Sepia Portrait Photograph of a Young Woman

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

51529

Title

Sepia portrait photograph of a young woman, likely Grace Crawford, with cropped hair

Description

Sepia portrait photograph of a young woman, likely Grace Crawford, with cropped hair. She is turned slightly, looking away from the camera, wearing a blouse and necklace

Date

1925

Location

Museums Collection Centre

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums and Galleries

We can’t be certain who this woman is. As with so many old photographs, there is no name written on it. It is one of more than 70 images that were found in an old house in Newhaven in the early 1970s, shortly before it was demolished. As a result of detailed research, we think this photograph is of Grace Crawford and was taken in about 1925.

Census returns are a good way of tying family names to specific places and the information on some of the photographs made it possible to find Grace and her family. Grace was born in 1899. She had an older sister, Margaret, and a younger brother William who was only a baby at the time of the 1901 census. Grace’s father John was a general labourer. He was born in Newhaven in about 1876 and was married to Jane (Jean) Sommerville. At the time of the 1901 census the family were living at 44 James Street, now Spey Terrace, in Leith. They were still there in 1911, and by then Grace had two more siblings, James and Jean. There were many other photographs in the box and they probably all relate to the Crawford family. Sadly, we may never know who they all were, but at least the story of Grace and her family can now in some small part be told.

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Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Accessories > Necklaces

People > Adults > Women

Places > Edinburgh areas > Newhaven

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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