Critics identified Frances and Mary Allen of Deerfield, Massachusetts, as among the finest pictorial photographers in America at the turn of the 20th century, although the sisters were quoted as saying that, “we have had no training . . . technical or artistic . . . and we have no theories.” Portraiture was one of their declared specialties; this photograph of Frances (1854-1941) by her sister, Mary (1858-1941), shows her with a pet in her lap and a book in her hands, with her hair drawn back in a fashionable bow. In 1906, Frances Allen was named Director of Photography for the Deerfield Industries.