Portrait from the Family Album, 1878ca

This is an old photo from the family album.

The boy in uniform was probably my grandfather (Ernesto Chicco), and the man next to him my great-grandfather. Unfortunately, I don't know for sure. The last person who likely knew was my late father.

The photo, an albumen print, was taken in the late 1800s or very early 1900s, possibly around 1878, well before the Italian Republic came to be. The photographers - A. Bertelli & A. Sotteri, Sucessori Montabone - were also photographers to the King of Italy, Umberto I. The photo was likely taken in or near Turin (Torino), my father's birthplace.

The images are slowly fading, but at over 120-140 years old, they have outlasted most of our current digital photos ever will. The first image is a scan I've converted to black and white, and you can see the current colour on the front and back of the original photo in the following ones.