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D. Wood became Mrs. J D Gibson when she married
the young Presbyterian minister on 12 September
1838 in Newburgh, NY; his photograph and sketch
appear on the previous page. Personal information
about Mrs. Gibson is scanty, although we do know
that she was born in 1817 or thereabouts, and
that she and Rev. Gibson had five children:
Charles A., John B., Robert P., Margaret A.,
Forest F., and Ellen C. whose death in 1861 is
mentioned in Early Bovina Families and
Their Descendants. The Gibsons lived on the
property listed in the 1850 census as Stamford
Township, which must surely have been the Parsonage. (Also listed 1860, 1870 & 1880).
Mrs. Gibson - her
name recorded as Mrs. C D Gibson - appears to
have been everyone’s favorite wedding
witness, as a check of her husband’s records
from the United Presbyterian Church at South
Kortright demonstrates.
Mrs. Gibson’s
pose is intriguing: she has a prop, the umbrella.
She has also removed the glove of her left hand.
At various times in the history of Western
portraiture, artists have followed a complicated
code of allusions and symbols; in this code, a
rose, for example, meant love. According to a
simplified list of these symbols presented by the
Albany Institute of History and Art, having one
glove off means “I am friendly.”
Mrs. Gibson is
dressed in visiting clothes of high, though
somewhat old-fashioned, elegance. Her poke bonnet
with huge bow and high brim (your monitor may or
may not show that the brim is embellished with
fabric flowers) is a classic hat style dating
from the 1840s, as are her sausage curls. She is
wearing a dress of some substantial fabric with a
modest high collar, gathering at the shoulder
seams, and trim or embroidery on the sleeves.
More modern is her short coat, called a basque,
worn over her dress. A similar basque appears in
the Godey’s Ladies Book for September 1855.
The edge of the basque is finished with knotted
fringe.
The photographers
who took Rev. Gibson’s picture - Whiddit
& Coffin, at 82 Water Street, Newburgh, NY -
also took Mrs. Gibson’s picture, and she,
too, is seated by the familiar urn and
balustrade.
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