Creating Fiction for History: Barbara Stanwick

"C'mon, Princess; give us a smile!" Try as he might, young James Francis Ramsey, of the newly formed Cabinet Card Photographers, could only coax a ghost of a smile out of an even younger Barbara Stanwick, formerly of La Crosse, a mere 63 miles away. The reason that our poor little princess couldn't bring herself to smile: she was recently orphaned.

Young Barbara and her parents, Ted and Viola Stanwick, had been looking forward to this long day-trip for almost a year now, ever since young James Ramsey had passed through their little town last year, trying to drum up some business for his new ve...