Saxon woman

Studio portrait of a Saxon woman, standing, wearing traditional Saxon dress (church clothes).

Photographer: Unidentified studio
Date of photograph: Circa 1870s
Continent: Europe
Geographical area: Central and Eastern Europe
Country: Romania
Region/Place: Transylvania; Sibiu
Cultural Group: European German
Format: Black and white print, hand-coloured (mounted on card)
Size: 134 x 98 mm; 163 x 108 mm (with mount)
Acquisition: Joan Evans. Donated August 1941

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Primary documentation: ‘[p.588] Dr. JOAN EVANS, from the property of the late SIR ARTHUR EVANS, Youlbury, Boars Hill, Oxford. [List of items follows]’; ‘[p.590] 3 Coloured photographs - SAXONY types’: Pitt Rivers Museum accession records (Donations X, 1937–1941), pp.588, 590. Notes on mount: ‘Saxon girl/ Church costume/ Herman[n]stadt’ (written in pencil on reverse of mount card).

Research notes: This photograph was taken in Hermannstadt, Austria-Hungary, now known as Sibiu in Romania, a centre of the Transylvanian Saxon population and previous capital of the Principality of Transylvania. The population of Transylvanian Saxons had a long history in the region, but by the later nineteenth century were becoming – and still are – a minority group.