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"Home economics in public schools. Kitchen in housekeeping flat, New York," circa 1910. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.
From the girls' clean gingham aprons to the row of neatly-labeled jars, everything about this kitchen classroom is tidy. I'm envious!
I know this isn't a Hines photo. The thing is that to my admittedly 21st century eye the apartment used for this class is not dissimilar in cleanliness to the tenement flats that Hines was shooting and calling filthy.
[True. And: Hine, not Hines. - Dave]
I just wonder what Hines would have said about this flat if, instead of being a training location for a school it was in some tenement and occupied by people doing piece-work out of the home? I don't mean to be critical of him, since his objectives were good, but viewed through modern eyes one might find it difficult to discover much of a difference.
[This isn't a Hine photo. - Dave]
I was thinking that this is around two years before the sinking of the Titanic. What we see in this image is the way ordinary people (well, girls in kitchens at least) dressed in those days. It's fascinating to think that this is the sort of hair and wear that a lot of the poor folk involved in that epic sinking bore upon their floundering heads.
Also, note the Rob Roy Tomato jar on the upper shelf. Named after Rob Roy (McGregor), he of the eponymous book and movie?
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