A Guide to 1937-38 Moscow from the Daughter of the U.S. Ambassador
from 17 November 2011 to 15 December 2011
The exhibition presents some 40 photographs by Emlen Knight Davies, portraying 1930s Moscow.
The exhibition presents photographs of 1937–1938 Moscow by Emlen Knight Davies, daughter of U.S. Ambassador.
Joseph E. Davies was the second ambassador to represent the United States in the Soviet Union in 1937–1938. In January 1937 Emlen Knight Davies joined her father and his wife on a diplomatic journey. They occupied Spaso House in Moscow, the official diplomatic residence. 20-year old Emlen took pictures of the surroundings, collected newspaper clippings and kept diary to describe her day-to-day life in the Soviet Union. Many years later Mia Grosjean, Davies’s daughter, used a state-of-the-art digital process to restore and enlarge the snapshots from Emlen Davies’ private collection. Part of them is exhibited in Peter and Paul Fortress.
The images in the exhibition include street views of Moscow and life in the Spaso House. They portray snow-covered alleys of Park of Culture and Rest (Gorky Park) with banners showing the portraits of the leaders of the Soviet Union; queue at the entrance to the GUM shop and women selling flowers in front of the Mostorg Department Store. The photographs by Emlen Knight Davies capture the rare insider’s perspective of life in 1930s Moscow.
