A peek at Lourdes, France, in the 1950s

The opening of the miraculous baths?

Most Fridays I send out an email that features photos from the Rupert Leach Collection, snaps taken from the personal reels of View-Master’s Director of Photography in the 1940s and ‘50s. These never-before-published images show alternative shots of some commercial View-Master reels and personal photos of Leach, his wife Poppy, and others.

I try to get to the bottom of the people and places pictured within despite the limited context provided by mostly unmarked reels. Let’s dig in!

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This week, we’re in Lourdes, France, with Rupert Leach. This reel doesn’t seem to feature any photos of Rupert or his friends and family. It sits pretty firmly in the category of “old vacation photos of a thing I saw that nobody else would probably care about”? Or does it. Let’s see…

There are quite a number of View-Master reels dedicated to Lourdes. Many of the 1950s reels were produced in Belgium and likely only sold on-site, making them tricky to find. For example, I have 10 of 15 single reels produced in Belgium in the 1950s, and the five I’m missing are like trying to find needles in a global haystack. Anyway, what I’m saying is that any photo Rupert Leach took of Lourdes is quite a rare treasure!

Lourdes is known for its beautiful location at the foot of the Pyrenees mountain range, of course, but it’s best known for being one of the most popular Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world with about 5 million visitors annually — though it’s home to just 15,000 people.

Bernadette Soubirous

In 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous and requested that a chapel be built at the nearby grotto. In 1862, the Catholic church deemed the apparition worthy of belief, and in 1993 canonized Bernadette!

The place and the water is known for its seemingly miraculous healing properties! 60 Minutes just did a whole segment on it a couple of years ago:

And it’s been a hugely popular Catholic pilgrimage site for decades.

I’m not clear what was happening on the day these photos were taken, of course. I only found one big change in the 1950s. Per wiki:

In addition to washing their face at the fountains, pilgrims can immerse in baths filled with Lourdes water (called piscines in French, meaning "pools"). This is also meant to repeat a gesture made by Bernadette Soubirous during the apparitions as she washed herself with the water after she was told to do so by the "lady". The original baths were built in 1862 and the current baths in 1955. They are located on the western side of the grotto along the Massabielle rock. Pilgrims are helped by volunteers for a full immersion into the bath. Each year about 350,000 pilgrims bathe. It is not allowed to take pictures or videos.

I do wonder if these photos were taken to commemorate the new baths or if it was just part of a regular work visit for Leach. Or maybe Leach himself joined the procession to get a blessing? We may never know.

While it does appear that many women are wearing white and blue dresses, I’m not sure if this is just what was expected at Lourdes in the mid-1950s or not. Not everyone is wearing the outfit, so I have to assume the tradition of wearing white and blue was more important in the 1950s than it would be today. Clothing-related traditions have mostly faded away these days.

Another view of the procession. From everything I read, lines at Lourdes are long. Expect a lot of waiting but top tier hospitality and kindness.

A photo of the procession with the town in the background! Kinda neat.

This looks like folks in wheelchairs lined up for a blessing or for prayer. The 60 Minutes piece I linked above has a few clips showing folks using wheelchairs making their way to pilgrimage in the last few years.

The sanctuary includes some incredible statuary and crosses.

This Stations of the Cross, inaugurated in September 1912, stretches over 1,500 metres and involves difficult climbs and descents. Its 15 stations are interspersed with 115 life-size statues in patinated cast iron.

Check them out:

While I’m not sure I believe in miracles, I honestly would like to!

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