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The photo shows a peasant family in Maserada, a village about 40 km north of Venice. It was taken in 1918 by Attilio Barbon, an itinerant professional photographer. At the time, World War I was raging and Maserada was near the front lines.
The family dressed up for the photo. The clothing is simple, but not tattered. Peasant conveys poverty in our modern sence. Not all peasants, however, were poor. And many were better off than the urban poor because they had better access to food. The dresses of the girls were probably sewed by the mother with the same cloth. The boy wears a jacket thats looks fashionable. The younger children wear only underwear. An Italian reader writes, "I am not sure why the babies are wearing only their underwear. The older of them is a girl and wears a necklace. It seems that peasant parents were proud to show their little children." Another reader points out, "The young girl seems to be holding a live pigeon. I can't recall seeing
that before. Dog, Cats Rabbits, yes." We don't know much about pigeons. I recall having a pet pigeon when we lived over a bar in Idaho. He wasn't very nice. And we know that in New York, Italians (I think mostly Italians) kept pigeons on roof tops and flew them against other pigeon keepers. I don't know to what extent New Yorkers ate the,, but I believe that wirking-class Brits did eat them. An Italian reader tells us, "Often pigeons in Italy are bred to be eaten."
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