Name Them: Unidentified Women in Historic Photographs, Part 1 of 2

by Jennifer Barkdull, Church History Library archivist

5 January 2021

Archivist Jennifer Barkdull showcases several historic photographs featuring unknown women. Can you identify them?

The Church History Library holds thousands of photographic collections. While many photos are identified, there are also many photos of unidentified individuals. Today, I present photographs of unidentified women. These photographs have us stumped; can you name any of the individuals featured? If you can positively identify them—and if you can give us a source for your identification—use the Ask Us link to send us the name or number of the photograph, the name of the woman (or women), and a citation for your source. With your help, we will be able to highlight individuals who have gone nameless for too long.

Additionally, if you ever come across an anonymous photograph that you can identify in the Church History Catalog, please click on Ask Us and share your information with us.

This is part one of two posts that will feature photos of unidentified women. Additionally, we are considering making photograph identification—of many people, not just adult women—a regular series on The Historical Record to help the catalog become more robust. If you would like to see this as a regular series, please let us know at CHLBlog@ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Here are the photos. Clicking on the link in each caption will take you to the item in the Church History Catalog, where you can view zoomable high-resolution images of a photo’s front and back.

1. “Unidentified young woman”; the initials “J. R. G.” are on the photo’s reverse. Contained in Louisa B. Hamblin family photographs, circa 1865–1910 (PH 712).

2. “Woman, unidentified”; contained in Views of General Authorities, circa 1860–1888 (PH 4625).

3. “Unidentified women”; contained in Joseph F. Smith personal photographs, circa 1860–1918 (PH 2016).

4. “Photographs of Jesse Griffin”; an image of Jesse Griffen with an unidentified woman taken while he was serving as the president of the Derbyshire conference in the British Mission (1856). Contained in Photographs of Jesse Griffen, 1856–1899 (PH 8330).

5. “Portrait of John A. Clark and unidentified woman” (PH 1700 4358).

6. “Portrait of William Bradford and four unidentified women”; contained in Portrait of William Bradford and others, circa 1890 (PH 1700 2614).

7. “Photo montage of two unidentified women (three images of each woman)”; photos taken by C. E. Johnson, Salt Lake City, Utah. Contained in George Albert Smith photographs, circa 1880–1945 (PH 7435)

8. “Josephine Booth with unidentified sister missionaries”; on the photo’s back, “Josephine Booth on right” appears. Contained in Sister missionaries in the British Mission, circa 1899 (PH 6142).

9. “Unidentified woman”; contained in Bathsheba W. Bigler Smith photograph collection, circa 1865–1900 (PH 8004).

10. “Unidentified women”; photo taken by H. E. Coolidge, Manti, Utah. Contained in Richard T. Haag photographs, circa 1870–1914 (PH 1470).

11. “Unidentified woman”; contained in Benjamin Brown family photograph collection, circa 1860–1960 (PH 6381).

12. “Woman, unidentified”; contained in Views of General Authorities, circa 1860–1888 (PH 4625).

13. “Unidentified women”; photo taken by F. Berrer and Heilbronn. Contained in Richard T. Haag photographs, circa 1870–1914 (PH 1470).

14. “Portrait of Emily Porter Parrish” (the “person on the right,” per the back of the photo) with an unidentified woman; contained in Portrait of Emily Porter Parrish, undated (PH 1700 5054).

15. “Two unidentified women”; contained in British Mission photographs, 1911–1913 (PH 3647).

Top image: Four women, also unidentified; see PH 200.