Women Carrying Water, Tumutumu, Kenya, September 1926

"Women Carrying Water". Portrait of four adult women carrying water flasks along a road. Traditional dress is worn with coils of brass wire being worn in the ear lobes. The Tumutumu mission station, an arm of the Kikuyu Mission, opened in the Central Highlands of Kenya in 1909. The Kikuyu Mission had been founded on a temporary site by the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1891, before moving to Kikuyu territory in 1898, under the Rev. Thomas Watson. The Church of Scotland assumed control of the Mission in 1901. Hospitals started by the missionaries at both sites have thrived and continue to play a vital role in modern Kenyan society.