The Volberding Children


A portrait of two young Victorian era children carries an embossed studio mark from Siegel Cooper & Co., Chicago. Turn the card over, and a simple script reveals their names: Harry and Rosa Volberding.

​By combining the physical evidence of this cabinet card with local archives, we can uncover the story of this late 1890s Illinois sibling pair.

​Picture the busy streets of downtown Chicago around 1898 or 1899. The Volberding family lived just west of the city limits in the farming communities of Addison Township and Bensenville. To get a family portrait taken, they likely boarded a train line directly into the heart of the Chicago.

​Their destination was Siegel Cooper & Co., an iconic, massive department store located at State and Van Buren streets. Known affectionately as "The Big Store," it had a high end photo studio that was popular to both city dwellers and visiting suburban families.

​For the occasion, the children were dressed in their finest attire:

  • ​Harry, roughly seven years old, looks out with a solemn gaze, wearing a high-collared dark jacket paired with a striped bow tie.
  • ​Rosa, around five years old, stands close behind her brother, her arm resting on his shoulder. She wears a ruffled white dress, her curls pinned neatly with matching white bows. She cradles a stem of white carnations.
But who were the parents waiting just off camera?

​A look into the 1900 Federal Census for DuPage County brings the rest of the household into view. Harry and Rosa were the children of Rosa L. Volberding (Dierking). In the census logs, the children are recorded by their full names: eight year old Henry J. and five year old Rosamunda "Rosie" Volberding. They also had a newborn baby brother named Leroy.

​As is so often discovered when researching Victorian families, life could change in an instant. In April 1905, tragedy struck when their mother, Rosa, passed away at a young age.

​Left to navigate the world on their own, their sibling bond remained a constant. As they grew into adulthood, both children carved out lasting paths in the greater Chicago landscape:

  • ​Harry grew up to embrace his formal name, Henry Volberding. He remained close to his roots in DuPage County, finding steady work in the region's booming trades, marrying, and establishing his own household.
  • ​Rosa eventually stepped out of the agricultural landscape of Bensenville. In the late 1910s, she married into a neighboring family and transitioned into a new chapter of suburban Chicago life.

​Though they grew up, married, and eventually lived out their adult lives in a rapidly modernizing 20th century Illinois, this cabinet card captured them in a moment of childhood, a testament to a brother and sister from Bensenville, dressed in their Sunday best, looking out into the future.


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