M.003.01 - Orgården / Örgården
From: Gerda (9.9.1931, sent from ?-köping)
* Re Gustav's change of surname to Samuelson:
Cf. my post for Sepia Saturday 616
I also found this photo of Prince Eugen himself at Örgården in 1934.
Photo: Karl Johan Stenhardt (1894-1983). Östergötlands Museum.
"Welcome to Sepia Saturday 619. Take a seat.
Take any seat. Take a photograph of a seat.
Take an old photograph of a seat
and share it with the world."
Cf. my post for Sepia Saturday 616
Käre bror! Nu är vi resfärdiga, i morgon reser vi till Stockholm. Det är skönt här nu, fast det är ej så varmt. Adress i Sthlm blir Banérgatan 53. Kära hälsningar, Gerda.
Hoppas du är kry. Ester är i Linköping nu, träffar nog henne i morgon, reser igenom då. Kommer du kanske till henne någon gång i höst.
Hoppas du är kry. Ester är i Linköping nu, träffar nog henne i morgon, reser igenom då. Kommer du kanske till henne någon gång i höst.
Dear Brother, We are ready to leave now, tomorrow we travel to Stockholm. It's nice here now, but not very warm. The address in Stockholm will be Banérgatan 53. Love, Gerda.
I hope you are well. Ester is in Linköping now, I'll probably see her tomorrow when passing through there. Perhaps you will visit her some time this autumn?
Finding out where this card was from turned out quite a challenge. I spent a lot of time searching for Orgården (the name as printed on the postcard), without finding any clues at all. I was beginning to think it must be some place that no longer extisted. But then I had a stroke of inspiration, and tried Örgården (with umlaut dots over the o) ... And that made all the difference! A Swedish blogpost turned up with several photos of Örgården from 2016, when the place celebrated 100 years - and it was clearly the same place as on my old postcard.
Örgården is an estate near Vadstena (small charming old town on the east shore of Lake Vättern). It was built in 1916 as summer residence for Prince Eugen (1865-1947) - a Swedish painter, art collector, and patron of artists. Prince Eugen and Folke Bernadotte's father, Prince Oscar, were brothers - so Eugen was Folke's uncle. And as followers of this blog know by now, in the 1930s (and onward), my great-aunt Gerda, who wrote the postcard, was working for Count Folke Bernadotte and his wife Estelle, and frequently travelled with them, both in Sweden and abroad.
I also found this photo of Prince Eugen himself at Örgården in 1934.
Photo: Karl Johan Stenhardt (1894-1983). Östergötlands Museum.
The location of Örgården/Vadstena also fits with the information on the postcard, that Gerda is about travel to Stockholm, with a stop in Linköping on the way. (What little remains of the postmark [köping] also suggests that the card was probably posted in Linköping.)
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| (Vadstena - Linköping - Stockholm are underlined with purple on the map.) |
Ester was Gerda's and Gustav's sister (five years older than Gerda). At this time in life, I think she was living in Mullsjö on the other side of Lake Vättern. Why she was in Linköping in September 1931, I don't know. There is a big hospital in Linköping, though, which makes me wonder if perhaps there was some problem with her health - as Gerda is also suggesting to Gustaf to visit her.
"The address in Stockholm will be Banérgatan 53." I put the address into Google Street view to get an idea of the surroundings. Clearly, the Bernadottes had not yet moved into Dragongården in Stockholm (a large villa which was to be their family home in years to come).
Gerda was born 25 October, 1881 - which means that in 1931, she celebrated her 50th birthday. From my childhood I remember this coloured portrait of her (I think originally black-and-white), sitting in a frame among other family portraits on top of a cupboard in my grandparents' living room. I also seem to recall having been told that the photo was from her 50th birthday. Thinking about it now though, I realise that if the photo was taken on her actual birthday in late October, she must have celebrated the day in a warmer climate than in Sweden! On the other hand, I suppose the photo may have been taken in the summer that year, but could still have been used to send to family and friends with a thankyou note for remembering her on the "big day" in the autumn.
As mentioned in last week's post, the Bernadottes' second son, Folke Jr, was born in Pleasantville, N.Y. on Feb 8, 1931. I have no information about how long into the spring or summer the family stayed on in Pleasantville after his birth, but I imagine it would have been at least a few months. So it's possible that the photo of Gerda may be from Pleasantville - even if the background doesn't really remind me of other photos from the garden at the Hi-Esmaro estate.
Another little boy was born to other parents in late August that year: My dad. Besides also being named after his father (Gustaf) and one of his uncles (Nils), he was given the name Bertil. This, I suspect, may have been inspired by a Swedish prince by that name, Prince Bertil (born 1912). My grandmother was a great admirer of the royal family - and proud of her sister Gerda working for members thereof.
The first photo of my dad is from Christmas that year, sitting on his mother's lap by the tree:
Linking to: Sepia Saturday 619
"Welcome to Sepia Saturday 619. Take a seat.
Take any seat. Take a photograph of a seat.
Take an old photograph of a seat
and share it with the world."
M.003.01 - Orgården / Örgården - Sepia Saturday 619
Till: Herr Gustav Samuelson*, Storegården, Fristad
Frän: Gerda (9.9.1931, från ?-köping)
Käre bror! Nu är vi resfärdiga, i morgon reser vi till Stockholm. Det är skönt här nu, fast det är ej så varmt. Adress i Sthlm blir Banérgatan 53. Kära hälsningar, Gerda.
Hoppas du är kry. Ester är i Linköping nu, träffar nog henne i morgon, reser igenom då.
Kommer du kanske till henne någon gång i höst.
* Ang. Gustavs byte av efternamn, se mitt inlägg för Sepia Saturday 616.
Att lista ut varifrån Gerda skickade det här kortet var en utmaning. Jag spenderade mycket tid på att söka efter ”Orgården”, utan att få några träffar alls. Sedan fick jag plötsligt en ingivelse att prova med ”Örgården” (Ö istället för O). Bingo! Ett inlägg på en svensk blogg dök upp, med foton från Örgården nära Vadstena, som firat 100-årsjubileum 2016. Inget tvivel om att det är samma byggnad.
https://marianneanderson.blogg.se/2016/august/orgarden-100-ar.html
Örgården byggdes 1916 för 'målarprinsen' Prins Eugen (1865-1947) – känd svensk målare, konstsamlare och konstmecenat. Eugen och Folke Bernadottes far, prins Oscar, var bröder – så Eugen (liksom kung Gustav V) var alltså Folkes farbror. Och som följare av denna blogg vet vid det här laget, så arbetade min farmors syster Gerda vid den här tiden för Folke och Estelle Bernadotte, och åtföljde dem ofta på resor både inom Sverige och utomlands.
https://digitaltmuseum.se/021017313156/prins-eugen-orgarden
Örgårdens läge nära Vadstena stämmer också med texten på kortet, som meddelar att Gerda är på väg att resa till Stockholm, med ett stopp i Linköping på vägen. I vad som syns av poststämpeln kan också utläsas köping, så säkert postades också vykortet i Linköping.
Ester var syster till Gerda och Gustaf (fem år äldre än Gerda). Vid den här tiden tror jag hon bodde i Mullsjö på andra sidan Vättern. Vad hon gjorde i Linköping i september 1931 vet jag inte. Det slår mig dock att i Linköping finns ett stort sjukhus, så kanske kan det ha varit av hälsoskäl – eftersom Gerda också verkar vilja uppmana brodern att hälsa på Ester under hösten.
”Adress i Sthlm blir Banérgatan 53.”
Tydligen har familjen Bernadotte ännu inte flyttat in på Dragongården.
Gerda var född 25 oktober 1881, vilket betyder att hon 1931 fyllde 50. I min barndom stod det här kolorerade porträttet av henne bland andra familjefoton ovanpå ett skåp i mina farföräldrars storarum. Jag tycker mig också minnas ha hört att det var från Gerdas 50-årsdag. Om fotot togs på själva födelsedagen måste hon ju dock i så fall ha firat den dagen i ett varmare klimat än i Sverige. Å andra sidan kan ju fotot ha tagits på sommaren, och ändå ha använts som tackkort för uppvakning på 50-årsdagen – och det är kanske det troligaste.
Som nämndes i förra veckans inlägg, så föddes paret Bernadottes andre son, Folke Jr, i Pleasantville, New York (där Estelles föräldrar bodde) den 8 februari 1931. Hur långt in på våren/sommaren därefter som familjen stannade kvar i USA vet jag inte, men jag tänker mig att det väl bör ha varit åtminstone några månader. Så eventuellt kan '50-årsfotot' på Gerda vara taget i Pleasantville, även om bakgrunden inte direkt påminner mig om andra foton i Gerdas album som jag säkert fått bekräftat är därifrån.
En annan liten pojke föddes sent i augusti 1931: Min pappa. Förutom att han också fick namn efter sin far (Gustaf) och sin morbror (Nils), så fick han tilltalsnamet Bertil. Detta gissar jag kan vara inspirerat av en annan medlem av den kungliga familjen: Prins Bertil (född 1912). Min farmor var stor beundrarinna av 'de kungliga' – och stolt över att ha syster som arbetade för dem.
Det första fotot som finns av min pappa är från julen 1931, sittande i sin mors knä vid julgranen i deras hem.
Sometimes our searches go unfulfilled, but you had an idea that lead you in the right direction! I wish I would always get those inspired ideas, but I'm afraid too many times I don't and just assume there is no information or connection.
ReplyDeleteThat is a lovely and serene photo of Gerda.
Thanks Kathy. You are right of course, sometimes one just has to accept that one cannot find all the answers. I keep getting surprised at how much I've actually been able to find out and/or get confirmed, though - from the combination of old postcards, family albums, Google, and also occasionally from helpful readers!
DeleteYet another fun history detective story. Finding the key to your mystery by respelling with an umlaut is a useful thing to learn as I've mistakenly assumed that Google and other search engines did not distinguish letters in that way. I always enjoy the extra details you include on Swedish/Norwegian history and their royal families. From what I've learned about Scandinavian royalty, it is a far more complicated and tangled family tree than is generally known, at least in America. I often imagine that immigrants to America were seeking freedom and would have an anti-monarchist sentiment. But by following Gerda's story I can see that was not necessarily the case, and that there was pride in working for an aristocratic family.
ReplyDeleteMike, I think emigrants from Sweden fled poverty and unemployment, and sometimes also sought freedom from the strict authority of the state church back then. I'm less sure how much people in general connected that with our monarchy, though.
DeleteNice match to the prompt! :) The photo of Gerda looking so peacefully out over the garden (I imagine) is lovely, and your father was obviously a cute little tyke. How do the umlaut dots over the O change the sound? Good thinking on that!!
ReplyDeleteThanks LaN. Swedish spelling vs pronounciation has its own traps - just like English does! - so 'O' is not always pronounced the same way. But if the name had been Orgården, the O would be pronounced as double 'oo' in English 'room' or 'bloom'. While the Ö in Örgården is pronounced like 'ea' in 'earn' or 'learn'. (And while we're at it: 'å' in '-gården' is pronounced like 'o' in 'order' - and means farmhouse or farm etc.)
DeleteA fascinating read! And I love it that there's someone like me who's so very thorough in searching for something, including getting to know how a town looks like through the help of Google View.
ReplyDeleteWhat made me excited was the quick inspiration of searching Orgarden by the "umlaut dots over the o" and that you've surely found what you were looking for! The umlaut makes a huge difference in place or genealogy Google search.. I didn't mind it before in my genealogy searches, but it made things easier when I realized my maiden last name had an umlaut, the "two dots on top of u" my mama used to say.
Thanks Ms D - and welcome to my blog :) Yes, the umlaut in languages where it is used does make a difference, and changes the pronounciation of words - cf. my answer to La N above. The mystery here is really why the name was not spelled right on the postcard!
DeleteA great detective story !
ReplyDelete