Spring piglets? Although we don’t know the time of year this photograph was taken, the litter of piglets asleep near the warmth of a cast-iron stove may well have been born at the end of a long Norfolk winter. The photograph is one of many Marie Hartig Kendall (1854-1943) took of Norfolk farm scenes at the close of the 19th century. Born in France, Marie emigrated to New York, where she trained as a nurse at Bellevue Hospital in the 1870’s. Before graduation, she was dismissed for having broken hospital rules by becoming engaged to Dr. John C. Kendall, a resident physician there. Family lore recalls that she was somewhat of a rebel and asked the doctor for a watch instead of a wedding band, which she considered a symbol of women’s enslavement. In 1884 the couple moved to Norfolk, where Dr. Kendall established a medical practice. Unable to afford photographs of her three children, Marie saved money to buy her own camera and soon found a profitable way to help support the family. Country scenes and rural occupations were especially marketable with their nostalgic appeal of small-town bucolic American life, quickly vanishing at the time. Kendall sold her photographs to railroad companies for advertising brochures and as postcards, contributing to Norfolk’s growing reputation as a summer resort.

—Ann Havemeyer

Photo copyright Norfolk Historical Society.