I am familiar with the practice of immurement through my own family’s history. My paternal ancestors were part of a wave of Protestants of German origin, with twenty-seven families sent to settle the Lunenburg area for Britain circa 1753. Numerous renovations to houses in the Lunenburg area have illustrated how frequently original settlers practiced immurement, with their houses a conduit for these protective beliefs. A beloved heirloom I now possess, a tintype of my paternal great, great grandmother Ella Maria Fraser, her likeness preserved in silver halide crystals, was most likely concealed in her ancestral house due to superstitious beliefs. How this photograph came to light is astonishing. My grandmother Evelyn and her cousin used to spend each summer at their family’s house and farm on the LaHave River in Lunenburg County. When they revisited it and while reminiscing about the times they had spent there as children, a woman emerged from the house asking if everything was all right as their prolonged discussion had attracted her attention. Once they explained their ancestral ties to the property, the woman disappeared into the house. She returned with a tintype and handed it to my grandmother. The image showed a young woman holding a book, seated in a plush chair, her hair a river cascading to her waist. A wave of petticoats flares out where her long hair ends, surrounding her legs in a current of ruffles. The woman explained that the tintype had been discovered during a renovation to the kitchen under nine layers of wallpaper, held by its original pin to the wall. My grandmother saw her long-deceased grandmother as an eighteen-year-old girl. To wallpaper over Ella’s tintype was most likely rooted in the superstitious belief that doing so would bring good luck and not tempt fate.
found tintype. collection of Angela Silver
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Ella Maria Fraser circa 1880, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
ANGELA SILVER , PhD, is a visual artist whose most recent work is being realised at Place des Montréalaises, a public commemorative space honouring the women of Montreal. Her work can be found at angelasilver.com
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