Comments on: Latter-day Saint Images, 1903

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:51:58 +0000

The April 1909 issue of the Improvement Era featured an interesting article, “From India’s Coral Strand,” on the creation of the Karachi branch in 1903. I won’t reproduce the article, but the conversion story of Robert Marshall, who first received church literature in the 1850s, and his family is worth reading. Six of the first thirteen members in Karachi were members of Marshall’s household. (I would guess that Marshall is the man in the photo with the long beard.)

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:29:19 +0000

I’d guess that all those men on the back row are natives of “India.” Karachi of course is now in Pakistan, and has been since Partition in 1947. Their dark hair and facial features appear to be of the common type from that area.

An Indian friend of mine says that the general rule is that the farther north one goes in the subcontinent, the lighter skinned the population. Thus Kashmiris can be nearly as light-skinned as Caucasians, whereas people like her from Bangalore tend to be quite dark.

By: Steve C

Steve C — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:56:47 +0000

Kevinf: I wondered the same thing about the Karachi members–if they weren’t English members. I looked closely at the people to see if they looked Indian. It’s hard to tell.

These photos are great. Like everyone else, I like to look at them and see where we were 100 years ago. My wife was also impressed with a recent set of these photos that she decided after the Primary program to take a picture of our branch Primary children for perhaps a future post on this site.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:50:33 +0000

Ray, most (not all) of these images came from the Juvenile Instructor, suggesting that they were Sunday Schools. Very rarely are they specifically identified, unless a school is so large that a picture is identified as being of, say, “the intermediate class” or “the parents’ class.” Beginning in 1904, there was a real drive to open Sunday Schools for non-member children, and when I see photos of very large groups of children in places where I wouldn’t expect to find a large membership, I suspect that many if not all of the children are non-members. But in the groups pictured here, there seems to be a pretty good ratio of children to adults, as though they really are photos of branches or of member Sunday Schools. (Not that the other pictures aren’t interesting — I’ll publish some of those, but with a title that doesn’t imply that we’re seeing mostly LDS faces.)

By: Maurine

Maurine — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:26:32 +0000

Mark, a good share of those people in the Hyrum 3rd Ward Sunday School have descendants still in Hyrum, and some probably still in the 3rd Ward. I have a picture of Hyrum 2nd Ward taken a year earlier with every person identified–not so with the 3rd Ward.

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:35:09 +0000

Ardis, I will never get tired of these pictures. NEVER.

Is it noted anywhere if some of these pictures are of specific organizations – like, perhaps, the Primary in the Scotland picture?

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:58:15 +0000

Jim, I have a collection of 1902 photos to put up sometime — ladies all over the world are wearing their picture hats that year. I don’t know, but wonder if a fashion change, or the request from church leaders sometime in that era that women remove their hats as a courtesy in church, might have come at exactly that time, with the ladies at the mines being some of the last to change. It sure is a clear difference in this set of pictures though, isn’t it?

By: Jim Cobabe

Jim Cobabe — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:44:01 +0000

Ardis,

I note that women typically removed their hats for a photo — all except the Highland Mine shot. Women’s hats were an extravagant fancy in those days, it seems. Funny that so many of the photos you chose show everyone with their heads uncovered.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:58:21 +0000

Ardis, my suspicion is that the Karachi folks are English church members there in government service of some sort, but I don’t know how you would verify that.

I have a nephew who is currently serving in India on his mission, in the coastal city of Vishnakapatnam (spelling is approximate). He’s 6’4″ tall, reddish brown hair, and pale, freckly face. One other missionary in his district is 6’6″ tall, bright red hair. As they are not allowed to actively proselyte, and can only teach someone who approaches them first, being tall, pale, and redhaired attracts a lot of attention there, opening doors (literally) for them to do missionary work.

Keep these coming. The picture you had of the Antimony Sunday School in the 1930s or 1940s a few weeks back had a couple of my brother in law’s ancestors, including an uncle and some others that he knew personally.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:05:49 +0000

Ardis, these shorts posts composed primarily of images are especially enjoyable on days when I'm too busy to do much actual blog reading. Thanks, and keep them coming.