Seated on a chair, a woman using a type of rotating spindle winds wool yarn onto bobbins. These bobbins will in turn be used for purposes of weaving or for use with a spinning wheel. (this site welcomes a more thorough explanation)

George A. Barton

English amateur photographer George A. Barton was nominated for membership in the North Middlesex Photographic Society in 1896. By 1909, he had moved to Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, according to a notice in Pitman’s Journal of Commercial Education. (His professional occupation: “F.I.P.S.”, as listed in Pitman’s, meant he made his living by either teaching or providing phonetic transcription, or shorthand, in legal or business settings.)

By 1899, Barton was active in this Society, with Photography: The Journal of the Amateur, the Profession, and the Trade mentioning he gave two public talks in March alone: “Exposure and the ABC of Development” on the 16th, and “Velox Paper” on the 27th.

Winding the Bobbins is thought to be one of the few known surviving examples of Barton’s work. The editors of Photography thought well enough to write about it and provide a large halftone reproduction for their issue of Thursday, November 22, 1900:

Winding the Bobbins.

By Geo. A. Barton.

VERY good is this little record of one of the fast disappearing village industries of England. Such “documents” should be welcomed not only by archaeologists, but also by all who are able to value and appreciate old-world appliances and apparatus. As a piece of genre in the pictorial sense, however, the picture has some rather grave shortcomings. In our opinion Mr. Barton has been too anxious to secure a bright relief against a gloomy background, but it was unnecessary to make so sharp and hard a contrast. Artistically, the row of lamps and other utensils on the mantelpiece ⎯ even the familiar trimmed newspaper valance ⎯ is vastly more successful.

The lady herself is by no means devoid of self-consciousness, and her attitude suggests to us a fairy sleep rather than action of any sort. So far as we are able to peer into the gloom behind, there seems to have been ample material there to make up a very good fireside view.

As much as is seen of the wall and the things against it, and of what appears to be a child’s cot, are materials very nicely disposed. What a pity that so much interest should be merged in one great square of darkness!

G.A. Barton, (who was not related to the well known English photographer Mrs. G.A. Barton-Emma Rayson Barton) was active until at least 1925, with the British Journal Photographic Almanac and Photographer’s Daily Companion listing him as Secretary of the Harrogate Portfolio Club.