Aerial Photography - Sepia Saturday 658

 

Flygbild av Mullsjö 

Aerial Photo from Mullsjö

ÄKTA FOTOGRAFI 
Ensamrätt
A/B Almquist & Cäster, Hälsningborg
Ahrenbergsflyg

GENUINE PHOTOGRAPH
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This postcard was sent to my great-grandmother Selma for Mother's Day in May 1937, from her step-daughter Ester (one my grandmother Sally's older half-sisters), living in Mullsjö - a village by a lake with the same name, located some 25 km north-west of Jönköping.

At first glance, a postcard like this looks rather dull to me - but when I started thinking about it, it struck me that aerial photography like this was probably still rather new in Sweden in 1937.

The name of the company "Ahrenbergsflyg" took me to a Swedish Wikipedia article about Albin Ahrenberg, 1889-1968. Leaving military aviation in 1924 he started his own company, with flights for postal services and aerial photography. In 1929 he planned a flight from Stockholm to New York, via Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and the Labrador region of Canada. He got as far as Greenland - but was forced to return to Sweden from there (by boat), because of technical trouble.

In 1931, he returned to Greenland to help search for an English meterological research expedition that had gone missing there. He was successful and returned a hero this time. 

Later on, during WWII, he served again in some military position, with surveillance of the Stockholm archipelago. (I'm afraid my knowledge of military terms and organisation is not sufficient - in either language! - to quite grasp the details.) 

Anyway - the story serves to support my thought that back in 1937, a black and white aerial photo of a countryside village probably still seemed a lot more impressive to the recipient than it would today!

In 1937, Selma was 76 years old, and living with her daughter and son-in-law (my grandparents Sally and Gustaf), and her grandson Bertil (my father, 6 going on 7 that year). 

And below is an aerial photo of the house to which the card was sent. It's the house that my grandparents built, and moved into in 1930, when they got married. 

I'm not sure whether that photo is from the 1930s, 40s or 50s, though. (It was obviously black and white with the colours added to it afterwards.) When my brother and I sold the house in 2014 (rather different-looking by then - twice as big, and yellow), we left the original of this photo hanging in the house for the new owners, as we don't have a younger generation of family to pass it on to anyway.

"Aero Foto Vetlanda"

Linking to Sepia Saturday 658