Randolph Street, Chicago (1904) - Sepia Saturday 692

G.027.2 - Randolph Street, Chicago (1904)

Reposted from 2019-06-17

Randolph St., east from La Salle St., Chicago

E.C. Kropp Publ., Milwaukee, No. 441.

To: Gustaf Ekman, Galeton, PA

From: Gerda, Chicago; Oct 25, 1904 *

K.B. [Käre Broder] Hjärtligt tack för pengar o för v.k. [vykort] som jag idag fick.* Många kära hälsningar från Gerda. 

* 25 oktober var Gerdas födelsedag. (Hon var född 1881; så 1904 fyllde hon 23.)

Dear Brother, Many thanks for the money* and for the postcard that I received today.
Lots of love from Gerda.

* October 25 was Gerda's (23^rd) birthday; so the money was probably a birthday gift.

Sister and brother Gerda and Gustaf were older half-siblings of my paternal grandmother Sally. They both emigrated from Sweden to America in 1902 and stayed there for about 8 years. Gustaf went to Pennsylvania to work in the lumber industry, and came to spend most of his time in Galeton. Gerda went to Chicago to work as a housemaid, and  worked her way up to lady's maid. Both siblings returned to Sweden in 1910/11. Gustaf went back to farm work. Gerda continued to work as lady's maid, and most of her employments after she returned from America still involved travelling abroad. During World War I she was in France. From 1928 onward she was employed by the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte and his American wife Estelle Manville-Bernadotte. 

Zooming in the street picture on the postcard: 

The vehicles on this photo seem to be horse-drawn, except for the tram/streetcar/trolley. The first streetcars in Chicago were horse cars, but the companies began substituting cable cars in the 1880s. By 1887, Chicago had the largest cable railway system in the world. It was also in the 1880s that electric-powered trolleys first became practical. The Chicago companies hesitated at first to install these faster and more efficient systems, but by the mid 1890s most of them had begun the conversion to electricity, which was completed in 1906. [Source: Wikipedia - Chicago Surface Lines] 

The busy city life in Chicago must have been such a contrast to the Swedish countryside where Gerda had lived all her life (21 years) until she emigrated.

Linking to Sepia Saturday 692

Warrior Kings and Salvation Army - Sepia Saturday 691

 G.005.1 - Postcard previously posted on this blog 2012-04-20

Karl XII:s staty. Stockholm. - Förlag Oscar Ellqvist, Nr 9.
(Statue of King Charles XII of Sweden.)

Tack för kortet! Skrif Snart! 
Många Hälsningar från en vän - ALARIK

Thanks for the card! Write soon!

Many Greetings from a friend – ALARIK

 

 8.2.1902
To: Herr Gustaf Ekman, Storegd, Fristad

Some of Gustaf's friends back in the early 1900s seem to have enjoyed sending him anonymous and/or cryptic postcard messages. (I suppose he probably did the same to them.) This postcard from Stockholm is signed using the old runic alphabet: 

Runes are very old letters which Germanic people used before they started using Latin letters in the Middle Ages. In its broadest sense, the word runes can mean any cryptic letters, but it usually means the alphabets used by Scandinavian people from about the year 150 AD to the Middle Ages. The oldest of these is called the Elder Fuþark, used from about 150 to 800 AD.

Interest in runes and Old Norse mythology etc had a sort of renaissance here for a while back in the so-called "Romantic Nationalism" of the 19th and early 20th century.

So the name of the friend who sent the card seems to be Alarik. It is an old masculine Germanic name meaning "ruler of all".  Whether this was his real name or not, I don't know. But the name Alarik was added to (i.e. given a "name day" in) the Swedish almanac in 1901. (It is still included - 5 August - but I don't think there are a lot of Alariks around in our time. Names do tend to "come and go", though...) 

One famous Alarik in history was Alaric I, king of the Visigoths from 395 to 410 - said to be the first Barbarian ruler to invade Italy. He was a professed Christian and was also seen by some Christians as God's wrath upon a still pagan Rome.

 

The statue on this postcard is of the Swedish king Karl XII (1682-1718), in Swedish history often called the Warrior King. The statue in Stockholm shown on the postcard was made by Johan Peter Molin (1814-73). It's cast in bronze and weighs 2½ tons.

Modern photo from Wikipedia

The young women in the foreground on the old postcard are female Salvation Army soldiers, dressed in typical hats, and carrying guitars and and leaflets. 

It's one of those street views which may seem ordinary at first glance - just a statue and some random people - but which could just as well be used to convey a hidden message... To me there seems to be a certain irony in the fact that the women soldiers here are turning their back on the old warrior king, and are walking in the opposite direction to where he is pointing!

The Salvation Army, founded 1865 in London, was introduced in Sweden in 1882 by Hanna Ouchterlony. (Wikipedia) She was born in Värnamo, Sweden, in 1838. From 1857 to 1864 she served as housekeeper with relatives in Stockholm; then opened a book shop in Värnamo. In the 1870s, she had a religious crisis, and became active within Christian social work. In 1878, she got acquainted with Bramwell Booth (son of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army) who was visiting Värnamo for recreation. She became identified with the values of the Salvation Army, and Booth considered her suitable to introduce the movement to Sweden. Between 1878 and 1881, she took correspondence courses from the Salvation Army; and in 1881, she visited London, staying in the home of Catherine and William Booth. She became an officer of the Salvation Army in London 28 November 1882; and upon her return to Sweden, introduced the movement here. 

Hanna served as chief of the Swedish Salvation Army from 1882 until 1892. In 1887–1888, she also founded the Norwegian Salvation Army. She travelled for the Salvation Army in the United States in 1892 and was the territorial leader of the movement between 1894 and 1900. She retired in 1904 and died in Stockholm in 1924.

Linking to Sepia Saturday 691 - On the Street

Falköping, Storgatan (1901) - Sepia Saturday 690

 (G.003.3 - Postcard previously posted on this blog 2012-02-29)

It struck me recently that there must be postcards in my inherited collection which, although I've posted them on the blog before, I did not link to Sepia Saturday. So I decided to go back and look among those for some image to repost for the current Sepia theme. (Actually interesting for myself as well, as I've both learned and forgotten a lot since I started this blog nearly 12 years ago...)

Falköping. Storgatan. (Main Street)

Lindgrens Bok- & Pappershandel (John Swedmark) Falköping.
Sommar-filial vid Mössebergs Badanstalt.
Lindgren's Books & Stationary - Summer Branch at Mösseberg Spa *

The sign on the building to the left says "Coats Shop"

Falköping (with surroundings) is widely known for its ancient remains of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. The town is located between the two plateaus Mösseberg* and Ålleberg. The location has been inhabited since the end of the ice age and cultivated by people for 6000 years. (Wikipedia)

* There has been a spa at Mösseberg since 1865. The air up on the hill was considered healthy, there was a spring, and with the railway between Gothenburg and Stockholm passing Falköping (since 1862), the location was easily accessible. In 1885, a sanatorium for patients with tuberculosis was added. (There is still a spa there, but it has of course gone through a lot of changes since the start.)

To: Gustaf Ekman, Storegården, Fristad
From: Oscar Ekman, Odensberg

Obg. 5/10 -01
K.B.! [Käre Broder!] Tack för brefvet! Äfven tack för alla besvär, samt det jag kan få hjälp till erhållande af sågspån. Skall vidare släpas --- [?]. Gerda är som Ni kanske kanske redan vet nu åter uppe o kry, roligt nog! Hälsningar! Oscar

Odensberg 5/10 –01
Dear Brother, Thanks for the letter! Also thanks for all the trouble and for what help I can get to acquire sawdust. Must also be [transported...?] - As you may already know, Gerda is up and well again, I'm happy to report. Regards, Oscar

A postcard from October 1901, about a year before Gustaf and Gerda (brother and sister) both emigrated to America. Oscar was their older brother, manager of a country store in Odensberg, owned by his brother-in-law Brynolf (married to their sister Emma, and running another store in the village Floby, where they also lived). 

Falköping is the nearest bigger town to both Odensberg and Floby.

 

Oscar’s handwriting is not all easy to decipher, but comparing the information on this card with another card written the same month, it seems that he was doing some kind of work that required sawdust as "filling"(?), and is asking his brother (and perhaps also their father) for help with that. At the time, Gustaf was staying with their father Samuel and his new family (baby Sally - my grandmother - not yet two years old). At the end of the message Oscar adds that Gerda is up and well again – as they might already have heard. (She was probably staying with Emma and her husband in Floby.) 

Both Gustaf (23) and Gerda (20) were probably feeling rootless at this point in time - sometimes staying at their father's farm and sometimes with their older siblings, depending on where their help was best needed. No doubt this contributed to both of them deciding to seek their fortune in America instead. 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 690 - On the Street

Dijon, France, c.1918 - Sepia Saturday 688

The Sepia Saturday theme for September, On the Street, made me go back and look at some unwritten old postcards from my great aunt Gerda's collection. 

Readers who have been following me for a while probably remember Gerda - my grandmother's older half-sister, the travelling lady's maid. When World War I broke out, Gerda "got stuck" in France, where she spent the war years working for someone living in Lyon. I've not been able to establish whom. (In my imagination, a wealthy American woman who "got stuck" in France during the war as well - but I have no real evidence of that.)  What I do know, from Gerda's postcards written to her brother Gustaf during the war years, is that they were also able  to travel a bit now and then, in the eastern parts of France.

 

Dijon is situated north of Lyon, and they/Gerda could have travelled there by train. The last of the postcards below gives me an important clue as to when she actually bought that one, though: It can't have been until July 1918 at the earliest; and may not have been until on her way back home to Sweden in 1919, after the war was over...

I like how all these street photos also have people in them.

34. DIJON - Rue de la Liberté 

40. DIJON - La Caisse d'Epargne

3. DIJON - Place de la République et Monument Carnot

9. DIJON - Fontaine de la Jeunesse ('the fountain of youth')

27. DIJON - Eglise Saint-Pierre - Place du Président Wilson

 Wikipedia : "The square was originally called St. Peter's Square. In 1904, during a campaign of "secularization of the streets" led by the radical municipality, the square was renamed People's Square. During the First World War, on July 5, 1918, the municipality of Dijon gave it the name of Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th President of the United States, to salute the entry of the United States into the war on the side of the France."

All the cards also include the printed names Caloin, Dijon and Cl. Baudinfère. I got no relevant hits when googling, but I assume the latter to be the name of the photographer.

Linking to Sepia Saturday 688 - On the Street