Lizzie Borden Society Forum

The October 2002 issue of the Lizzie Borden Quarterly had a front-page article by Michael Martins and Dennis Binette about a photograph of Alice Russell that had recently been donated to the Fall River Historical Society. The pedigree of this item seems fairly impeccable, as it was donated by a connection of Alice Russell's family and came from a collection of Russell family photographs that were found in an envelope marked "Alice Russell Lizzie's Turncoat Friend" (sic). The date the photograph was taken and even the time of day were apparently included with it (3:46 on the afternoon of September 4, 1931). The article says this is the only extant photograph of Alice Russell. Isn't that odd? Unlike Lizzie, Miss Russell held a paying job for a good part of her adult life and was a well-known and respected citizen of Fall River. She was a "confidential bookkeeper" until about 1896, when she was hired to teach sewing in the Fall River public schools, later becoming the supervisor of that department. I would say that was quite an illustrious career for a woman of her time, and it seems peculiar to me that there aren't any other pictures of her. I suspect there are some but that nobody still living has identified her. Rebello says she retired in 1914, on the same date a retirement system for teachers went into effect in Massachusetts. She didn't move into the retirement home, where the picture was taken, until about 15 years later. I understand the FRHS has a huge archive of old photographs, many of which were used in the Victorian Vistas series. I wonder if any organized effort is being put into trying to identify them. Since Miss Russell lived until 1941, and many people from that era are still alive, it might be possible to identify old pictures of her for a few more years.

I agree, Edisto. There must have been other photographs of Miss Russell over the years. What I found odd was the fact that it was a relative who labelled Alice a "turncoat friend". I'd read that same article when it came out but hadn't made note that she'd been characterized that way by her cousin's husband.

On a personal side note -- which is sort of on topic -- antique stores will often have a basket or box containing old sepia photos. Some of those brave, hopeful, forgotten faces break my heart. I always go through them all and if any speak loudly enough to me, I take them home. For some reason, it bothers me a lot that these images have been discarded and separated from family.

Did Alice at one time work in the A. J. Borden building?
There was Gay's there who did photography.
She could step across the hall!
I would.
Or did she work in The Borden Block?

The dress burning incident is perhaps the only absolutely true fact in this case.
It means that Lizzie is just plain stupid.
I don't think I have to go into details - you all know all about it.

Well, Diana once brought to my attention the amazing fact that no one really saw Lizzie burn a dress, so....

diana @ Fri May 27, 2005 5:30 pm wrote:I agree, Edisto. There must have been other photographs of Miss Russell over the years. What I found odd was the fact that it was a relative who labelled Alice a "turncoat friend". I'd read that same article when it came out but hadn't made note that she'd been characterized that way by her cousin's husband.

On a personal side note -- which is sort of on topic -- antique stores will often have a basket or box containing old sepia photos. Some of those brave, hopeful, forgotten faces break my heart. I always go through them all and if any speak loudly enough to me, I take them home. For some reason, it bothers me a lot that these images have been discarded and separated from family.

I know what you mean. I was at a flea market one day last summer and came across a photo album which was dated as c 1886. It still had all of the original photographs, ( what I took as original anyway there is really no way to know), and it was all but falling apart. I still bought it and brought it home. At one time, these photo's may have meant a great deal to someone.

If public school yearbooks were printed during that era in Fall River (1896-1914) and contained photographs Alice Russell might appear in an individual or group photo(s) in those.

Kat @ Sat May 28, 2005 11:08 pm wrote:Well, Diana once brought to my attention the amazing fact that no one really saw Lizzie burn a dress, so....

I know I am drifting away from this topic, but I have been mulling over this dress burning incident. I think from the Trouser thread, I was thinking, what if Lizzie did burn the bloody clothes by putting them inside the dress that was stained with paint? Perhaps she could have hidden whatever garment she wore underneath the dress, and nobody would have been the wiser. There is no other logical reason I can think of for her to suddenly decide to burn a dress under the circumstances. If she did burn the dress, I think she was very bold in doing so. Very clever also, after all, it was stained with paint.

Scott...great minds think alike !! This is what I posted in the trousers thread:

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 10:41 pm Post subject:
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Hmmm...maybe Lizzie thought hiding the pants inside the dress that had the paint on it would be a good way to get rid of the pants...afterall who would question her burning a dress which was 'unwearable' due to paint stains.

If she did wear pants...which needed to be gotten rid of due to having blood on them, wouldn't she have also more than likely had to get rid of whatever else she was wearing at the time as well (other than underclothes) ?

Tracy...

Tracy...

Cool new Avatar, Scott!

Why not just wear the dress- it was burned anyway?

I've thought myself that the dress-burning was to cover up the burning of something else- which seems sort of clever after all...

Maybe she could have burned the will.

Free iced tea, a trip to Hawaii for three, and a duckboat at the "Could All The World Have Known This Was Coming Down" site, plus you can have your picture taken with "Toonces," The Cat Who Could Drive.