“Picture Me As a Young Woman”: Researching Girls' Photo Collections from the 1950s and 1960s

Abstract

While there have been several historical studies of photos of young people, especially children, there has been relatively little attention paid to the photos collected by young people in the past. Although the study of girls' photo collections has the potential to expand and enrich the historiography of youth, this potential is not realized easily. Focusing on the photo collections of girls who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, this article explores how an investigation of these can offer a “youth perspective” on growing up in the past. While a study of photographic images can be informative, the full potential of this type of research is realized only by engaging with photographic practices: how girls produced, accumulated, and used photos can be revealing of girls' priorities, interests, and concerns.