The historical Constellation / Open Cases
Help recover their stories.
Some histories survive in an uncatalogued album, a private letter, or a misidentified image. These are questions we have not solved. Evidence matters more than guesses.
Seeking evidence · Portrait Discoverer
A Second Photograph of Violet Shillito
One historical portrait is repeatedly reproduced. Did another image survive in a private album or unscanned archive?
What would help?
A different original photograph of Violet Shillito, its repository or family provenance, and an independent identification.
What we know
The Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers at Yale contain photographs; only part of the collection is online. The commonly cited Violet portrait is associated with that archive, but we cannot assume a second survives.
Useful search variants: Violette Shillito; Violet Shillito
Please avoid: Retouched copies or AI colorizations of the familiar portrait mistaken for newly discovered photographs.
Have a lead on this case?
Give us the archival citation, photographer, collection identifier, dated letter, or other evidence. Every submission is reviewed privately before anyone is credited or the record changes.