Mountain woman from the tribe of Shala, northern Albania. Clothing, mostly of black woolen cloth hand made with decorations in colored worsted. She wears an apron behind similar to the one she wears in front. Her shoes are of raw hide. Inside them she wears the decorated woolen slipper called a "opanga" and wind this one or two thicknesses of woolen socks or slippers. The women are always spinning or knitting. The belt is decorated with countless lead nails and studded with big brass rivets

A mountain bride from the tribe of Hoti, northern Albania. The clothes are of heavy woolen cloth spun and woven by hand and richly embroidered with colored worsteds and gold and silver thread. The jewelry is mostly silver filigree work, a craft in which the Albanians are especially proficient. The large silver cross is a mark of the Catholic tribes all over the north. Her heavy leather belt studded thickly with lead pin, lead nails, each molded and inserted by hand, is the work of special craftsmen in Scutari. She wears the mountain slippers of goat hide called "opanga". Most of the tribal lands of Hoti were given to Serbia by Turkey in 1912 but the people remain Albanian in language and customs

Women of the Balkans. A typical group of women from the mountain district of Serbia. They are taking a sun bath on the side of the American Red Cross station at Batch while waiting for the distribution of relief supplies. Note their aprons and similarity of dress. The aprons are made of coarse handspun wool with fine red and white stripes. The jackets are the native costume of the village from which they come. They hav ewalked many miles for Red Cross supplies. Several of them are barefoot and none have stockings

Albanian woman goes shopping. What the markets and bazaars of Albania lack in quality and quantity they endeavor to make up for in riotous, gaudy color effects that keep them from sinking into unnoticeable insignificance. The shawls, umbrellas, small household utensils and 'gimcracks', even the people themselves present a variety of crude and bizarre colors that at least cheer the aspect of this lean, hungry land of war devastation and misery. This Albanian woman is wearing a suit of American Red Cross pajamas underneath her scent native costume. American clothing is frequently mingled nowadays with that characteristic of the country for in its relief work there the Red Cross found the people almost destitute of wearing apparel and resorting to rags tied on with strings. They were not only miserable and even grotesque in appearance but of far greater importance were responsible for widespread disease that required intensive fighting

On the Shores of Lake Scutari. The Montenegrin peasant girls as they wash the raw wool preparatory to spinning it by hand. Wet foot means little in their lives as they wade all day long in the cold mountain water. Several of them are wearing American garments distributed to them by the American Red Cross

Teo sic mountain children, Thethi, Albania. They are among the members of the little school that is being started in this far away inacessible village. They are wearing the clothing that all Shala children wear, but one finds few dresses so fresh and new. They are dresses made of heavy white and black wook, more like felt than cloth, all the seams joined with vlack sic hand made braid. Underclothes save for a possible shemise are not considered necessary

Where Women Wear the Pants. Native women of Montenegro wearing the Baggy Turkish trousers so common in the Balkans. Although they have on a semi Moslem costume, these women are christians which accounts for the lack of a veil. Both the women of old Turkey, and those of Albania, Montenegro, and Bosnia, formerly dominated by the ussulmen sic, are partial to black satin pantaloons, according to American Red Cross workers who are distributing relief among the needy throughout the Near East

Mountain woman from the tribe of Shala, northern Albania. Clothing, mostly of black woolen cloth hand made with decorations in colored worsted. She wears an apron behind similar to the one she wears in front. Her shoes are of raw hide. Inside them she wears the decorated woolen slipper called a "opanga" and wind this one or two thicknesses of woolen socks or slippers. The women are always spinning or knitting. The belt is decorated with countless lead nails and studded with big brass rivets

description

Summary

Title, date and notes from Red Cross caption card.
Photographer name or source of original from caption card or negative sleeve: Jr. Red Cross.
Data: Jr. Red Cross. Classification: Types.
Gift; American National Red Cross 1944 and 1952.
General information about the American National Red Cross photograph collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.anrc
Temp note: Batch 28

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