Newhaven fishwives

Category

Library Item

Item no

3576

Title

Newhaven fishwives

Description

A group of Newhaven fisherwomen wearing striped skirts and shawls are gathered around a creel. One of the women reads a letter as the others listen in. They appear to be sitting on a harbour wall.

Artist / maker

Hill, David Octavius

Date

1847

Size

14.6 x 19.6 cm

Type

Salted paper print

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Newhaven was founded by James IV in 1504 as a royal dockyard. It became an important fishing village, famous initially for oysters and later herring. An indoor fish market was built there in 1896. Newhaven fishwives, with their distinctive striped clothes, sold their goods around Edinburgh. David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson famously photographed these fishwives and other Newhaven residents in the 1840's. The area now has a population of roughly five thousand.

View Victoria Primary School's 2011 version of this image.

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Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Garments > Shawls

Clothing and dress > Garments > Skirts

People > Adults > Women

People > Agriculture and fisheries > Fisherwomen

Places > Edinburgh areas > Newhaven

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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