Groepsportret van vier meisjes in het gras before 1903

Mathilde Weil made this photograph of four girls in a field in Philadelphia. Without a date, it is difficult to understand its context. But we might think about its relation to early-20th-century photography. Looking at the girls' modest white dresses, we might see the visual codes of a particular middle-class culture, of girls who are innocent and wholesome. The girls are placed in a field, a cultivated version of nature, suggesting they have a safe place to play and grow. Were these girls from a specific community or religious order? What were the social expectations of girls at this time? The photograph may represent a progressive view of childhood, one which embraces a healthy outdoor lifestyle as promoted by the scouting movement or the garden city movement. Understanding the history of childhood and children's education in Philadelphia would help us better understand it. Perhaps it's a carefully arranged snapshot, crafted to express a particular ideology.