The theme for Sepia Saturday 815 shows a museum bedroom - which made me think of some old postcards from Versailles, Paris, from my great-aunt Gerda's collection.
This is a photo of Gerda visiting the gardens of Versailles in 1932. I have shown the same photo in an earlier post, from 2022-05-06, linked to Sepia Saturday 620. But that's nearly four years ago now... Some followers with good memories may remember bits and pieces from Gerda's story, but here's a short summary again:
Gerda Ekman, born 1881, was one of my grandmother Sally's older half-sisters. They shared the same father, but had different mothers. Gerda's mother died when she was six years old. In 1898, when she was 17, her father got remarried to a younger window with one daughter (six years old at the time).
In 1900, my grandmother Sally was born, and in 1902 also a baby boy. In those years of her father starting a new family, Gerda seems to have been staying with her oldest sister and her family much of the time. The sibling closest to Gerda's own age was her brother Gustaf, only two years older than herself. He was making plans to emigrate to America, and Gerda was no doubt inspired by him (but perhaps by other friends with the same plans as well).
They both ended up emigrating in 1902 (for Gerda, when she turned 21). My impression is that they did not go on the same ship, though, but a few months apart. Anyway, while Gustaf ended up at a sawmill in Pennsylvania, Gerda went to Chicago; where she probably started out as simple kitchen maid, but kept working her way up to more respected positions in bigger households. Both siblings returned to Sweden around 1910/11. (Their father had then been dead for a few years - he died in 1907.) While Gustaf went back to farm work, Gerda continued her "career" as lady's maid and travel companion to wealthy ladies.
When WWI broke out in 1914, Gerda happened to be in France - and got stuck there for the duration of the war. I've so far not been able to figure out who exactly she worked for during those years (and I probably never will) - but it was obviously for some fairly wealthy woman (or couple), as postcards show that in spite of the war going on, they went on holidays in the eastern parts of France, down to the riviera, and also over lake Geneva to Switzerland. After the war, Gerda returned to Sweden again - but continued to work as lady's maid/travel companion for various upper class women, also travelling abroad now and then.
In the autumn of 1928, she got employed as lady's maid to Estelle Manville-Bernadotte, daughter of a wealthy American, who in December that year married the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte (nephew of King Gustav V of Sweden). (The wedding took place in Pleasantville, N.Y.) The couple/family kept travelling a lot in the 1930s, both between Sweden and America, and within Europe; and Gerda travelled with them.
Years ago, a relative quoted (in an email to me) a document stating that in 1932, Gerda was employed at Square Lamartine no 3 in Paris, as "domestique au service du comte Bernadotte de Wisborg, neveu du Roi de Suède" (Cf a post from 2022-05-06: Cairo and Paris, 1932 - Sepia Saturday 620)
So I know for a fact that Gerda was in Paris in 1932, and visited Versailles that year. Possibly the postcards may have been bought even earlier though. (No dates printed on them, so I can't be sure.)
Anyway - what made me think of these cards for this week's Sepia Saturday was three bedroom photos:
Marie Antoinette's Bedroom
Napoleon's bedroom
Linking to: Sepia Saturday 815 (28 February 2026)
