'Gipsy' woman

Original photograph taken by Charles Barker Howdill (1863–1941)

Howdill used the problematic term ‘gipsy’ in a number of photo titles, in line with common parlance a century ago. This sequence of photographs features a group of ‘Circassian gypsies’ who took up temporary residence in two houses in Cobourg Street, Leeds - later demolished to make way for the Merrion Centre. They were the subject of an article possibly written by Howdill and illustrated by one of his photographs: ‘A Circassian Colony’, Yorkshire Evening Post, 9 December 1911.

Gipsy woman LEEDM.F.1993.0005.0114 (dance pose, eyes closed).