Featured Tintype: What are these women doing?

I buy old photos to reunite them with family -- so only photos with names on them.

Which means I almost never buy loose tintypes (no names!). But I bought two today, one with a name and then this one... are these women darning socks?

My best friend and I have already made up fabulous back stories for each of the women -- and the circumstance of this photo.

Note: I have greatly enhanced the contrast of the image, in real life, it's just as dark grey as you would expect a tintype to be.

 

The one lower left looks to be darning a sock.

 

And I think they all have socks. The standing one with the fancy hair also appears to have a darning needle.

Just seems an odd theme for a photo, lol.

 

It might be their occupation.

 

Poor dears. Clearly led hard lives. Could well have been Irish maids.

Debora

 

I was going to say they were socks, too. And it does look like they are maids, as Debora mentioned. Or maybe even at a lower level than that...

 

It's nice to see at least one of them smiling, and one sort of. It counteracts the impression in my brain that people used to always be glum... even though I know reality was that camera lenses were slow so they had to stay still.

My grandmother darned socks and I have a darning egg thingy that may have been hers. I don't remember if my mother did when I was young, though probably not.

 

I saw it right off the same way: the common element is socks, with the one woman posed as if in the act of darning. 'Stockings' or 'hose' might be better words. I did not think of maids in a group studio photo. My notion is that they are something like church women volunteering to darn stockings for soldiers, something that way. My feeling is they are being celebrated/memorialized.

Among her sewing things, my mother had a little dried gourd for the purpose. That, & a lump of beeswax, were my favorite things in the box. The gourd was like a little marracca, with the seeds rattling inside.

 

Ah, I vaguely remember my mother having a little thing of beeswax, too.

 

My mother had a wooden darning egg with a handle. Don't know what happened to it. But a few years ago I went to an estate sale where there were several older darning eggs that had been "decorated" for use in a country-style decor kind of way. A younger woman (20's?) asked me what it was. She had never seen or even heard of a darning egg.

 

I have met young women who do not know what a locket is, not to mention people of all ages who aren't sure they know what a cameo is.

 

"Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me..."

And of course, they are Irish. That's Mary Catherine, Maureen, Mary Margaret, and Kathleen Mary. Just look at thost pert little noses!

 

It was to wax the heavy thread needed to reattach a button on a heavy coat, to make it a little easier to pass the thread through wool, etc. The lump was all scored with lines from where thread had been pulled across it.

 

I don't know, don't you usually use a needle for darning? They seem to be holding something with a handle more like a crochet hook I think. The one who is smiling is also wearing jewelry so may be better off?

 

I have 2 of those vintage wooden darning socks thingies here. I should sell them as I have no sewing ability whatsoever, even if my great grandfather was a tailor by trade.
Can not even do a simple hem.

 

To be honest, everything I know about darning socks came from when I found my grandmother's darning egg and asked my mom what it was.

I don't know about the needles, but three of the women in this picture have a wooden-handled something or other (@say_it_slowly I had not noticed the one you pointed out!).

Anyone have thoughts on dating? I tend to think it's later than the tintype heyday, but I don't know when it was fashionable have a curled lock of hair swooshing across your forehead.

 

They may be women who worked in a knitting mill. Machines (largely operated by women) made the basic fabric, but there was still handwork involved in finishing each stocking.

 

You can use a crochet hook to sew up the seam in a knitted item. Now that it's been pointed out, I finally see the bulbous handle in the hand of the woman in the 2nd close-up picture and the less bulbous one that SIS has highlighted.

So they're not "darning" per se, but doing some kind of finish work. Good point, @2manybooks !

 

I think maybe 1880s for the date. That's my first impression. I haven't checked any of my references. The sort of frizzed bangs were popular in both 1880s and 1890s, but from what I can tell the dress sleeves don't seem to be 1890s. And the ruffles near the bottom edges of some of the skirts were, I think, more prevalent in the 1880s.

 

Agree that the implements look more like crochet hooks. The way the handles are different suggests it was somewhat heavier work than delicate decorative crochet.

Think all four, including the woman at lower left, are wearing something protective over their Sunday best dresses & jewellery. Lower right has a pretty apron that only protects her lap. The two in the back are wearing pinafore type things. Even though it has sleeves, still think the checked garment on the last one is some gingham cover up, not part of the dress that shows below it. I see no wedding ring on any of the visible hands.

I keep coming back to who would have wanted a photo of the four together with the evidence of the work they had in common, whether factory or sewing circle, & who would have paid for it?