Historic Crayon Portraits Bring History to Life

Bobbie Houston, left, and her niece, Yvonne Carter, have extended to the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives the loan of these crayon portraits of Eliza Moore Homer, 1867-1957, and her husband, William Riley Homer, 1850-1942. The Homers were Houston’s great-grandparents and Carter’s great-great-grandparents. The Museum and Archives owns a large collection of crayon portraits, a very popular form of photo enlargements in the 1890s and very early 1900s in which photographs were embellished with conte crayons or charcoal. Unfortunately, crayon portraits of African Americans who lived in Fayette County are quite rare and the family’s generosity in loaning them is very much appreciated.