The Decadent and Depraved Kentucky Derby

Never knew this. I always thought they didn't smile because they would have to hold it for the entire exposure time, risking the chance of blurriness in the picture.

Dental hygiene? Forget about it.
And they didn't bathe either back then.

Also, they didn't have much to smile about back then.

The mutton chops fella on the left looks practically jovial comparatively. Perhaps, he got a little frisky with the Mrs before they took this picture.

Found in the Fark thread about this post.

Quoting a 17th century European source about 19th century American photographs seems rather silly and pointless. In the course of my historical research, I read entire runs of newspapers from the 19th century on Google Newspaper archive and this issue did, in fact, come up in an opinion piece (sadly, I don't recall the paper but it was probably one from Nova Scotia.) The writer opined, much as Twain did, that it was risky to have to hold a smile until it looked forced, fixed, and frozen (and stupid), so, even though it made people look grim, they usually chose to simply let the face relax as naturally as possible so the position could be held. Photographs were expensive and people were loath to take a risk of spending the money on something that would look foolish.