The Hearth and Ancestors

Unknown, Olden Times, c1900

 

This photograph shows an elderly woman working at the hearth while smoking a pipe. The spinning wheel, in this photograph, as with many others I found, shows the spinning wheel next to the hearth, a consistent use of imagery. Since ancient times, the hearth has been a symbol of a family, of its importance, power, and lineage. The woman, elderly, working in what appears to be a very old-style—even for the time—almost colonial room, all centered around the hearth gives a very powerful impression, not of olden times as it is labeled, but of their continuing power in contemporary time. This is an active room, with both the hearth and the heirloom as powerful symbols of a surviving family.

The very American air of the the room, the traditional dress, reminiscent of a colonial time, also reinforces a certain identity. Although the spinning wheel and many portions of the room are not specifcally American, there is certain sense that this room, this hearth, and for our purpose, the spinning wheel, constitute a specifically American, colonial, identity. 

A.H. Reading, Why don't you speak for yourself?, c1902

        The staging and name of Why don't you speak for yourself?, suggest that there is a staged context for this photograph that we do not have access to, so we would be wise not to view it as ‘authentic,’ but in its portrayal of the other aspects we have been examining, it provides an incredibly ripe selection of data. The woman is seated in front of the hearth, the symbol of the family center, holding the spinning wheel in much the same way as others, but her age and dress complicate the otherwise straightforward picture. Her clothes are those of a maid, which although contemporary maids clothing, is conservative and much more old fashioned than much of the other contemporary clothing. Her clothes, the symbols of ancestry combined with her young age, create a compound image which in many ways demonstrates exactly the timeless, living character of the spinning wheel in imagery. It exists, perfectly active as any other tool, but has a lineage, a history. It, and she, are atemporal.