01/31/2023
The two photos appear together in our collection: "Albert J. Wing" is written on the back of one, and in the same neat, vertical handwriting, "Lydia J. Wing" is written on the back of the other. There is nothing else in the collection to flesh out who these two young people were.
The assumption is correct that they were husband and wife (they look roughly the same age in photos that date to the same period in time. Theirs, I've learned, is a story of hopes and dreams begun with their wedding in 1906 and fractured before they even had a chance to fully imagine them.
Albert, in his picture, is giving nothing away that would hint as to what he's thinking or feeling. His unbuttoned "motorman's" coat hangs loosely on him; he looks a little disheveled. The picture dates to between 1907 and 1909, when he worked for Worcester Consolidated Street Railway.
Judging by Lydia's ensemble, I judge the date of the photo to be sometime between 1900 and 1910. Women's attire had adopted a more "tailored" look, with dress shapes acquiring one of two popular shapes — the "S-curve" (with corseting that caused the bust to spill forward and the butt to jut out) and the bell-shape, as we see Lydia favoring in her picture.
Albert was an Amesbury native, Lydia a life-long Salisbury resident. Their very public divorce in 1910 ended a short, 4-year marriage. Albert soon after married Lily Belle Parks, a native of Nova Scotia, and the two moved to Lynn where they started a family and where Albert became variously employed as a carpenter and a shoe "heeler".
Lydia never left Salisbury; for a time, at least, she and her daughter lived with Lydia's mother on "The" Beach Road. It is through the maternal line that we observe the deep Salisbury roots. Eaton and Greeley are the easiest names to recognize in Lydia's family tree.
Did Albert and Lydia meet through a shared love of the performing arts? Did they instead meet by chance while he was conductor for the Eastern Railroad?
Lydia Jane Tilton (1881-1962)
Albert J. Wing (1885-1948)
