Birth pangs to sugar rushes: Grace Robertson's postwar Britain – in pictures
Grace Robertson, who has died aged 90, documented everyday life for Picture Post at a time when photojournalism was dominated by men. Her pioneering work captured a nation at work, at play – and in the delivery room
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Sheep Shearing, 1951. Farm workers in Hafod y Llan do the job manually because mechanical shears crop the coat too short for the local climate. All photographs: Grace Robertson/Getty Images (except where indicated)
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A group of girls in an Italian village, 1952
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Young Couple, 1955. Watching the waves roll in near a Butlin’s holiday camp
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Women collecting water from a well in an Italian village, 1952
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Christmas Cake, December 1951. There’s plenty to eat at a children’s party, despite rationing
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Tea Time, 1952. A woman, her daughter in her lap, waits for news of her husband who has been captured in Korea
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Dressing Room, 1951. Members of a Bluebell Girls dance troupe at the Nuevo Teatro, Milan
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Pain of Childbirth, 1956
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Tate Gallery. A visitor peers at the paintings
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Bluebells Up the Eiffel Tower, 1951. Members of the dance troupe sightseeing in Paris
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Heatwave, 1952. Children enjoying the sun at a rooftop pool in Holborn, London
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Buying Sweets, 1953. Excitement in the high street as sweet rationing ends
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Italia Conti, 1952. The Italia Conti school for aspiring performers, founded in 1911, teaches dancing, acting, elocution and singing
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Let Us In, 1953. Children wait impatiently for a sweet shop to open
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Newly Born Baby, 1956
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Fancy Dress, 1954. A child in a nurse’s costume plays with a doll at the Guy’s hospital nursery for sick children, in London
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On the Caterpillar. An image from the 50s of women on a pub outing
Photograph: Bournemouth News Pic Service/Rex/Shutterstock
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Holiday Entertainment, 1955. Entertainers at the Skegness Butlin’s with passengers touring the camp
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Women Reporters, 1952
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Boys playing on Wimbledon Common, 1957
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A children’s party, 1951
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Grace Robertson
Photograph: Richard Baker/Corbis/Getty Images
