In anticipation of the (hopefully) approaching warm weather, I’ve found a selection of images of people dining al fresco in Uruguay, Argentina and British Columbia, Canada in the early 20th century.
Two of the images are from Fray Bentos, Uruguay – one showing a group of men standing around a traditional South American barbeque pit/campfire roasting three animals on spits and the other shows the same men, joined by women, sitting around a picnic table. Unfortunately, no one is identified in either image; however, one of the group members may be Oldfield Thomas, a zoologist who travelled to South America around the late 19th / early 20th century. If anyone can identify the people in the group, it would be greatly appreciated!
Cooking on an Asado for lunch near Fray Bentos, Uruguay
Camp lunch near Fray Bentos, Uruguay
In contrast, the next two images show groups of gauchos, sitting around their camp fires on the Argentinian plains outside of Buenos Aires.
Shearers Midday Meal, Cabana Foriane, Argentina. Photograph of a group of sheep shearers sitting and standing around a cook fire and pot for their midday meal on the plains in the early 20th century.
Photograph of a group of men, gauchos, eating breakfast in their camp on the plains in Argentina in the early 20th century.
Photograph of a group of men and a woman standing around a camp fire in camp in British Columbia, Canada in the early 20th century. One of the men may be Professor Robert Wallace, another man may be Alex Easton and the woman may be Isabel Easton.
Finally, there is an image of Professor Robert Wallace, who taught rural agriculture and natural history at the University of Edinburgh in the early 20th century, next to a camp fire in British Columbia, Canada.
These images illustrate a fascinating aspect of social history at the turn of the 20th century – that scientists on expeditions around the world documented what and how they ate when ‘out in the field’ provides an interesting insight.