Identify photo

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

I've been asked to help identify this group of Ladies in a Fraternal Order of ?
There are Teaspoons on their jackets and tall hats. White Dress and stockings - mostly older women, lady on left side has what looks like a spatula and measuring cup in hand and on uniform, and more teaspoons on her jacket. My quess is Nursing, Culinary School, Chef's.
Note ~ The inquirer lives in Michigan.
No Writing ..front or back.
Any idea where this might be taken? ex: state? Could be another country?
It looks like a professional picture..not snap shot.
Photo paper is not identified----- only thing on back of photo are four black spots of paper where it was removed from someone's scrap book...Not even a watermark in the picture paper.
Photo was taken around the turn of 1900. The picture is very precise..lots of pixels for its age..so unless someone had a very very expensive camera..
There is a large building in background - Lots of stone work-even around windows. Green grass so this means not extreme South or North.
Do you have any ideas, any at all, that might help identify this picture?
Has anyone ever heard of an organization or group like this picture shows???
Please send any suggestions or help to me at:
sec412*ameritech.net

[Karen Douglas Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Karen Douglas]

Just a guess...

June,

This is really interesting! I'm "guessing" a musical group - maybe something comparable to a "kitchen band." Could they have chosen their uniforms (with teaspoons and chef-like hats) based on their positions as "domestics" in the community during that era? I perceive the woman on the far left to be the musical director, because of her official-looking attire. And, the woman on the far right to be the "leader." Note her "drum major-like" headgear. She also is holding something that looks like a baton. Just a guess... Karen.

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

photo

Some of my observations: They appear to be wearing men's suit jackets with the lapels closed to the neck. Their hats appear to be brown paper bags and some are more open than others - they have decorated them somehow. The person at the left has what looks like a couple measuring cups dangling. And some of them look like men: the one at the left and maybe at the right - their features are heavy and manly. I'd guess the photo was taken 1915-25. Probably some pots and pans band..

[kivinen1 Registered Find all posts View Profile Close kivinen1]

My mother was in a revival of a kitchen band.

They were called the Kitchen Kettle Kuties. Now I wonder about the initials when I see the hats!

[Denise Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Denise]

Oh June,
Hilarious! I am in tears from laughing so hard! Maybe someone at http://pasty.com/ would have a clue! I agree with Ilmari, KKK sounds about right, but with newspaper hats!

Love,
Denise

P.S. Sent the photo to my mom and her sister in the Upper Peninsula, looks like something they would do!

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Kitchen band

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of people wearing jackets with teaspoons on them. We never found out who they were. But someone has found another picture similar to that one with the notation below the picture: The Kitchen Civil Defense Band. Probably during World War II. Mame, front row, second from left, apparently plays the coffee pot.

Mame worked for a time as a seamstress in the alterations department of the Bush and Bull department store in Easton, as well as the Rader department store. She was an active member of the Daughters of Rebecca (related to the Odd Fellows), and carefully kept hidden in her Bible a handwritten account of the secret Rebecca rituals. Mame also proudly kept a Red Cross certificate awarded her in 1946 "in recognition of meritorious personal service performed in behalf of the nation, her armed forces, and suffering humanity in the Second World War," signed by President Harry Truman. No family member could recall what she did to merit the certificate. Mame was also pictured in a "band" of women holding kitchen implements in place of musical instruments, probably about 1944. Some members held brooms and sticks. Mame held a coffee pot. Her place in the front row suggested she was a ring leader. The women all wore paper bags on their heads, bearing the letters KCD, apparently for Kitchen Civil Defense.