Moscow 1909

In 1909 Murray Howe traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg with a top of the line camera and some of his pictures have recently been made available by his great-grandson, who refurbished the negatives and posted 77 (of about 400, I think) on flickr. There are many beautiful pictures of Moscow’s architectural sites, as well as a variety of scenes from everyday life, such as a peasant market, traveling priests, barefoot boys and girls working in the streets. The original descriptions of the photos have been included. One striking one is of a young half barefoot nurse, holding a toddler and standing up against a riverside railing. The description reads: “The camera man’s guide forces a terrified nurse to pose against her will.” One that has gotten quite a lot of attention is of Khitrovka. The author wrote: “A prize snap shot on a sunday morning in the famous Thieves Market, Moscow. I was mobbed by this crowd after taking this picture and had to be rescued by the Soldier-Police.” There are some interesting comments on the exhibit with responses from the author here.  Edit: These pictures were also discussed in a recent post by historian Alison Smith, a contributor to the new and collectively maintained Russian History Blog.

May 14, 2011. Exhibits, Images, Late Imperial, Moscow.