Mrs and Miss Ross of Tain, spinning and knitting ca. 1865

Mrs and Miss Ross of Tain, spinning and knitting ca. 1865

Portraits

This photograph of Mrs and Miss Ross of Tain in north-east Scotland, taken by John Ross, an accountant in Tain and son of Mrs Ross, is titled ‘Household Industry in Tain Previous to 1850’. It shows the two women engaged in traditional female domestic crafts – spinning wool and knitting socks or stockings – which were also practiced commercially to supplement household incomes among the rural poor. Mrs Ross is dressed in the simple clothing of an elderly though well-off Highland cottager, with a frilled and starched linen ‘mutch’ or cap on her head and a practical cotton skirt and shawl. She may have dressed like this on an everyday basis, though as the mother of an accountant her middle class status would suggest otherwise. Miss Ross is fashionably dressed in a plaid silk gown over a crinoline. Despite the drapery in the background, the foliage on the ground suggests that the carefully composed photograph was taken outdoors.

Nineteenth century middle class and elite women were commonly represented in paintings and photographs with spinning wheels – and ornate spinning wheels, often antiques, were purchased as household furniture for elite drawing rooms from the 1880s. Processing textiles at home like this, though it was a technology long replaced by factories and machines, expressed an ideal of feminine industriousness – called eydence in Scots – and also evoked romanticised images of cottage life in the past and in the Highlands in particular that held a particular charm for Victorians. Queen Victoria, during her widowhood at Balmoral, was photographed on a number of occasions posed by a similar spinning wheel. Tourist photographs of Highland Scotland commonly featured women seated with wheels outside cottages and they were also displayed in the popular Highland and Irish villages that featured in international exhibitions.

Mrs Ross sits by a Saxony wheel, which was widely introduced to Scotland from the mid-eighteenth century as the linen industry evolved, replacing the more portable and primitive distaff system of spinning. The wheel is powered with a foot treadle. Alongside her is a jack reel for winding the yarn. There is a basket on the ground containing balls of wool and finished socks.

Tain and District Museum's Trust

Tain and District Museum