A 'Swenglish' journey through family photos, notes and postcards
from the early 20th century.

2024-03-24

Easter Cards from 1914 - Sepia Saturday 716

As Easter is coming up next weekend, I thought I'd share some Easter Cards sent to my great-uncle Gustav Ekman in 1914, when he was living at Backa, Brålanda (Dalsland, Sweden) in 1914. Easter that year was 10-13 April. 

I have shared these cards before, but not for Sepia Saturday. 

G.067.02


Happy Easter 1914! 
from Carl Emanuelson

(Gustaf's older brother)

G.067.03


Happy Easter 1914! from Sally
(Gustaf's younger half-sister -
my grandmother, 14 years old in 1914.)

  G.068.01                           Hildur Söderberg (*)


Happy Easter & best wishes from all of us / Oscar
Norrköping, 11.4.1914
(another older brother)

G.068-02


Happy Easter! 1914
from Hildur
(his step-sister, 22 years old -
half-sister to Sally on their mother's side)

G.069-01


Happy Easter from Ida & Gustav
(Could be his stepmother's sister
and her husband, but these were
common names, so hard to be sure.)

G.069-02



Fridenslund, 31/3 1914.
Happy Easter from the Blomgren family.
(Unknown to me, but I just checked the name
Fridenslund, and there is/was a farm by that
name in the same village as the farm Storegården,
where his brother Carl and his step-mother and
younger half-siblings lived.)


    Hildur Söderberg (*)                                                      G.070.01    


Happy Easter from Alfhild, Ivan and Ruth
(I don't know who they were)

G.070-02



Dear Gustaf, 
We were going to send you the money Gustav, but we don't know where to send them. If you would be kind enough to send me a card and tell me where you are, we will send them soon.
Best wishes from Erik Johnsson.

The postmark starts with VÄRM... as in Värmlands Nysäter, so most likely this card is from the family he worked for there during 1913. From previous cards I've deduced that Gustaf moved from there to Brålanda around New Year 1913/14. Obviously they had his address there, but perhaps they were not sure if he was still in the same place. Or maybe they needed a post office address to send money - I'm not sure how such transactions were made back in those days.

Bästa Gustav,
Vi skulle sända pengarna till dig Gustav, men vi vet ej vart vi skall sända dem, så om du ville vara snäll och sända mig ett kort vart du är så vore du snäll, då skall vi sända dem strax. 
Många hälsningar från Erik Johnsson

Poststämpeln börjar på VÄRM... som i Värmlands Nysäter, så förmodligen är det från Gustafs arbetsgivare där under 1913. Av tidigare vykort har framgått att Gustaf flyttade till Brålanda runt nyår 1913/14. Tydligen hade de adressen dit han flyttade, men de var kanske osäkra på om han fortfarande var kvar där. (Eller kanske behövdes det en postkontors-adress för att sända pengar?)


(*)  Hildur Söderberg (1885-1976) was a Swedish painter and illustrator. She studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm between 1906-1911, and around the time of WWI she was also living in Stockholm. She also made illustrations for short stories in a Christmas magazine.

Below are two more cards by her, also sent to Gustav at Brålanda by his brothers Carl and Oscar, but not dated. As it's unlikely they both sent him two Easter cards each in 1914, I guess these two are probably from 1915:

G.069.03

G.070.01

Hildur Söderberg var en svensk målare, tecknare och illustratör, född 1885, död 1976. Hon studerade vid Kungliga Konsthögskolan i Stockholm 1906-1911, och var vid tiden för första världskriget bosatt i Stockholm. Som illustratör utförde hon bl.a. novell-illustrationer i tidskriften Julhälsning.

Linking to Sepia Saturday 716 

5 comments:

  1. Great postcards! Hildur seems to have had a 'thing' about piles of eggs! Cute illustrations, though. Thanks for sharing. :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, she seems to have found her niche with funny egg illustrations, rather than just "cute" :)

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  2. What lovely historic cards sending happy Easter wishes, with lots of eggs and chicks and pretty little girls. So great that you have possession of these, though not all are for relatives, it's still a great collection.

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    1. Barbara, all of these cards are addressed to my grandmother's older half-brother Gustav. The total collection is of around 300 postcards of various kinds, all in one album, sorted in more or less chronological order. (1901-18) Started before he emigrated to the US, including the eight or so years that he lived there, and continued after he returned to Sweden again.

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  3. These are charming postcards and I admire the penmanship of the writers too. My grandmothers both saved EVERY card and letter ever sent to them. In my inherited collection are similar American greeting cards for the Easter holiday that date to the first decades of the 20th century. It would be interesting to compare how holiday themes from different countries change with folk symbolism and traditions .

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