Figure 1.--Here we see a Russian family out for a stroll, we think in 1901, but the writing on the card could be intetpreted as 1909. We are not sure just who father was. Does the militay cap mean that he was a military man wearing civilian clothes. The girls wear white dresses, one with a huge hat. The boy is rather informally dressed in a blouse and knee pants. All the children wear long stockings. The cabinet card does not indicate whee they lived other than a city.

The 1900s was the last full decade of Tsarist rule. We continue to see formal dress among the Tsarist elite and urban middle class. We begin to see, howeber, more images outside the narrow confines of the photiographic studio, maean we get to see hoe Russian families dressed during a normal day and not jusr when they dressed up for a formal portrait. We see the ame popular styles that we see in Western Europe. We see a lot of boys wearing sailor suits, a style made popular by the royal family. The Tsarevitch usually eore sailor suits, except for special occassions. Older boys wore suits. Single beaeasted suits were common. Some suits had Norfolk styling. We see some Eton collars. Knee pants were common. Some boys dressed plainly. We note both long stockings weree common. We notice girls wearing some large hats. They mostly wore dresses, but we also see blouses and skirts for less formal occassions. Long stockings were common for both boys and girls. The great bulk of he population still lived in the countryside and consisted of alarely landlaess pesantry. The boys wore Russian blouses of various lengths with baggy long pants and went barefoot. The girls wore colorful long dresses awith head scarves.

City Family on a Stroll (1901)

Here we see a Russian family out for a stroll, we think in 1901 (figure 1). The writing on the card, however, could be intetpreted as 1909. We are not sure just who father was. Does the militay cap mean that he was a military man wearing civilian clothes. The girls wear white dresses, one with a huge hat. The boy is rather informally dressed in a blouse and knee pants. All the children wear long stockings. The cabinet card does not indicate whee they lived other than a city.

Unidentified Peasant Family (the 1900s)

Here we see an unidentufied Russian family in the early-20th century before Wiorld War I. It looks to be a rathr young family with six children about 1/2-11 years old. The boys wear tunics and long pants. Mother and one girl wear head scarves. We are not sure about the utility of these garments, but vhey were cmmonly wirn in Eastern Europe. Russian blouses abd tunics were very fashionable in America at the tume. This family looks to us like they are living rough in the forest rather than on an agricultural estate. Despite liberatiin 1861), the former serfs did not make great economiv progress. The fmily here is s good example.

Platt Family (the 1900s)

The Platt family consisred of three brothers and a sister. We have a 1909 family portrait that we initially thought was British. The three boys all wear Eton collars, the younger boys wear suits with a touch of Norfolk styling. The older boy who we believe was named Arthur wears his Eton collar with a neck tie and a stabndard single-breasted suit jacket. The younger boys have bow ties. We could nt tell where they were from. We have a second image of Arthur, however, that was taken in Odessa. Again if we did not kbow that the portrait was Russia, we would guess that Arthur was English. Arthur is of course anb English name. We are less sure about Platt. We wonder if this was a foreign family living in Odessa. As all we have to go on at this time is the Odessa studio cabinet card identification we are archiving this in the Russian section. We are not, however, at all sure that this sas a Russian family.

Artistic Russian Family: The Roerichs (1900s-10s)

Nicholas Roerich became one of Imperial Russia’s most famous artists. In fact he had wide ranging interests. He has been described as a Russian archeologist, painter, philosopher, and theosophist. Much of his art work was about Russian History. He was born in Saint Petersburg to the family of prosperous notary public. Nicholas lived around the world, spending many years in India until his death in the Punjab. His father had him study law, but allowed him to also study art. His interests were very wide ranging, but were strongly oriented toward art. He left Russia with his family after the Revolution, but undewent a series pf anti- and pro-Soviet conversions. Given his conflicting orientation it is good he did not return to Russia during the stalinist era. Svetoslav's mother was Helena Shaposhnikov. Helena was related to the Russian composer Mussorgsky. She met her husband in 1899. There were two sons. George the eldest was born in 1902. He became as Yuri Roerich a noted Tibetologist. Svetoslav their youngest son was born in St Petersburg (1904). Nicholas and Helena Roerich founded the Agni Yoga Society.

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Created: 16:13 PM 7/5/2019
Last updated: 6:13 PM 7/5/2019