September 19th, 2017

Leslie Stephen's Photograph Album

Virginia Woolf's mother, Julia Stephen.

Virginia Woolf had her father’s photograph album with her while writing To the Lighthouse. This photograph album, now housed at Smith College, has been digitized and is available here. These images may have inspired Woolf's artistic choices. But elements of the creative process are also unknown to the author and readers can draw connections that only they can see.

Working in pairs, analyze one photograph alongside a quotation from To the Lighthouse. How does the image shed light on passage you have selected and vice versa? You will share your findings with the class.

For further exploration, check out Jane de Gay's consideration of Leslie Stephen's Photograph Album in her book  Virginia Woolf's Novels and the Literary Past. 

---