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Primary sourcePhotographc. 1881

Thérèse Aged Eight with Her Sister Céline Martin

Unknown · c. 1881

A studio portrait of Thérèse, aged eight, standing with her sister Céline around 1881.

A formal childhood portrait of Thérèse with her sister, taken during her lifetime.

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Black-and-white studio portrait of two girls in dark dresses with white lace collars and ruffled bodices, standing before a painted backdrop. The taller girl on the left rests her arm on a stack of books on a small pedestal table; the younger girl on the right stands beside her with her hands together at her waist.
Unknown photographer, Thérèse Martin aged eight with sister Céline Martin, c. 1881.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white studio photograph of Thérèse Martin at age eight with her sister Céline, taken around 1881, during Thérèse's lifetime.

Why it matters

Unlike casual snapshots, this is a formal studio portrait, showing how the Martin family marked special occasions with professional photography. It gives historians a look at Thérèse's childhood appearance and her close bond with Céline, who later also entered the Carmelite order.

Look closer

  • What does the painted backdrop and posed arrangement tell you about how families presented themselves in photographs at this time?
  • Why might the photographer have included books in the picture?
  • What might this formal portrait hide about the girls' everyday lives?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Saint Therese on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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15 April 1895

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Photograph of a book cover with a marbled brown and tan speckled paper binding and a beige cloth spine, with blue flecks. A small library credit in the lower right reads Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France. The cover appears worn at the edges.Book

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Histoire d'une âme, first edition (1898)

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