It’s February 3, 2025. It’s the day after Groundhog day. Since I’m writing this ahead of time, I don’t know if the groundhog predicted an early spring this year. It’s definitely still plenty cold and snowy here in Connecticut, so I would believe it if the groundhog predicted there is more winter yet to come. I’m always hopeful that Spring will arrive early, but you never know.
In any case, we’re here today to celebrate the midpoint of winter, so let’s talk about snowmen photos, since I have a few snowmen photos by women to talk about.
There was an post recently on the PetaPixel blog about photos of making snowmen and other snow beings. In the post, there is a mention that the first photo of a snowman — back in 1853! — was taken by the talented amateur photographer Mary Dillwyn in Wales. You can see a version of it in the PetaPixel blog, or you an click here to see it online in an album of Miss Dllwyn’s photos on the website of the Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales. [Many thanks to Pam M., who was the first to alert me to Mary Dillwyn and her snowman photo a while back.].
Anyway, moving forward in time, the following snowman photo was taken in 1924 by the photo studio of Harris and Ewing. That was the studio founded in Washington, D.C. by an (unrelated) man and woman, George W. Harris and Martha Ewing. Here’s the photo:
Library of Congress LC-DIG-hec-44074.
The woman in the photo is Fritzi Ridgeway, who was, to quote her Wikipedia entry, “an American silent film actress, vaudeville performer, and hotelier.” Crazy things one had to do for publicity, I guess, circa 1924. I mean, Miss Ridgeway is posing, in the snow, in a swimsuit. Brr.
Now I think we should all go warm up with a nice cup of cocoa and hope for an early spring. 😉
