Sepia Saturday - Three Little Maids

These three charming young women are my maternal grandmother Ruby Wright and her sisters, Mabel and Pearl. The time would be about 1908, the place Troy, Alabama.

So what are these southern belles doing posing in kimonos?

I'm speculating, of course, but I know that there was a craze for all things Japanese following the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, where a Japanese village introduced much of the western world to the mysterious land which had been closed to the outside till 1853.

And  then too, there was  The Mikado --possibly Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operetta.  It was performed widely and its songs were well known -- even, I believe, in southern Alabama.

I like to think that Ruby and Mabel and Pearl were playing at being  the famous three little maids.

"Three little maids from school are we,

Pert as a schoolgirl well can be,

Filled to the brim with girlish glee ..."

And go HERE for a recipe for Japanese Fruitcake -- a popular Southern dessert in the early 1900's.

Go HERE for more Sepia Saturday posts.