Anna Demidova (1878-1918)

[Inok Nikolai]

On the Servants as Saints Too:

http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=2968.msg526938#msg526938

[JamesAPrattIII]

In the book "The File on The Tsar" there is a picture of Anna with OTA at the entrance to the Govener's house at Tobolsk from the looks of things. I would guess it was taken in the late fall of 1917. This is most likely the last picture ever taken of her.

[Lady Macduff]

The File on the Tsar is not among my collection. Can anyone post the picture James is talking about?

[Sarushka]

I don't have the book either, but I'm guessing this could be the photo:



Personally, I think it's Alix.

[Lady Macduff]

I thought it might be that picture. I agree that it's Alexandra. I've always thought Anastasia, Alexandra, Olga/Maria, and Tatiana.

[blessOTMA]

I usually  go back and forth on this...I don't see Alix standing on that little wall easily...plus they are oddly ignoring her ...but the hair and generally stance seems like her. hmmmm It's interesting...seeing a photo small sometimes is quite useful. For years it seemed they were not engaging with this figure..but seeing it small now, it seems she and the Olga/Maria  figure are looking at something together ...and perhaps AN just leapt  off

 I recently discovered the doors had red and yellow panes( from looking at b/w photos. ) The long pane were red imo

[JamesAPrattIII]

This is the photo it was one of a number taken by Gibbes.  The caption in the book identifies the daughter left to right as Olga, Tatania and Anastasia with Anna D. You would think the man who took them would have got the names right. I have read somewhere that maids like Anna wore white dresses. It looks sort of cold out say late fall 1917 which means it is either the last picture of either Alexandra or Anna D.

There is a book out titled "The House of Special purpose that has many of the pictures taken by Gibbes during this time not just of the IF.

[blessOTMA]

author=JamesAPrattIII link=topic=433.msg528261#msg528261 date=1379895572]
.... You would think the man who took them would have got the names right....

good point James, but I have seen the Sailor nannies mixed up in an  1919 article french article by Gillard and I though he took this photo...isn't it in 13 years at the Russian court? Sorry if I'm mistaken about that.

Here is what I mean by the glass in the doors...this is conjecture on my part but from years  reading B/W photos...I believe this is how the door glass was colored . I them first without color, then add what I think was where...for what it's worth

[Sarushka]

This is the photo it was one of a number taken by Gibbes.  The caption in the book identifies the daughter left to right as Olga, Tatania and Anastasia with Anna D. You would think the man who took them would have got the names right.

Perhaps, but Gibbes didn't write the book. If Gibbes himself didn't note their names on the back of the photo, the author's guess is as good as ours. Private World of the Last Tsar, which is similarly compiled from the photos and papers of Count Alexander Grabbe, is loaded with errors in the captions. Spiridovitch also occasionally misidentifies the grand duchesses in his memoirs.

[JamesAPrattIII]

You may be right it was Gibbes son who made the photos available for both the books I mentioned. It looks like somebody may have screwed up.

[blessOTMA]

It's a rare Romanov book that does not have at least some  mistakes in the photo captions ! I wonder if it's because photo captions are often done by the publisher? That is someone who is not very familiar with the subject?  Some  are real howlers . However in this photo, augments for either Alix or Anna could be made.

[nena]

This post will be a slight off-topic, but I will continue BlessOTMA's thoughts.

No, really, I have always wondered -- why do the wrong captions appear in Romanov books? Is that because:

1) A writer doesn't think that correct date is sometimes important, so he/she gives an approximate date?
2) Simply the owners of the photos can't remember the date the photo/s was/were taken. For example, Pierre Gilliard's captions are mostly true. Count Grabbe's book contains mislables as well.
3) Something third?

For example, when you search trough GARF's site and when you find any Romanov photo - you will see excellent and precize information on the photos - place and date (if you don't get correct day in a month, then you'll surely get correct month and a year always).

I have noticed that we always have a trouble when identifying the date of the captivity photos taken at Tobolsk; or we are not sure whether one was taken at Polar Star/Standart; or whether we are not sure was the photo taken at Livadia or Finland; remember when we had thought that the photos from Anastasia's album during the war were taken in Peterhof in 1915 while actually it took place at Evpatoria in May of 1916; or whether (NA)OTMAA's formal photos were taken in 1913 or in 1914 at Livadia or at AP. (Luckily, we have got Imperial Family's diary entries so we can get better image). And so on, and so on...

EDIT: Some general/interesting facts on Anna S. Demidova:

1. She played piano and knew several foreign langauges.
2. She became Empress' lady-in-waiting in 1901, after Empress Alexandra had become interested in her needlework at the exhibition of handicraft work at Leushinsky's monastery, Yaroslav.
3. She had got three siblings - two brothers, Aleksandr and Nikolai (typical anmes for Russians Tsars) and a sister, Elizabeth.
4. She had a crush on Sydney Gibbes, OTMAA's royal English teacher, according to GARF.
5. She was cannonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1981.
6. She was the only one female servant in Ipatiev House.
7. She visited her home for the last time in 1907.
8. She kept a diary and some diary entries during her imprisonment at Tobolsk are quoted in Romanov books.
9. She signed herself as 'Nyuta' in her letters to her siblings.

[Sarushka]

Many of the images that are readily available for publication from archives such as Getty and Corbis are mislabeled. I think that contributes a lot to the confusion you see in captions. Also, sometimes people don't have enough information and make assumptions.

But mostly, people just make mistakes sometimes. Even the very smartest ones. That's really all there is to it. Even the APTM has had a goof here and there over the years.

[Sarushka]

I also think it's fair to say that most folks who write books on the Romanovs have devoted the majority of their research to texts and documents, rather than images. In my experience, it's not unusual for life-long fans to have a stronger visual knowledge of the imperial family than many scholars do.

[edubs31]

I also think it's fair to say that most folks who write books on the Romanovs have devoted the majority of their research to texts and documents, rather than images. In my experience, it's not unusual for life-long fans to have a stronger visual knowledge of the imperial family than many scholars do.

That's a good point. Visual memory and factual memory are often two very different things as well. I'm great with dates, good with names and passable with titles and frivolities, but often find it difficult to pick out the details of a photograph or recall what someone was wearing, or looked like at a specific time & place.