Scanned from a Photochrom print circa 1900
This was a staged photo circa 1890 depicting a woman spinning outside her cottage in County Galway in the 1840's
Published by the Detroit Photographic Company
I got asked whether this was a small woman or a large spinning wheel..
A lot of it is the size of the woman, in 1900 the average height of a woman in Ireland was 5 foot (152 cm) based on a 19 year old woman, the elderly woman in the photograph would be quite a bit shorter.
The average height of a woman in Ireland increased by 5 inches (12.7 cm) during the 20th century