The Kern baby

This weird picture was taken by Sir Benjamin Stone, a Birmingham business man who travelled the world and took photographs of the amazing things he saw. He loved taking pictures of unusual festivals and customs – like this one of a ‘Kern Baby’ from a festival called ‘The Harvest Home’ in Northumberland in 1901.

This festival was all about celebrating that fact that the farmers had harvested the corn and this would mean that the community had enough to eat for another year. The last corn that was gathered would be made into a human shape, dressed in fine clothes and crowned with flowers and called the ‘Kern Baby’ or ‘Harvest Queen.’ There would be feasting and music to celebrate the harvest.