Photographer’s Notes:

These girls are clothed in the traditional costume of Marken, an island just northwest of Amsterdam, Holland. The almost total isolation of the island kept their distinctive traditional dress intact as late as 1930. When Marken was finally linked to the mainland, the quaint little town became a tourist attraction. The hands and faces of these girls bear testament to a life already filled with hard work.

This image is from a set of more than 200 nitrocellulose negatives discovered in Minneapolis. The images were shot in Europe during 1904, photographer unknown.