on to financially support her for the rest of her life. By 1920, Chansonetta was completely deaf , so she would run a lantern slide presentation and her daughter Dorothy would give an oral narrative. Driving a series of old Fords, she and daughter Dorothy traveled in Maine, and Massachusetts, including the north shore, Nantucket and the other New England states.. She was also able to travel to South Carolina to capture life as it was and made at least one trip Europe to document old architecture. She was able to travel back to her beloved Kingfield in the fall to enjoy the foliage in 1936. She died in her sleep in March, 1937.

Jude Lamb discusses Chansonetta as well as other important Maine women in her “The forgotten women of Maine have finally found a voice” video.