Theresa Babb’s Photographs of Friendship (ca. 1898)
(Detail) Picnic at Sherman's Point, 1900. Theresa Babb is sat on the rocks second from the left.
Camden, Maine is one of two places on the East Coast “where the mountains meet the sea”, writes Barbara F. Dyer, a local historian. Photographing its harbor and hills at the turn of the twentieth century, Theresa Babb (1868–1948) recorded both the intimacies of social life and her hometown’s industrial and seafaring traditions. What stands out most about Babb’s images is how they let us glimpse into a personal world of female friendship, captured in such a way that seems both timeless and strikingly modern.
In The Social Sex: A History of Female Friendship, Marilyn Yalom describes the rise of the “new woman” in the late-nineteenth century, whose education, race, and class position created “a new model of friendship” that was “to last for much of the twentieth century”. She quotes a woman interviewed during this rise: “We live for our friends, and at bottom for no other reason.” Babb’s portraits do not fall neatly into this history, but certainly share the quoted sentiment. The groups of women she photographed are neither fully focused on the ennobling, moral uplift associated with “the serious New Woman” nor anticipatory of the “carefree flapper” that was to follow. Instead, we find joyful depictions of friendship among women, often on countryside outings, during a decade in US history remembered as “the gay nineties”. In the image above, Babb and three friends drink, heads thrown back, while lounging on a rocky shore. A fifth woman stares off toward the water, either comically posed in feigned disapproval or simply lost in thought. Several other images continue the theme, reflecting the pleasures of posing in groups. In a photograph captioned “Camping crowd at Ogier Point”, four women lean on each other, pulling faces for the camera; another image depicts friends and family of Babbs stacked on a ladder, with her sister, Grace Parker, on top.
Babb’s chosen angles make these 120-year-old images feel remarkably contemporary. Photographing “some of Miss Garland’s girls” in Milton, Massachusetts in 1900, Babb places her camera near to the ground and eight women, seated on grass, peer down toward the lens. In another image, young people swim in the sea, while Babb seems to be floating on a boat, with her camera trained back toward shore. The activities are numerous: dancing, picnicking, dog walking, dinner parties, photography, bicycling, child care, hammocking, and naps on the beach are all represented. Spending time with these images, we start to feel as if we know Theresa Babb. And yet, in terms of biographical information, we know very little. Her husband was the treasurer of Knox Woolen Mill, Charles W. Babb, and her son, Charles Jr., succeeded in the family business, becoming President of the mill. On the envelopes that house the negatives of these photographs, Theresa Babb wrote detailed captions, small missives to some future onlooker.
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Friends and family of Theresa Babb perched on a ladder by the Summit House swing on August 17, 1898. Her sister Grace Parker is at the top of the ladder. The Summit House hotel was built in 1897 by Columbus Buswell. The property was purchased in 1899 by the Mt. Battie Association and renovated the same year. Property torn down in 1920.
Grace G. and Grace Parker at Lake City, Sept. 1900
Grace G. and Grace Parker at Lake City, Sept. 1900
Grace Parker, sister of Theresa P. Babb, photographed in 1898
Group at Ballard Park on August 14, 1898: Mary Knight, Fannie Fuller, Marian Goodwin, Alice Merriam, & Grace Parker
Kate Brown
Knight residence on High Street in Camden, July 1898
Lizzie Curtis, Mrs. Hart and Fred; June 7, 1898
Lillie and Grace in the hammock, September 1900
Minnie Babb (C.W.'s sister), Flora, and Grace Parker (Theresa's sister)
“Mothers & Daughters, September 1899”; appears to be elderly Mrs. Parker, daughters Alice and Theresa, and younger woman named Bess.
Mrs. Hodgman's picnic, August 1900
On the beach in Northport after buckboard ride, August 1900
A pleasant day at Oakland Park
Summer house group: Lizzie, Myrtle French, Teresa?, Grace, & Margaret, June 24, 1898
Grace Parker swimming, August 1900
Theresa and “Black Beauty” the cat, July 2 1898
Theresa Babb (left) and Alice Merriam on the Bangor boat, June 1899. Photo taken by Master John Talbot
“Flashlights & chafing dish time, Feb 1900”
“Some of Miss Garland's girls, Class of 1900. Taken at Milton [MA] June 1900.”
“Louise & Jakie, June 1, 1898.”
“Jennie Boynton.”
“Lighthouse & keeper at Ipswich Beach, May 30, 1900.”
“Francis Porter & bicycle, August 15, 1898.”
“Fannie, Lillie & Harry & their bicycles.”
“The Dunes at Ipswich Beach, May 30, 1900.”
“Crescent Beach pictures, Sept 2, 1898.”
“Aunt Abbie [right], Grandma [left], and Aunt Lizzie [center].”
“Annie Kittridge and Grace, March 1899.” Grace Parker is the sister of photographer Theresa Parker Babb.
“Anne Fletcher's birthday carol (flashlight).”
“Lillie & Jessica Lewis in boat. Also picture of sailboat. October 1900.”
“Grace and Mary at Ipswich Beach, May 30, 1900.”
“Grace and Mary at Ipswich Beach, May 30, 1900.”
Boating at Lake City on Megunticook Lake in August 1899.
“Camping crowd at Ogier Point, 1900.” Theresa Babb is on the far left.
Ms. Emmie Fountain seated on the ledges at Ogier Point, Camden in 1900.
Friends and family of Theresa Babb riding the hayrack to Lake City in 1898. Some are costumed in older style clothing and the wagon is heavily decorated with flags; perhaps a 4th of July celebration?
Group with camera seated on Maiden's Cliff, October 1899. The two women are identified in other photos as Fannie and Lillie.
“Miss Merriam at Sherman's Point, 1900.”
Picnic at Sherman's Point, 1900. Theresa is 2nd from the left holding a bottle.
Picnic at Sherman's Point in Camden in 1900. Theresa is seated in front.
Swimming at Lake City as viewed from Dudley Talbot's lot circa 1900.
Two unidentified women seated near Beauchamp Point, October 1900. Indian Island lighthouse is visible in the background (image may be reversed?). Labeled “Whitcomb and Duffy in foreground.”
“Camping crowd at Ogier Point.”
“Annie Kittridge and Grace, March 1899.” Grace Parker is the sister of photographer Theresa Parker Babb.
Nov 16, 2021
