The Chicago Portraits - Sepia Saturday 695

Among my inherited family photos, there are also some portraits that I don't recognise as "family". Taking a closer look at some of those for this month's Sepia theme (portraits), I noticed a bunch  of rather large ones in paper frames from the early 1900s or so that were from studios in Chicago. This suggested that they must have belonged to my great aunt Gerda (older half-sister to my grandmother Sally), who lived in Chicago c. 1903-1910, working as a maid. So likely to be of people she knew back then... 

For SS 636 (2022-08-27), I wrote a post based on the addresses on postcards sent to Gerda while she lived in Chicago. They show that during the first years she changed employers rather frequently, but from around December 1906 and until she returned to Sweden, she remained living on the same address: 3328 Michigan Avenue. Thanks to the American census of 1910, I also know who she worked for there: A Dr Otto L Schmidt with wife Emma (born Seipp), both of German heritage; at the time with three children in their teens: Ernst, 17, Alma, 15 and Clara, 14. At the time of the census, besides Gerda they also had three more white female servants (from Austria and Germany); plus a 'mulatto' chauffeur with wife and two children. Dr Schmidt was a rather prominent citizen of Chicago, and his wife also belonged to a well-known and wealthy family there. 

At the bottom of this post, you will find an image from the census, plus links to a number of earlier posts where I've written about Gerda and her time in Chicago and with the Schmidt family. 

Anyway - my first thought about the Unknown portraits I was looking at now was that they might be of fellow servants that Gerda had been working with. However, at least one of them did not seem to fit that theory: A child portrait.

 

Putting these two photos side by side, not only do they come from the same studio, and have the same background - but to me, it also looks like the woman and the child may well be mother and daughter. So I'm beginning to wonder if this could actually be Emma Schmidt with one of her daughters (a bit earlier than 1910, as the girl looks younger than 14). 

The double portrait below comes from the same studio but with a different (updated) logo. I also think the two young women look like sisters - and that the one on the left could be an older version of the girl in the portrait above. Could they be Alma and Clara Schmidt? 

Next, a portrait of a young man - not from Chicago, but from Palm Beach, Florida. At first, it made me wonder if there had been a "special man" in Gerda's life during her time in Chicago after all, even though I have not really come across anything else pointing to that.

 

Then I put his photo next to that of the two young women, and now I couldn't help but think I see a family resemblance between all three of them. So what if he's actually Ernst Schmidt?

(Another curious fact, by the way: there are two identical copies of the girls' portrait...)

Trying to verify my guesses, I searched online for photos of the Schmidt family. There are quite a few available at the website of Wisconsin Historical Society, in a collection named "Black Point Estate and Seipp Family Papers". (I.e. Emma's side of the family.) These all seem to be subject to copyright, though, so I won't include any copies here. But here are a few links if you're curious: Ernst in 1912. -  Alma in 1906. - Otto and Emma in 1891.

There are no copies of the same portraits that I have though - so hard to be sure. (Btw, searching for photos of this family, it's also rather confusing that they seemed to like naming their offspring after close relatives... Emmas daughters, for example, were named after her own two sisters, also called Alma and Clara.)

For now, I will assume that the portraits above are indeed of Emma Schmidt and her children. Maybe some day I'll get it either confirmed or disproved - that has happened before with theories I've come up with in this blog!  

Then there was this portrait below, which seemed somehow familiar... But where from??

It hit me after a while that she must be the woman 2nd from the left in the photo below, standing next to Gerda (in the middle). And this (I have concluded earlier) must be from the Seipp/Schmidt families' summer residence(s) at Lake Geneva - probably a group photo of staff from at least two households, "joining forces" while there.

 

I think she's also the friend posing together with Gerda in the studio photo below; which makes me assume that she too was a servant in the Schmidt family household in Chicago. Probably one of the two from Austria - but whether Maria or Amalia, I dare not guess. (Both a little older than Gerda, according to the census of 1910.)

And at last, below, two more Unknown photos. They look to me like they could be one and the same woman, though, even if I don't know her name. Unless something turns up to provide more clues, I'll assume her to be another servant colleague of Gerda's. (The portrait to the left is from Rockford, Illinois - so could be someone she worked with for a while in Chicago, but who either came from, or moved on to, Rockford.)

The 1910 census from 3328 Michigan Avenue (the handwriting a challenge!)

Links to previous "related" posts of mine about Gerda, the Schmidt family, and Chicago:

1910 US Population Census (2012-08-31)

Otto L. Schmidt, Gerda’s employer in Chigaco 1910 (2012-09-03)

The 1933 Chicago World's Fair (2012-09-04)

***Lake Geneva (2021-04-24) (where the family had their summer residence)

Changing My Theory About a Photo (2021-05-08)

Chicago Then and Now (2022-08-27)

Linking to Sepia Saturday 695

 "head and shoulder portraits"

Sepia Saturday: Unknown

“All lovers of old photographs are familiar with unknown people, unknown families and unknown places, we all have them in our collection, and Sepia Saturday 165 provides an opportunity to give them their moment in the limelight, not because of who they are but because of who they may be.”

Among my old family albums there is one with lots of unknown faces and places in it. I think it probably belonged to my grandmother’s half-sister Gerda – one of the “cast” in this blog. There are some photos of her in that album, and some of family members I recognize; but also many people I don’t know at at all.

The first photo is the very first one in the “unknown” album. I think the woman in the middle may be Gerda herself. Further on in the same album I found the other photo from the same room. Different occasion. Three people seem to be the same. Two are different. No Gerda.

It’s looks like a rather stylish house, doesn’t it, with that ornamented fireplace?

I’m thinking maybe a family she worked for… And kept in touch with afterwards??

To sum up what I know about Gerda so far:

She emigrated to America in 1902 (at age 21), worked as a servant at a few different addresses in Chicago for about 10 years (one of those positions was in the household of a rather prominent man in Chicago, dr Otto L. Schmidt – she is registred as servant in his house in the 1910 US population census). Around 1913 (age 32) she was back in Sweden, at least for a visit. But she continued to travel in Europe during the first world war and in the 1920’s. From a relative I learned that she worked as lady’s maid/travel companion to rich English ladies.

In the 1930’s and onwards (age 50+), she was housekeeper to the family of Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte (of the royal family) and his American wife Estelle Manville-Bernadotte. Folke and Estelle got married in 1928, and made their home in Stockholm.  (Possibly Gerda worked for Estelle or the Manville family even before the marriage. Among old photos there is also a press cutting of a photo from the wedding, cut from an American magazine.)

Folke Bernadotte was tragically assassinated in 1948 in Jerusalem. Gerda (then 67) remained with Estelle Bernadotte, I think for the rest of her (Gerda’s) life – which was a long one, as she lived to be nearly 92. Estelle eventually married again, but that was not until the same year Gerda died, 1973 (and Estelle herself was 69).

What do you think? Is the woman in the middle the same as young Gerda to the left, and old Gerda to the right?

The photo to the right shows Gerda wearing a royal medal.  When did she get it? I’m guessing in connection with her 75th birthday, 1956. And/or 25 or 30 years of service to a royal(ly connected) family. Mid/late 50s anyway, as she’s sitting in my grandfather’s chair which got for his 50th birthday in 1954. And it was he who took that photo.

I’ve not been able to find any list of old medals on the internet, only more recent ones given to famous people. Gerda, in spite of the medal, belongs to the Unknown.