Lizzie Bennett, gender-bending favorite sister
James V. Bennett spent much of his childhood living among extended family on the Peyton Homestead, along with his favorite sister Lizzie. This photo depicts Lizzie on the Peyton farm (I believe around 1900), smoking a cigar and wearing notably masculine dress. This gender play is fascinating--perhaps denoting an affinity for bloomerism and the suffragette movement?
I believe the Peyton farm was a. place where James and Lizzie could play with gender and other norms which were more strictly enforced by their parents, Thomas and Alice Bennett, back home.
James and Lizzie forged a close bond during those years and he was devastated when she died in 1908, at only 27 years of age.
