Happy as a Clam

September 05, 1960

Dramatically composed though completely unposed, this photograph has something of the quality found in the paintings of Jean Millet, the French realist who was inspired by simple peasant ways. It shows four nuns of the order of St. Benedict, barefooted and their habits wet from the waves, joyfully uprooting razor clams from a Pacific Ocean beach near Seattle. These nuns were among 40 who enjoyed a few days' vacation this summer clam-digging and surf casting—the realization, one of them said, of "a cherished dream." As a result of their outing, the nuns, according to their mother superior, "gained a lot socially, physically and spiritually." Certainly they proved once again that sisters are very human beings.