A little over a week ago I spotted this assortment of cabinet card photos on eBay and recognized Orrin Gardner, Lizzie & Emma’s cousin from Swansea who was a primary legatee in Emma Borden’s Will. The Seller said she got it at a flea market many years ago where there were dozens in a box and she picked these out at random.
I didn’t bid because I already have it and had included it in a previous blog. It is, in fact, Orrin’s high school graduation picture. Original issues are in a Gardner family album archived at the Swansea Historical Society in Swansea, MA.
Perhaps a cabinet photo of Lizzie, many years post Trial, is now residing in a box or tray on some dusty shelf at an antique store still unrecognized by the many eyes who finger through it. Oh well, we’ll have plenty to salivate over when the Fall River Historical Society’s Parallel Lives is published.
Tattered Fabric: Fall River's Lizzie Borden 