The Trailblazing Merze Tate

The first photos in Merze Tate’s album from the summer of 1931 are a collection of joyful, silly images taken aboard the SS Montrose en route from Montreal to Cherbourg, France. Tate beams from the center of a group of travelers gathered on deck, all strangers to her when she boarded the ship. The twenty-six-year-old Indianapolis high school teacher had undertaken her first international trip alone, but she had a gift for making connections, often over a bridge table. It was a skill that would...