My Wife and My Mother-in-Law

"My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" is a famous ambiguous optical illusion, which can be perceived either as a young girl or an old woman (the "wife" and the "mother-in-law", respectively).

History

"My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" from 1915

1888 German postcard

British cartoonist Ely William Hill (1887–1962) published "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" in Puck, an American humour magazine, on 6 November 1915, with the caption "They are both in this picture — Find them".^[1] However, the oldest known form of this image is an 1888 German postcard.^[2]

In 1930 Edwin Boring introduced the figure to psychologists in a paper titled "A new ambiguous figure", and it has since appeared in textbooks and experimental studies.^[3]

References

1. ^ "My wife and my mother-in-law. They are both in this picture - find them". Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010652001/. Retrieved 9 October 2011. 
2. ^ Weisstein, Eric W.. "Young Girl-Old Woman Illusion". MathWorld. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/YoungGirl-OldWomanIllusion.html. Retrieved 9 October 2011. 
3. ^ Botwinick, Jack (June 1961). "Husband and Father-in-Law—A Reversible Figure". The American Journal of Psychology 74 (2). 

See also

• Reversible figure