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Overview
This is a photograph of a group of girls on the porch of Atauloma Girls School in Tutuila (American Samoa). The school was founded by the London Missionary Society in 1900 and was the second educational facility on Tutuila and the first to allow girls to attend. Later in the 20th century, it was used as a training facility for nurses. The building was closed in 1970, and is under the care of the US National Parks Service as a historical site.
Thomas Andrew: Photographer of Samoa
This photograph is part of a large collection of photographs taken by Thomas Andrew, a New Zealander who lived in Samoa from 1891 to 1939. Andrew is best known for his studio portraits, but he ventured well beyond that controlled environment. He photographed political events, recorded daily life, and shot idyllic scenes for the tourist market, as his diverse portfolio reveals.
References
Johnson, Edward W. (1954) 120 years of Nursing Amongst Them. Pacific Islands Monthly Vol. XXIV, No. 8 (Mar. 1)
United States National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/places/atauloma-girls-school.htm
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_Terr/72001445.pdf
This extract originally appeared in New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2025) on page 132.
The Atauloma Girls School was founded by the London Missionary Society in 1900. It was the second educational facility on the island of Tutuila and the first to allow girls to attend. The girls wear mu‘umu‘u —the so-called ‘Mother Hubbard’ dress, introduced by missionaries to cover as much bare flesh as possible. Photographer Thomas Andrew took many photographs of local subjects in Sāmoa for the tourist trade. Tourists were looking for images of difference and exoticism, so most of his photographs of women show them in indigenous costume. Some are topless. Tourists may still have found this photograph of interest, but it seems most likely to have been taken on commission for the school.