Polly Bemis in Wedding Dress
Polly Bemis in wedding dress, 1894. P1975-228-43h. Idaho State Archives.
Charles and Polly Bemis
Charles and Polly Bemis. P1962-44-5. Chas. A and Polly Bemis. Idaho State Archives.
This video was created by the New-York Historical Society Teen Leaders in collaboration with the Untold project.
Polly Bemis was born in northern China around September 11, 1853. Historians are unable to confirm her birth name, but they do know that she was born into a poor farming family.
As a child, her feet were bound. Footbinding was an old Chinese practice to make women’s feet smaller. Small feet were considered a sign of beauty. For Polly, it made walking painful for the rest of her life.
When Polly was a child, parents often considered daughters to be a burden. When girls reached adulthood and were old enough to earn money, they often married and beca