This picture was illustrated on page 30 of Nutting's 1912 Picture Sales catalog along side a very similiar (reverse negative) picture, The Guardian Mother, #1043. In the 1915 Expansible catalog -On page 116- only "The Guardian Angel" was illustrated.

The only noticeable difference between the two titles (with the exception of the reverse negative as seen in the 1912 picture catalog), is in The Guardian Mother the models (left) arm is straightened with a slightly fuller view of the childs face.

The title suggest that the 'minister' in Wallace Nutting never retired.

It is very rare for Wallace Nutting to photograph a full size model as the focus of a picture. With respect to models in colonial pictures Nutting writes, "The person must be a woman and in the background. If she is prominent, nobody wants the picture, but she must be in it".

The woman model in this photograph is Marie Winters who worked as a colorist for Nutting in Southbury, Connecticut and modeled for several of his photographs. The child is unknown.