Arab school of embroidery, Algiers

This late 19^th century color photocrom depicts a scene from a women’s school of embroidery in Algiers. Opened in 1845, the school was founded by a French woman and eventually became a specialized institution focusing on teaching embroidery as a skill and trade. In the photograph, several young female apprentices are learning and practicing embroidery skills while their teachers, also women, watch over them. Schools such as these, embroidery ateliers, were somewhat common in 19^th century Maghreb, as many women practiced embroidery at both the professional and domestic levels. Embroidery was considered a highly respected art form and skill, and was passed down generationally as well as through special schools such as the one depicted in this photograph. The professional and domestic levels that embroidery encompasses blur traditional notions of domesticity and resist Orientalist notions of the Middle East.