cestas

Surely one of the greatest fishwives in history

I love this. It would be great to see more photos of women from this time - see what their lives were like.

"The fishwives of Newhaven were famous for both their beauty and confidence. They carried the fish their men had caught in baskets on their backs up to Edinburgh to sell it. Whenever storms at sea made the fishing especially dangerous and the price of fish rose, they were heard saying 'It's no fish ye're buying, it's men's lives'. The phrase became internationally known after Sir Walter Scott used it in his novel, The Antiquary." -- National Galleries of Scotland caption

Great Minds Think Alike :-)

Is she opening shellfish here? Oysters maybe?

Maybe scraping the beards off mussels

That's my great great great great? Grandma!

Poor thing, her shoes have holes in them and she looks like she's had a hard, rough life.

so wonderful to see these images from days long gone

It is interesting to see this photographic documentation of the late 19th century roots of what we in America now think of as an Appalachian ribbed melon basket. No doubt this functional rib framed basket type has even earlier origins. It is a basketmaking tradition which Scottish basket makers most likely brought with them as they immigrated to America. Thank you for posting it.

so beautiful the picture and the girl....who was her, how was her life????????????????

She looks happy...

cute girl

Welcome to Flickr to this interesting and important project of the National Galleries of Scotland's! Good idea!!!!

Robert Adamson, David Octavius Hill Is one the subject and one the photographer? Which is which?

Rabbit n a Hat - they could be a photography team.

They were both collaborative pioneers of photography from the 1840s.

Congrats on being featured on the flickr blog! It's great to have you here and see these historic photos. *thumbs up!*