Mrs. Parker is dressed in wonderful late-1920s fashion, wearing a cloche-style hat, knee-length dress, light jacket or cardigan, long strand of beads, stockings, and strap-style shoes. She appears to have a dark coat draped over one arm and is bending down toward the two spotted dogs beside her.
The vegetation and open hillside setting add to the photograph's travel character. Most importantly, the inscription on the reverse documents exactly what the group was doing.
I read the handwritten inscription as:
“Mrs. Parker, our chaperone,
on top of the hill where
we climbed Gibbs Lighthouse.
March 25, 1929.”
The reference is almost certainly to Gibbs Hill Lighthouse in Bermuda. The historic lighthouse stands on Gibbs Hill and has a 185-step staircase to the top, making the writer's reference to climbing the lighthouse particularly appropriate.
The use of the words “our chaperone” is also a wonderful social-history detail. It suggests Mrs. Parker was accompanying or supervising a traveling group rather than simply being photographed during an ordinary family outing.
This photograph comes from the larger group associated with Myra Coffin / Myra Stratton. Since Myra would have been about 19 or 20 in March 1929, the reference to “our chaperone” is especially intriguing and raises the possibility that this photograph was connected with a trip Myra herself took as a young woman. We do not yet have enough evidence to say that definitively, but I would absolutely preserve that connection as we examine the remaining photographs.
Item Specifics
- Type: Vintage Snapshot Photograph
- Identified Person: Mrs. Parker
- Date: March 25, 1929
- Location: Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, Bermuda
- Subject: Woman, Dogs, Travel, Lighthouse
- Era: 1920s
- Clothing: Cloche Hat, Dress, Jacket/Cardigan, Beaded Necklace, Strap Shoes
- Animals: Two Dogs
- Setting: Hill / Lighthouse Excursion / Bermuda
- Image Color: Black & White / Sepia
- Original/Reprint: Original
- Theme: Bermuda, Travel, Lighthouses, Women, Fashion, Social History
- Back: Fully handwritten identification and date
- Provenance: Myra Coffin / Stratton-associated family photograph group
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