This portrait of Henry and Minta Allen with their daughter Catherine, was made by the Calvert Brothers studio.

Henry W. Allen and family. Courtesy of Tennessee Virtual Archive

I thought this was a fun picture–I love the bow in the little girl’s hair, but what really intrigued me was the description.

Henry W. Allen (1870-1903) and Minta G. Bosley (1875-1949) were Fisk University graduates. The two married in 1894, and had three children together. Henry worked as a railway mail clerk. They are pictured here with their eldest daughter, Catherine Bosley Allen Latimer (1896-1948). Marian came along in 1899 and Henry B. Allen arrived in 1902. The picture was taken around 1899.

Henry was killed in a train accident near Morris, Ala., on December 23, 1903.  After the death of her husband, Minta moved with her children to Europe for several years. In 1909, the family settled in Brooklyn, N.Y. and she married W. Frederick Trotman in 1911. While living in New York, Minta met W. E. B. Du Bois, who was a frequent guest in her home.

Catherine Latimer grew up and earned a degree in library science from Howard University. She did graduate work at Columbia University. In 1920, she became the first African American librarian hired by the New York Public Library (NYPL). She married Benton R. Latimer sometime in the 1920s. Their son, Bosley Latimer, studied art at Bard College and became an artist and painter in New York.  She would later become assistant curator of the Schomburg Collection of Negro History and Literature at NYPL.