St. Croix’s past comes to life in the pages of a new book of historic photos. But it’s more than the island’s life that lives again.
Anne Walbom of Denmark had been working on a book with her husband, a book of historic photos from the Virgin Islands taken during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They had planned to finish the work during the Christmas holiday in 2002.
But on Christmas Even her husband suffered a brain hemorrhage, and was dead by the beginning of the new year.
Walbom put the book away, unable to continue.
"I just couldn’t think about working on the book," she said.
Then her friend, Elizabeth "Betsy" Resende of St. Croix, called and asked her about it. And asked her about it. And asked her about it.
And one morning Walbom woke up and knew.
"I woke up one morning and said," she snaps her fingers here, "’Of course, why don’t I do it with Betsy?’"
The two began working on it together in 2005. It’s not exactly the same book she had worked on with her late husband. That had been planned to cover all of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The volume that was published this year, "St. Croix: Historic Photos," focuses on just the big island. And there’s more text in the book than had originally been planned.
Friday night Resende and Walbom were at Undercover Books in Gallows Bay for the St. Croix release party of the book, which captures in photos the history of the island. All the photos are drawn from Danish sources, Walbom said, from the Danish archives and private collections. Few have ever been published before, and fewer have been seen on St, Croix, Walbom said.
The text is in both English and Danish, the two versions side by side.
The pictures record the changes that occurred on the island at the turn of the century and the years leading up to the transfer of the island from Denmark to the United States in 1917.
The photos cover a wide range of topics. Both Frederiksted and Christiansted towns are featured along with many scenes from the countryside. The photos show people at work, at leisure, taking part in festivities, plus shots of trade and commerce, and a section on individuals and a final chapter on the photographers themselves.
Early pictures show laborers weeding fields in gangs and posing for an estate picture. In contrast, the later pictures show the introduction of mechanical harvesters in the fields and steam machinery in the factories, apprentices in lathe shops, and nurses assisting in an operation in the Frederiksted clinic.
Highlighting the collection are three pictures of the 1916 Labor Strike. In one, activist D. Hamilton Jackson speaks to a crowd, in another the strikers wait patiently for news regarding deliberations outside the Christiansted offices of the St. Croix Labor Union, and in the third, paraders march down Strand Street, Frederiksted, littered with debris from the hurricane for the first Liberty Day celebration.
The 141-page book was printed in Denmark and is beautifully made. The first printing was limited to 1,000 copies, with 350 designated for sale on St. Croix and the rest to be sold in Europe.
The book was published by the Danish West Indian Society of Copenhagen, and sells for $40.
Those who missed Friday’s release party have two more chances to meet Walbom and Resende to get a signed copy of the book. They will be at the Starving Artist Sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Whim Estate Museum, and at the Christmas Spoken Here sale Dec. 6 at the St. George Botanical Garden.