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Janet Russell and her father, William, had this photograph taken around 1899 in the studio of a professional photographer in the small town of Turners Falls, Massachusetts. Photographers had sets in their studios that were made to look as close to a gracious upper-class home as possible. This would have been quite familiar to the Russells, who lived a comfortable life. Janet was then about thirteen years old. It was almost certainly summertime when it was made, because her family lived the winters in New York City. There, William Russell was an executive for the International Paper Company. He was born in Sunderland and attended Amherst College, but he kept a summer home in Turners Falls. Janet would come to live in nearby Greenfield, Massachusetts, where she died in 1981.

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