A woman and young child are portrayed together in this sixth plate ambrotype, seated close and presented within an oval mat framed by an elaborately embossed gilt mat with floral and foliate decoration. The process and format place the image firmly in the late 1850s to early 1860s, and no photographer's imprint is visible on the case or plate. The most distinctive feature, is the open notebook the woman holds toward the child, an uncommon prop that sets this portrait apart from conventional domestic sittings of the period.

The woman wears a dark dress with a lace collar and a large decorative brooch at the throat, her dark hair pulled back beneath a small cap. The child, dressed in a plaid off-the-shoulder frock with short puffed sleeves and a ribbon in her curled hair, sits facing forward with a wide, startled expression. Both figures hold the notebook between them, their hands meeting at its spine.

The notebook as a deliberate prop suggests a lesson or literacy theme, a rare staging choice in American ambrotype portraiture of this era and one that lends the image unusual documentary interest among genre examples.

The sixth plate ambrotype is housed in a leather case with a crimson velvet interior and a gilt brass preserver.