Photograph

The woman in the photograph is most probably the twenty-year-old Stefania née Grossman (1879-1971), daughter of Jan and Ewelina Grossman - as can be judged from the similarity to the image on a cabinet photograph from Kołobrzeg at the end of the 19th century. (MPOLIN-A25.1.77). On the life and activities of the portrayed, see the extensive notes to the photograph MPOLIN-A25.1.85 and others from the collection. | The photograph probably dates from the period after she had moved out of Częstochowa after she had married a doctor from Łódź, Józef Maybaum (Marzyński; 1870-1946), who was then employed at the Izrael and Leona Poznański Jewish Hospital in Łódź as an outstanding specialist in gastrology and oncology (W. Puś, Żydzi w Łodzi w latach zaborów 1793-1914 [Jews in Łódź during the Partitions 1793-1914], Łódź 2003, p. 185); he was also a very active member of the Łódź branch of the Warsaw Hygienic Society, supporting - apart from his wife - various welfare institutions, including the 1st Children's Shelter, operating at 4 Smugowa Street in Łódź (ibid., pp. 189-190). | Carl Pietzner (1853-1927), in whose atelier the portrait was taken, was a Viennese photographer, nota bene the official photographer of the imperial royal family, and also an inventor in the field of photography (at the end of the 19th century he patented a special photographic technique - relief). It is possible that the picture was not taken in Vienna, but for example, in Karlsbad, where Pietzner had one of his several branches.