A mysterious little girl – An unusual photographic process at Gloucestershire Archives?

Back in March, Gloucestershire Archives was given some documents and photos pertaining to the Pringle family of Longhope (D11928, accession 16319).

The photographs came into Collections Care to receive custom protective enclosures, as carefully wrapping and boxing in archival-quality materials is one of the best ways of ensuring their preservation. Good protective enclosures help to protect them from physical damage and other agents of deterioration.

All the portraits were attractive and appealing, but there was something particularly intriguing about this portrait of a little girl.

What do archives and archivists have in common with barbecues, chefs, cooks, comedians, libraries, librarians, and several churches in Gloucestershire?

Well, they all have St Lawrence (or Laurence) as a patron saint. And since today, 10 August, is his feast day, I thought I’d have a bit of a look into his story.

Lawrence, or Laurentius to give him his proper Latin name, was born in Spain in 225 CE, and became a deacon in Rome under Pope Sixtus II. Unfortunately for Sixtus, in August 258 CE, Emperor Valerian issued an edict that all bishops, priests and deacons should be immediately put to death, and Sixtus was executed. The prefect of Rome then demanded that Lawrence should hand over the riches of the Church. Lawrence, evidently a clever chap, asked for three days to get the treasure together, and then spent those three days distributing it as widely as possible among the poor and safely hiding the Church’s records so that the prefect couldn’t get his hands on them. On the third day, he presented the poor and sick to the prefect, saying that these were the true treasures of the Church, and that the Church was therefore much richer than the Emperor. The prefect was not best pleased by this, and Lawrence was sentenced to death alongside six of his fellow deacons; the prefect was so angry with Lawrence that he had him roasted on a gridiron. Apparently, after Lawrence had been suffering for some time, he cheerfully cried, “I’m well done on this side. Turn me over!”