Performance Troupe Member at Pendleton Street Fair
Performance Troupe Member at Pendleton Street Fair
Description:
Member of a performance troupe at a Pendleton Street Fair and Harvest Carnival, before 1920. The woman bears a tattoo on each arm that includes the name Fatima. Fatima is a significant name in Islam, as the daughter of Muhammad, and in Catholicism as the site of an apparition of the Virgin in 1917. However, this use of the name is more likely an evocation of the popular "Streets of Cairo" recreation of the 1889 Paris Exposition, which created a fad for "Middle Eastern" style entertainments.
Moorhouse Collection, PH036-0124. All rights reserved.