Career
Emmons" photography depicts scenes of domestic life and New England rural landscape. (The brothers also invented a steam-powered automobile known as the Stanley Steamer). Her brother Freelan O. Stanley bought her a large house at 22 Harley Street in Ashmont Hill, Dorchester, Massachusetts. in 1895.
Chansonetta gave birth in 1891 to a daughter, Dorothy and there exist photographs of the Emmons home and family scenes in Dorchester from the 1890s.
Chansonetta viewed photography as a way to supplement her income after her husband"s death, participating in photographic competitions, camera club exhibitions and lectures which featured her photography reproduced as hand-colored glass lantern slides. Her wealthy brothers also gave financial support throughout her life.
Chansonetta is unique in that relatively few photographers, especially women, in the beginning of the 20th century were focused on the "domestic vernacular" especially in rural northern New England. Chansonetta died at age 79 in 1937.
Content is mainly from the Dorchester Atheneum website.
The Stanley Museum in Kingfield, Maine owns the largest collection of Chansonetta Stanley Emmons photographic prints and glass plate negatives in the world including her brilliantly hand-colored glass lantern slides. Her earliest photographs consists of images of her family house in Dorchester.