Object Description
Black and white photograph of three people making candles. In the foreground two women hand long rows of candles on adrying rack. A man is in the processes of dipping candles in alrge vat, presumable of wax. They are in a large workroom with multiple long wooden frames for drying hundreds of candles at one time. The candles themselves appear to be very long and white.In the background boxes are piled on each other and there appears to be a collage of newspapers ont he back wall. Both women appear to be in their twenties while the man looks at leat ten years older. On the back a handwritten note identifies them as Evelyn Poulos, Niki Poulopoulos, and Peter Poulopoulos.
Origin
Labels on the back of this photo identify it as having been in the Jane Addams Memorial Collection as a part of the Wallace Kirkland Papers from the University of Illinois at Chicago Library. When the university moved to Halsted St. It displaced the Greektown Delta and forced most of the Hull House to close. Wallace Kirkland was the director of the Hull House Boys Club. Around 1935 Kirkland was introduced to photography and began to document his environment. Shortly after this Kirkland was hired by Life magazine as a photographer and spent the next 30 years photographing the world.
Though the last name of the first woman is slightly shorter than the other two they are in all likelyhood directly related but she chose to shorten/Americanize her last name. These candles were made by draping long wicks over a wooden rod so that both ends would be dipped into the wax repeatedly. Then the wick would be cut at the base to separate the candles.
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Citation
Photograph, National Hellenic Museum, https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/Detail/objects/5544. Accessed 11/12/25.