Around New Year 1913/14, Gustaf (35) moved from Värmlands Nysäter to Brålanda, in the Swedish province of Dalsland (cf. previous post). (I think he worked at a farm there.) His sister Gerda (32) is travelling in Europe, as lady's maid to some wealthy English lady. (Cf. November 1913). These two cards, one from Paris and one from Rome, were sent from Gerda to Gustaf in March 1914. The outbreak of WWI is still 4½ months into the future, and probably not in the crystal ball for either of them...
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| PARIS - Le Jardin du Palais-Royal. - D.L. |
To: Mr Gustaf Ekman, Backa, Brålanda (Suède)
From: Gerda (sent from Paris, 14.3.1914)
Tack så mycke för bref idag. Är nu i Paris igen för några dagar. Här är lifligt må du tro. Skall skrifva så snart jag får tid. Kära hälsningar, Gerda.
Thanks a lot for your letter today. I'm now in Paris again for a few days. It's very lively here. I'll write as soon as I have the time. Best wishes, Gerda.
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| ROMA - Foro Romano coli Arco di Settimio Severo |
An impressive photograph of the Gardens in Paris and I was amused by Gerda’s comment on the snobbish Italians.
ReplyDeleteSue, so was I. I'm not entirely sure about how the value of the word snob may have changed over a century, though - if she's thinking more of fashion style or of general attitude. (Nor am I really sure about the social status of Italian immigrants in the US in the early 1900s.)
DeleteExcellent post cards and poignant to see them knowing that WWI was just months away. I was also amused by Gerda's comment about the snobbish Italians. Perhaps that was just the urban Italians in Rome. I would assume folks would be friendlier in the countryside.
ReplyDeleteMolly - about the Italians, see my reply to ScotSue.
DeleteTo look at those postcards and the words on them and think war was so close is an eerie thing. I hope Gerda got back to the U.S. in time?
ReplyDeleteLaN, Gerda left the U.S. in 1911 and went back to Sweden. In 1912-13 she worked as lady's maid to a countess in Sweden. Some time in 1913 she seems to have got employment as lady's maid/travel companion to some English(?) lady. When WWI broke out, she was in France, and as future postcards will show, she remained there throughout the war, and then returned to Sweden. That was not the end of her travels though, as she continued to work as lady's maid for more travelling employers.
DeleteThis is an amazing collection, a real treasure! It's fascinating to place Gerda into the timeline of world history and to be able to read her messages. Your series is also very helpful for me in dating other postcards. It's curious that the stamps were removed. Perhaps there is a stamp collector in your family?
ReplyDeleteMike, it's a real shame that the stamps weren't left on the cards... I prefer to think that it was Gustaf himself (the recipient) who was also a stamp collector, and didn't realize the future value of keeping the stamps and cards together. An alternative culprit might possibly be my own father, if he got his hands on the card album back in his youth (he was 22 when Gustaf died). I'm not sure if the album did pass directly from Gustaf to my grandmother (his "baby" sister), though. And if the album didn't pass to my dad until after his mum, my grandmother, died (1979), I'm more doubtful if he would have separated the stamps from the cards. Especially taking into account some pencil notes (probably by him) in the margins of the album, and "?" on cards where the date can't be read. (To me that indicates that he at some point tried to trace family history from these cards, much as I'm doing now.)
DeleteAnother post card with an "Ill write more later" comment. Ah well... These really are a special collection and so interesting to see where Gerta traveled at the time.
ReplyDeleteYes Kathy, that seems to have been her favourite phrase! ;)
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