"At the mission, Hopedale"

"At the mission, Hopedale"

Black-and-white photograph centered on a page. Beneath the photograph is handwritten text in pencil "at the Misson" and "Hopedale". The photograph shows a woman with two smaller children who have all stopped for the photograph. The woman has her hair pulled back and is wearing a striped long-sleeved dress with an apron over it. Her left hand is holding the child nearest to her, who is the smallest. The child is wearing a dress or smock with a lace collar and has on a wide-brimmed hat. The second child is holding on to the child in the middle's other hand, and they are wearing a patterned dress and cloche-like hat that falls over their forehead and ears. The woman and the children are all turned toward the photographer, who seems to be on a porch or just inside a structure. The background of the photo shows the front of another house with the door open. The subjects of the photo appear to be on a road, a path or in an alley.

Edith S. Watson (1861-1943) was an American freelance photographer who travelled throughout Canada as well as Newfoundland and Labrador in the early 20th century. She travelled and collaborated primarily with her partner Victoria "Queenie" Hayward (1876-1956), a journalist born in Bermuda. The couple met in Bermuda in 1911, and later moved to Connecticut, where Watson was born. They remained lifelong professional collaborators and romantic partners until Watson's death in 1943. Their work often focused on rural working-class life and minority groups across Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador. They were frequently published in both American and Canadian newspapers and magazines, and they published a selection of travel journalism and photographs, Romantic Canada, in 1922.

Edith Watson

Credit: Edith S. Watson / Library and Archives Canada / e010791417 ; Copyright: Expired. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=4014164

Library and Archives Canada

1913

jpg

English

Photograph