Jane Emma Burns, Mrs Brown, Robert Burns' Grand Daughter

A sepia toned monochrome photographic print on a cabinet card  by James White of Dumfries and Moniaive from the album of a local family.   Jane Emma Burns, Mrs Brown, was the daughter of Robert Burns junior, the poet's eldest son. He married Anne Sherwood at the age of twenty two and had one daughter, Eliza. In later life he had four more children with Emma Bland of Dumfries, although they did not marry.   Jane Emma Burns was their third child and one of the few members of the Burns family who continued to live in Dumfries. Her eldest daughter, Jean Armour Burns Brown, was said to bear an uncanny resemblance to her famous forebear.   Cabinet cards were almost always made from studio portraits, they were produced to be sold or exchanged and were collected in elaborate albums, specially made for the purpose, often with window mounts to display the cards. By the age of the sitter this cabinet card dates from the 1890s when they were already being replaced in popularity by enlarged studio portraits and photographic postcards.