Bertha Ritchie | Felt

Bertha Ritchie

Bertha Ritchie, A.K.A. Princess Beatrice, was a resilient woman whose life was marked by both tragedy, triumph, and ink. She lost most of her family in the 1900 Galveston flood including her son that was swept away from her arms. She was pulled from the gushing water, and although her husband wasn’t caught in the floods, he died a couple of years later leaving her nothing to survive on. Coincidently, a friend of her husband was looking for him and meet found Bertha Ritchie instead. She married the friend; J.T. Clark, moved to South Africa, and her life as a tattoo shop owner and traveling tattooed lady attraction. This piece is wet felted, embroidery and framed.