Sujet

Women grinding corn in Ireland, 1874. Creator: Unknown.

Légende

Women grinding corn in Ireland, 1874. 'The ancient and primitive task of reducing cereal grain to flour, with a simple handmill, has in many different ages and countries, during several thousand years of human history, been performed in the same manner by the industrious housekeeping sex...We cannot, therefore, be surprised to find the quern, or hand-mill, used by Irishwomen of the peasant class to this day...the upper stone can be raised or depressed, so as to make the friction greater or less, as the meal is meant to be coarser or finer...Two women generally work the quern, one sitting facing the other, so that they have the quern between them. Each in her turn takes hold of the handle, or sometimes both take hold when occasion requires. The two women can grind about ten pounds of clean meal in an hour. Among the Irish the hand-mill is called clough vrone, or "the stone of sorrow"...The corn is never shelled before grinding, but the grain and husk are ground together. When ground, the meal is sifted to separate the husk from the part to be used for food. The ordinary way of using is to mix the meal in its raw state with milk and make it into the consistency of stirabout. This mixture is eaten without any accompaniment'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Notre référence

HRM25A32_452

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

28,2Mo (3,0Mo) / 31,3cm x 22,6cm / 3693 x 2668 (300dpi)

Mots clés

building buildings female women woman people work technology domestic house houses family home stone arts industry country corn housing art British Ireland Irish cottage cottages industrial kitchen machine machinery rustic poor poverty mill location century Britain household newspapers press print bucket grinding concept appliance maize sweetcorn B&W cornmeal Indian Corn household appliance engraved engraving domestic life family life Domestic Appliance 19th century black & white black and white B W sweet corn nineteenth century rural The Print Collector grinding wheel Illustrated London News rural life women at work wood engraving grinding mill ILN newspaper working grinding stone Unknown Regionalism 19th-century The Illustrated London News M. F. F. M. maize meal