Mrs Barbara Flucker was a fishwife of Newhaven, then an independent fishing village to the north of Edinburgh where Hill and Adamson took some 120 calotypes. Hill had a great affection of women as independent individuals, something which is demonstrated by the large number of calotypes of women he took and the dignity they convey. He admired the Newhaven fishwives for their strong and heroic character, their hardworking nature and the way in which they coped with the dangerous conditions their husbands faced every day. Whilst the men were out at sea the women prepared the fish and carried them into town in baskets like the one in the photograph. Here, Mrs Barbara Flucker is opening oysters, the contents of which were sold on the street as a kind of snack food.