Short story
Not so much a photo today as a photo essay, parts of which I´ve shown before.
Main is a house and sometime restaurant called La Lonja, and it´s in Santolaya in Cabranes. It belonged to a wealthy family called Merediz. Extra 1 is a street of houses in Villaviciosa. It was taken in 1925 by Ruth Matilda Anderson within her commission to take photos in Galicia, and straying into León and Asturias, for the Hispanic Society of America. She listed the photo as having been taken in the barrio de San Lucás in Villaviciosa. There is not now nor has there ever been a barrio de San Lucás in Villaviciosa, nor any street or church with this name. What there was though was a factory belonging to a Welsh businessman called Lucas Meredith, and a street of factory houses for its workers. The Anderson photo looks to have been taken in what is now Calle Cavaniles, with the old, now-demolished, town wall at the end. I don´t know for certain but I think the photo in extra shows Meredith´s factory houses. I won´t belabour the point, but I will tell you that the house in the main photo belonged to a family called Merediz, which is a clear Hispanicisation of the name Meredith; and it´s clear that the standard of living in the incorrectly-named barrio de San Lucás might well have contributed to the wealth that enabled the building of the house in the main photo. The other extra is a family tomb in the churchyard in Santolaya, rather less than 100yards from the Merediz house, celebrating the Merediz family and in fact showing how the male line, that carried the Merediz name, got lost in successive marriages.
Ruth Matilda Anderson made, I think, three expeditions into the north of Spain and the Hispanic Society of America funded them and kept the photos at its headquarters in New York City. There is a travelling exhibition of her photos, which I´ve seen, and a book of it, which I own. She also made a trip each into Andalusia and Extremadura. I´ve not been able to find those photos and I don´t know whether or how far the Hispanic Society is focused on this area at the moment. It would be a shame if those photos were lost in a drawer somewhere.
Meanwhile though there is a Ruth Matilda Anderson group on Flickr, and it can be found there but regrettably I´ve not been able to copy a working link.
Since I wrote the above, Brianblip has sent me the following link:
DISCOVERY OF THE OVERLOOKED: RUTH M. ANDERSON’S PHOTOGRAPHS OF ASTURIAS FOR THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA, 1925 | Hispanic Society of America
The link shows a small number of photos, and there are many more and in my view at least equally interesting, if you can find them.
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