A girl from Iceland

A hand-coloured carte-de-visite showing a girl from Iceland wearing her Sunday clothes [Danish: kirkedragt, literally 'church costume'].

For much of the nineteenth century, Iceland remained a part of Denmark. Iceland was granted a constitution and home rule in 1874 and in 1918 it was recognised as a fully sovereign state but was still joined with Denmark in a personal union with the Danish king. Iceland finally became an independent republic in 1944 after a plebiscite revealed that 97% of Icelanders were in favour of ending the union with the King of Denmark.

Photographed by Hansen, Schou and Weller of Copenhagen.