I am washing my feet, Ma, by Duncan Brown.
Duncan Brown was a talented amateur photographer who documented life in Glasgow from the 1850s to the 1890s. The two little girls washing their feet in a tub are his daughters by his first wife, who died in the 1850s. The couple had been married for twelve years and had six children.
The photograph was taken shortly after Brown married his second wife, with whom he had another five children. Family tradition has it that the girl on the right is looking cross at being told by her step-mother to wash her feet.
Reference: 177
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow School of Art Archives
Keywords:
ablutions, bathing, children, girls, photographers, step-daughters, step-mothers, washing tubs