Historical Portrait
Group portrait outside of the Mill Valley French Laundry
Archive record
Historical 1915 photograph of the Bedecarrax family outside their French laundry business in Mill Valley, California. Public domain archive image.
About this photograph
The record identifies this as a 1915 photograph of the Bedecarrax family standing outside their French laundry business in Mill Valley, California. The photographer is not known.
A French laundry was a commercial laundry service, typically operated by French immigrants or their descendants. This family-run business would have washed, pressed, and finished clothing and linens for customers in the community.
The photograph comes from a period when roughly 20 million people arrived in the United States, many from southern and eastern Europe. Studio and commercial photographs from these decades often served a specific purpose: immigrants would have pictures taken soon after arrival and send them home as proof they had reached their destination and established themselves in work.
The Bedecarrax family appears to have done exactly that, establishing a laundry business in Mill Valley by 1915. The photograph documents both their enterprise and their presence in the town.
The image is held by the Internet Archive and was digitised through California Revealed, a statewide programme that makes photographs and documents from local California institutions publicly available online.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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