"Dumps," An Afghan Girl

This photograph of a young Afghan girl is from an album of rare historical photographs depicting people and places associated with the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The girl’s head is covered with a patterned scarf tied behind her head and full-body chador (a large cloth worn as a combination head covering and shawl), and her long braided hair hangs down below her waist. The caption supplied by the photographer sheds little light on the girl’s identity or circumstances but may derive from her melancholy expression and the British saying “to be down in the dumps,” meaning to be depressed.

Credit: Library of Congress