Portret van een vrouw, schrijvend aan een tafel 1870 - 1885

John Hunt created this carte de visite portrait of a woman writing at a table at an unknown date. This seemingly simple image offers us insight into the shifting social structures around gender and literacy in nineteenth-century western societies. The act of portraying a woman engaged in writing, was in its time, a statement. It moves beyond traditional representations of women as domestic figures, subtly asserting her intellectual and active role. Looking at her dress and the accouterments, we can deduce this is a woman of means, or at the very least, of the aspiring middle class. We might consider how the rise of the middle class created new opportunities and expectations for women. Was she writing letters, managing household affairs, or perhaps even engaging in literary pursuits? To fully understand the photograph, we would delve into the history of women's education, literacy rates, and changing social norms through sources like census records, and publications from the period. The photograph, therefore, becomes a document of social change.