Untitled

Unidentified photographer

c. 1917

A gelatin silver snapshot that arranges Bloomsburg pennants, cushions, and personal effects in a bedroom—an attempt to document civic pride and personal identity through a domestic display.

You’re struck by the cluster of pennants and embroidered pillows spelling “Bloomsburg,” the upside‑down tennis rackets, and the dim, ghostly reflection of a woman in the mirror that turns the corner of the room into a private shrine.

A piece of vernacular photography from around 1917, it reveals how everyday snapshots made private rituals of allegiance and women’s domestic self‑presentation visible to history.

Palette

Art Terms

Gelatin silverprint (developing-out paper) Photography Investigating identity Ephemera Still life Vernacular photography

Exhibitions

Sixty Photographs: A Survey of Camera Esthetics

1940

Photographs Before Surrealism

1968

The Museum Collection of Photographs

1945

Then and Now

1952