“This lovely young Parisian woman is enjoying a serene moment in her lush garden in the 1910s in France. Her companions are her fluffy faithful feline and her caged bird. Keeping songbirds as pets is a hobby as old as the ancient Sumerians, but small home aviaries became a status symbol in the 1800s and early 1900s. Likely, this young lady enjoyed the company of her birds as a way to connect with nature. Interestingly, her garden contains several cannabis plants. It could be that the unique leaves and vibrant foliage was sought after as a garden plant. Or it could be that the young woman or her family were utilizing the medicinal properties of the cannabis plant to treat any one of a number of ailments.”
Caption via History Cool Kids.
Before publishing this photo, we did some investigation.
We noticed that the newspaper on the knee was Le Mirroir, a weekly photographic newspaper devoted to World War I. By enlarging on the newspaper we can see that this is the edition of Sunday August 15, 1915. We can therefore deduce that this photo was taken that day or after.
We found a photo of the cover of this edition.
15 comments
A Very Beautiful Woman and Sweet Pussy!!!
I need to say that her cat does actually look rather stoned…even if it wasn’t. Not only that but her ornate aviary…is really very beautiful…and not something people make very ornate any more which I think is a true shame. Yes the cannibis in the background…but that silver eat at her feet is magnificent too!
Considering those plants are flowering, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say she was most definitely growing it to harvest and consume the buds. Not to mention cannabis (especially hash) and France have a long and storied history
For sure the peace and love movement did not skip France! But at the time it was used as medicine for several ailments.
Cannabis seeds are used as birdseed. Maybe she was “stoning 2 birds “with one rock?
Lovely
Excllent sleuth work on the newspaper! Thanks for some terrific and interesting content!
Pamela Traves….lol….but I don’t think that was your intention
Love this piece in looking back in time.Special!
I think the cat is a Maine Coon. You can tell by the ruff around the neck and the ear tips that look like lynx ears. Very nice breed and $$.
Slate? tiles o the roof.
The cat looks like a pet semetary look•a•like
Napoleon had an issue with his entire army getting constantly stoned while they were stuck in Egypt. The story is quite funny. My 2¢. Someone is showing great pride in their growing glory.
Actually there are more then one species of these plants next to the canabis sativa.
The seeds are used as birdfood,fishing bait etc. so it is up to the « experts » to find out which one this is.
If one does remember a well known brand of soda pop was actually made with the real thing » cocain « .
wishful thinking. probably Hibiscus Coccineus.