In the 1870’s, the small river Bièvre, which is now paved over within Paris, carried the waste of tanneries, leather factories, paper mills, and other noisome industries. Edward crosses it when he goes to help Effie at a McCall Mission clinic.
The McCall Mission was a Protestant missionary group. When I first ran across a reference to it in a published diary of sculptor Lorado Taft from his days as a student in Paris, I almost whooped with glee in the library. Now, I knew what Cousin Effie did with her spare hours!
For other views of the scummy river, click here and here.
For a blog post about tracing the river from its source, click here.
For information about a current exhibition of Marville’s photographs that will travel from the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (September 29, 2013–January 5, 2014) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (January 27–May 4, 2014); the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (June–September 2014); and the Musée Carnavalet, Paris (fall 2014), click here.
The McCall Mission was a Protestant missionary group. When I first ran across a reference to it in a published diary of sculptor Lorado Taft from his days as a student in Paris, I almost whooped with glee in the library. Now, I knew what Cousin Effie did with her spare hours!
For other views of the scummy river, click here and here.
For a blog post about tracing the river from its source, click here.
For information about a current exhibition of Marville’s photographs that will travel from the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (September 29, 2013–January 5, 2014) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (January 27–May 4, 2014); the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (June–September 2014); and the Musée Carnavalet, Paris (fall 2014), click here.