You think that your position is awkward!? Ha!!

According to my 19th Century Guitar Instructor by Justin HOLLAND (reputedly the Pioneer of the American Guitar, circa 1830s- 1880's) published by Oliver O. DITTSON, you were supposed to lay the waist of your "Parlor" guitar over your left leg, sitting erect in a chair , with the left foot resting on a little miniature hassock about 6" high. Sometimes Antique shops have these show up and folks wonder if they are coffee tables for dolls.
The neck was held up at about a 45 degree angle, a little more up-pointing than most players do it today.

The practice of resting the little finger on the deck to steady the right hand in playing was to be highly condemmned, and avoided at all costs; the right hand must "float" above the strings with no contact at all with the instrument itself.

It takes a little getting used to, but that's how we play when we are doing a 19th Century musical "impression", since that is probably the way most Guitarists held a guitar back then.

I have a scanning of the full-page illustrative engraving which I would share here... if but I could!

BTW; they used a "capo" back then, although it was more often called a "choker", and it wound up with a fiddle-peg stuck through the top.