Woman identifies herself in 1974 photograph from famed Boston photographer

Irene Olson, a resident of Plymouth, Massachusetts, identified herself in a 1974 photograph at the Boston Athenaeum.

The image shows her as a 12 year old girl pushing a baby carriage through the streets of Mattapan, a neighborhood in Boston. Olson recognized the scene as her childhood neighborhood and identified her sister and friend in the photo, who worked together as babysitters.

The photograph was taken by Constantine Manos, a Greek immigrant who documented life in Boston during the city's bicentennial celebrations in 1974. Manos captured 19,000 black and white images during a nine month journey across various Boston neighborhoods. The Boston Athenaeum began a project in 2025 to identify the people featured in Manos' 1974 portfolio. Olson joined the group of 29 subjects successfully identified through social media and community outreach before the exhibition opened.

Associate curator Lauren Graves conducted an oral history interview with Olson to document her memories of the era. Olson shared stories about local shops, her childhood dog, and the tensions of the busing crisis in the 1970s. The museum has collected 17 oral histories since 2025 to accompany the exhibition, which explores the history of the city's streets and communities. Graves plans to continue identifying subjects in the collection even after the current exhibition closes in December.