Another mystery photo from my great-aunt Gerda's photo album. As usual there are no written clues to reveal who, where or when. I'm choosing this photo for this week's Sepia Saturday, because it shows three women from around the same time period as the prompt photo of Emmeline Pankhurst & co (see below).
When guessing the time period of my photo, my only clues are the fashion and hair styles. I know Gerda is the woman in the middle (concluded from comparison with other photos). But I'm not sure whether the photo was taken in America, Sweden or France - or even somewhere else.
I also don't know Gerda's opinions about the suffragette movement. Working her way up as a maid, lady's maid, travel companion and housekeeper, I can imagine that she perhaps learned to keep her thoughts on politics to herself. What I know is that when she emigrated to America in 1902 (at age 21), women in Sweden were not allowed to vote - and only about a fourth of the men. When she returned around 1911, most men were allowed to vote, but not the women. When WWI broke out, Gerda was in France; and it seems she was unable to go back to Sweden for the duration of the war. In 1919, the right to vote in Sweden was finally extended to women (over the age of 23); but the first elections where they could actually take part were held in 1921. I do have some evidence indicating that Gerda was living in Sweden in 1921; so she may have been able to vote in that election. (Both my grandmothers, born in 1900 and 1902, would still have been too young, though - as the age limit back then was 23!)
Great that you figured out where your grandmother was living, and the voting ages that limited women's voting. One of my grandmothers was also born in 1900, the other in 1886, and I think the younger of the two might have been interested in suffrage.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by this great-aunt as she lived a different kind of life compared to most women of her time. She never married, and as a servant she was a background character rather than in the spotlight, and yet she saw more of the world during her long life (90+) than most people ever do. But as far as I know she never kept a diary. So what remains are fragments (photos, postcards), not all easy to piece together.
Deletelove the hats in the last pic and they all look happy in your photo, not the usual scowling going on.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a very natural-looking photo, isn't it.
DeleteThey look happy. Maybe they were three best friends. Wouldn't you love to know their story behind the photo?
ReplyDeleteAs I recognize one of them as my great-aunt Gerda, I imagine the others to be fellow servants in a fairly big household.
DeleteI, too, inherited many hundreds of photos with no inkling where or of what or of whom the photos represented. I'm aiming to make sure that doesn't happen to my collection.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I suspect the problem our generation will be passing on to the next may be the sheer amount of digital stuff we've managed to collect. Instead of albums with carefully chosen photos, there will be multiple "just in case" back-up copies of every digital photo we ever took... ;)
DeleteI think back in those days women weren't allowed to speak on their views, they weren't thought of as being intelligent enough to know about politics. My great grandmother and her mother were suffragettes, I'm honoured to be descended from them.
ReplyDeleteAmy, when looking at the world today one might well wonder about the intelligence of (some of) the men who still dominate the politics...
DeleteI like the fact you linked your photograph with the history of how the vote was extended in Sweden.
ReplyDeleteSue, there have been a lot of reminders about that this year (1919-2019)
DeleteThe three women in your photo appear to be have a nice quiet time together. I can imagine if they happened to be mothers, it would be a welcome respite while the children were napping! And clever of you, as ScotSue noted, to combine that quiet photo with the right of women to vote in Sweden.
ReplyDeleteGerda never got married or had children. She was a servant so I suspect the other two women in this photo were too. (Cf my reply to Mike below)
DeleteWhat a thought-provoking historical photo. There is so much to draw from...the room decor, the needlework, the women's clothing and dress styles. Winning the right to vote was a hard-fought struggle by the suffragists. I often think of how proud my grandmothers must have been when they cast their first vote!
ReplyDeleteYes I've been thinking about that too - especially in connection with various reminders this year that it was (only) 100 years ago that women won the right to vote here in Sweden.
DeleteA charming photo full of details that would be absent in a formal studio photograph. The gentle action of needlework while listening to a reader is most artistic. If instead they had looked directly at the camera it would not be so good. The room shares qualities similar to interior photos of America homes I know, such as the way pictures hung from a cord attached to a high wall rail. And the style of their blouse sleeves looks 1900-1910 to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that feedback, Mike. It confirms my own theory that the photo is from Gerda's years in the US, and perhaps the household in Chicago where she was a servant to a Dr Otto L Schmidt and family according to the US population census of 1910. They also had more servants living in; and Dr Schmidt seems to have been quite a prominent person in Chicago at the time. Back in 2012 (after having found those records) I wrote a post about him on my other blog Greetings from the Past
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