Reimagining the past with AI
An elegant party in 1890s Atlanta
“Never in the history of Atlanta society has an entertainment been given that was more enjoyable or arranged and managed in better taste than the reception given by Mr. and Mrs. Louis Wellhouse…” -The Atlanta Constitution, 13 Feb 1890, p. 2
If you read newspapers from around the turn of the 20th century, you’ll notice they are prone to hyperbole. The above quote comes from an article about a party given by the Wellhouses. Two years later, Mrs. Wellhouse passed away, shortly after the birth of her second child:
“No death has brought to Atlanta more genuine sorrow than this, cutting short as it does, a sweet young life. Mrs. Wellhouse was one of the most beautiful and most charming of Atlanta’s young matrons.” -The Atlanta Constitution, 12 Aug 1892, p. 5
My Bertha
I first stumbled across Mrs. Wellhouse on one of my rambling walks through Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. Her gravestone features a beautifully carved bust and the inscription “My Bertha.”
Finding her inspired me to look for other monuments with faces at Oakland, and in 2020, I wrote a blog post about the figures I discovered.
I didn’t find too many details about Bertha Wellhouse’s life in my research, but I did come across the article in the Constitution about the party she and her husband gave in February 1890. No pictures accompanied the article, but the writer did an amazing job describing the details of the affair including the setting, decor, food and drink, party favors, entertainment, and attendees. I didn’t attend the party, but four years after reading about it, I still recall it vividly!
Enter AI: reimagining the Wellhouse party
Like many people, I am afraid of AI and what it means for the future. I didn’t create AI images of myself when that trended recently, and I hesitate to chat with ChatGPT. After attending a talk on AI and copyright, though, and then seeing David use it to create images willy nilly for months, I decided I wanted to use AI to do something that I’ll likely never have the skills or time to do myself: recreate the past. I was also inspired by the Emily Warren Roebling’s AI generated commencement speech that I posted about recently.
This is my first foray into these re-imaginings. I don’t want to become bogged down in the details of how I prompted the AI, even though it was fascinating. I will mention that I started by telling it that I wanted to create pictures of an elegant party that happened in Atlanta in February 1890 and that the images should look like colorized vintage photos.
Below, I’ll present the description of the party from The Atlanta Constitution and the AI renderings I liked best with brief commentary.
“The front of the house was lighted up with Chinese lanterns…”
I’m in love with this house.
“…from there into the splendid double parlors, aglow with softened light and beautiful floral designs. From the arch that separates the parlors, was suspended an elegant design of a “W,” in Marschall Neil roses, with a white dove on either side, supported by wreaths of evergreens and odorous blossoms.”
Here’s another variant:
“These two spacious rooms were cleared and turned into a dancing hall, where Wurm’s orchestra dispersed sweet music, while the merry makers kept time in dancing.”
The faces are a bit scary in this one, and I wasn’t sure what Marshall Neil was referring too, but that ended up being a mistake on my part in how I described the roses (i.e., Marschall Neil vs. Marshall Neil, thanks spell check).
“The dining room was a marvel of beauty. The tables were laden with every dainty the caterer could suggest, and the cakes, meats, salads…”
“The first table was decorated with yellow daffodils, the second with pink hyacinths, the third with yellow hyacinths and the fourth with purple hyacinths and fuchsias.”
“The place of honor was ornamented with a ‘Wellhouse,’ ingeniously curtained, covered with gray Spanish moss with golden blossoms interspersed and a cobweb with a butterfly entangled in it. The posts were wreathed with ivy, and the two buckets were contrived to draw champagne punch from the well below.”
This one was hard for me to visualize based on the text description alone, so being able to consult the AI helped, even given its oddities (e.g., notice the chandelier being broken apart by the well house).
The Hostess
A second article about the Wellhouse party appeared in the Sunday edition of The Atlanta Constitution a few days after the first article. This write up included a description of what the hostess was wearing:
“Mrs. Louis Wellhouse wore a superb gown of white satin, embroidered with pearls. Her ornaments were diamonds.” -The Atlanta Constitution, 16 Feb 1890, p. 16
I learned from an older newspaper article about her marriage that Bertha Wellhouse was a brunette. I used that and some other details (but not the image on her gravestone) to generate this picture of what she might have looked like on the evening of the party.
Thoughts?
I’m curious what you think of this experiment. Let me know!
So cool! I would love to see how this works!