File:Too Dignified to smile, in Japan (1914 by Elstner Hilton).jpg

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This enigmatic photo is from an album Elstner Hilton compiled in Japan between 1914 and 1918. Elstner was my spouse's uncle.

I consider the photograph enigmatic because I don't know the context in which it was taken. Were the sitters known to Uncle Elstner? Was the photo taken at his house? If the women were to dignified to smile, why did they consent to have their photograph taken at all? Under the circumstances, was averting the eyes considered the socially acceptable thing to do?
Comment: traditional values would prioritize dignity, and it'd be considered improper for a lady to openly smile. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, the ladies are very much undressed (think chemise and pantalettes), resting and seemingly hot and/or exhausted, and overall not presentable for visitors, so it's no wonder they aren't feeling cheerful. It is an intimate situation, and they may have submitted to be photographed just to get rid of the foreigner.

While Uncle Elstner was pretty good about annotating the photos that required an explanation of some sort, he did not date the pictures. So all we know is they were taken between January, 1914 and December, 1918.
Date
Source Too Dignified
Author A.Davey from Portland, Oregon, EE UU
Flickr albums
InfoField
  • Japan 1914 - 1918
    I own the originals of these unpublished family photos. ... As a salesman for Atkins Saw Company, Elstner Hilton traveled to the Far East to sell commercial sawmills in the early years of the 20th century. ... Elstner Hilton was my father-in-law Frank Hilton's* brother, which makes him my spouse's uncle. ...
    * Elstner Hilton's brother Frank Hilton compiled a scrapbook of photographs, clippings and other ephemera at Stanford University between 1907 and 1911. ...
    ps: I now have reason to believe that the photos of Japan may be stock photos that Uncle Elstner purchased and pasted into his album. There may be some exceptions: the images of his sister, Miriam, and photos of logging operations in the Phillippines.

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by A.Davey at https://flickr.com/photos/40595948@N00/4867376306. It was reviewed on 20 July 2017 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

20 July 2017

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current12:59, 20 July 2017Thumbnail for version as of 12:59, 20 July 2017671 × 1,136 (291 KB)Clusternote (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via Flickr2Commons

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