Between the Covers

Hardcover. Oblong quarto. Measuring 12.5" x 9.5". Red textured leather over boards with "Nazareth House Plymouth 1934" stamped in gilt on the front board. Contains 11 large sepia toned gelatin silver photographs measuring between 9.5" x 11" affixed to stiff gray paper with captions on two photos. Album is very good or better with toning on the page edges and a few photos have been removed with near fine or better photographs.

An album of photographs from Nazareth House, an orphanage in Plymouth in the United Kingdom in 1935. The photos appear to be taken as a form of promotion displaying the rooms of the orphanage as well as the girls who lived there. Throughout the album are staged photographs of tables set for breakfast, rows of perfectly made beds, the chapel, and a large classroom. Towards the end of the album the girls are featured in class and playing outside. One photo shows a group of little girls dressed as fairies and another shows some of the girls with a nun chaperone looking out in to the water that surrounded the grounds. A group photo shows all the girls who were housed at the orphanage in 1934.

Nazareth House, founded in the 1870s, was operated by the Sisters of Nazareth, sometimes referred to as the Poor Sisters of Nazareth. They had orphanages throughout England, all of which were called Nazareth House, and were home to not only abandoned girls but also those thought to be uncontrollable or accused of petty crimes. The girls were taught basic lessons including arithmetic, reading, and writing, as well as the "feminine arts" of sewing and knitting. In the late 1990s the sisters were accused of child abuse and of sending 111 children to Australia to "spread Catholicism."

A collection of large, arresting photographs of a girl's orphanage in the 1930s.

Item #400386