Barbara Jordan’s mother was anxious to comb her daughter’s hair before Masha Arms took this picture but Masha insisted that she leave Barbara just the way she was, resulting in the photograph’s title, “Child Beauty.” Originally from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Masha Arms arrived in Washington, DC, during the Great Depression. After buying a Model G Leica camera in 1934, and teaching herself about the technical aspects of photography, she landed a job in 1936 teaching photography at the King-Smith Studio School. Masha’s work was published in a 1936 Washington Post review of the Junior League Gallery exhibition alongside photographs by Ansel Adams and Margaret Bourke-White. In 1941, when the United States entered World War II, Masha left Washington, married William Tyler Arms of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and moved back to New England.