Page from Jean Petrie Photograph Album, 1921

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

51992

Title

Page from Jean Petrie photograph album, 1921

Description

Page from the first of photograph albums of Jean Petrie as a young girl, containing various photographs of Jean at home in Edinburgh and on family trips. The page seen here is from 1921, the time of Jean's first birthday. She is seen going for walks, or on her first birthday with her new toys.

Date

1920

Type

Photograph

Accession number

MC883.81

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

Jean Petrie was born in 1920 in Lossiemouth, the home of her maternal grandmother. Her parents, James and Ethel, both worked in communications, James as a surveyor and Ethel as a telephone supervisor for the Post Office.

James worked in Africa on the Gold Coast for much of Jean's childhood and the photograph albums were made so that he could see the progress of her childhood. The family home was 2 Boswall Loan, Granton and then 3 Columba Road, Blackhall, Edinburgh.

Because the albums were compiled to show Jean's childhood, they tell the story of every day life in a way many albums, which usually focus on holidays and special occasions, do not. The albums are a unique record of a child's life and have an ability to show the world through Jean's eyes. When the albums were donated to the Museum of Childhood, Jean told the curators "I was perpetually photographed to keep him [her father] in touch with the progress of his only child".

The image on the top right shows Jean on her first birthday with some new toys. Included in these is a small soft toy dog, Bobby, which remains with the albums at the collections of the Museum of Childhood.

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