Maidens and Matrons, St. Kilda

Maidens and Matrons, St. Kilda

ID: PC_PRISCUS_WCS6418 DESCRIPTION: This photograph was taken by Scottish photographer George Washington Wilson (1823-93) and was used to illustrate talks he gave on Highland history. The following description is taken from Washington Wilson's own lecture notes. The women of St. Kilda do all the work of carrying the fuel and a man who would help his wife would at once be set down as showing a bad example. The number of women in the Island is slightly in excess of the men, and the population does not seem to increase, probably because of the great mortality among children, and as before they had a resident midwife only one in ten lived; now however the death rate is not nearly so high. Men as well as women knit, and having plenty of wool they spin their own cloth, of which they have plenty for their own use, and the Macleod's factor at Dunvegan usually has a good supply of it for sale, he having received it as part payment of rent. PLACENAME: St Kilda DISTRICT: Harris OLD COUNTY/PARISH: INVERNESS: Harris CREATOR (AV): George Washington Wilson PERIOD: 1880s (c.) SOURCE: Mark Butterworth - Priscus COLLECTION: Imaging the Past Asset ID: 29648 KEYWORDS: