A Women’s Study Club Play or Halloween Fun?

Bill Rosler and friend dressed in women’s clothing – SJ Museum photo

Shaun Hubbard shares October’s monthly column from the SJ Historical Society…

This photograph is labeled simply “Bill Rosler and friend dressed in women’s clothing.” That much we know, and the rest could use a little more explanation. The photograph is undated. It is known that Bill Rosler (1878-1968) is the man on the left. It is believed that the woman standing between the two men is Adaline Thrones (1871-1957), Bill’s sister who married Anton Thrones. Parents of Bill and Adaline were Christopher Rosler, an American Camp soldier originally from Germany, and Anna Pike, a Tsimshian who had come down from Alaska with her parents to fish the Salmon Bank.

But let’s get back to the photo. Who is the man on the right? Was the dress up occasion for the play once put on by the Women’s Study Club in which husbands were talked into dressing like women? Or is this a snapshot from Halloween of yesteryear? If you know any answers, please contact the San Juan Historical Society and Museum. And enjoy planning your costume this month, as these two men certainly did.

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