Where there are mirrors, there must be smoke...
Fascinating - a 'European' appearing lady on Gardner, for gosh' sake - no compact in-hand, but...
AND a woman known to have frequent contacts with compacts who we think was once there... alas no photo of her posing with the coconut crabs.
I think this exploration will run on for some time to come.
Wonder who the lady with the kid may be? British officer or official's wife? With their penhant for records we ought to be able to find out something.
LTM -
According to Laxton's
report, his wife's name is Molly. He writes,
"Molly chose two of the girls on the basis of their dancing skill, and one because she could keep the baby quiet." I would think the baby and woman pictured are nearly certain to be those referenced in Laxton's report.
In his report, he writes about his group exploring the side of the island at the location (
now known as seven site?) where there was a house built for Gallagher. References to the dismantling of the LORAN station and the picture's WPHC archive documentation puts his visit sometime early in 1946.
So, we now have potentially four different european visitations in that area of the island during the late 30s / early 40s. Earhart, Maude, Gallagher and Laxton. Any one of these visits had a chance (
even if just slightly) of carrying a mirror along. I feel Laxton's most recent visit could have been a candidate of the mirror's origin just as much as Earhart's.