My Mum as Teacher - Sepia Saturday 715

 

My mother, born 1930, graduated from teacher training college in the spring of 1952. Here she is on her graduation day together with her parents. Her father was a school teacher as well. Her mother, before she got married, had had a secretarial job.

In the autumn of 1952, my mum moved to a small countryside village for her first teaching job. It was a very small school. From the few photos in her photo album, it seems her pupils were all ages, from beginners (7 year olds) to their early teens. (Rather reminding of Anne of Green Gables or Little House of the Prairie kind of schools.)

The school house

"My children"

"First year"

"Break"

(Drawing by my mum in her album)

The school house from another angle. Photo taken when my dad (then her boyfriend) and his parents came to visit. My parents with my grandmother Sally +  my grandparents' dog Zepp (a collie). Photo taken by my grandfather Gustaf.  (My parents got engaged at Christmas that year, 1952.)

As teacher, my mum lived in this small cottage next to a farm house.

"View from my window"

"Winter break"

At the end of the spring term 1953, she took the older of her pupils on a school trip to Gothenburg.

Photo from tourist boat 'Paddan'  in Gothenburg

While I don't know how many of the young people aboard "belong" to my mum, I think I can spot evidence that her fiancé joined them for this boat trip: Dark-haired young man with sunglasses, next to dark-haired young woman - on the right, 7th row or so from the front...

Linking to Sepia Saturday 715

Going to Work - Sepia Saturday 713

I have written about my grandfather Gustaf's career before, for example last summer in a post for Sepia Saturday 675. He started out as a shoemaker's apprentice in his early teens, but what he really wanted to do was write. He gradually managed to shift to a career as journalist, by taking a few correspondence courses, and starting out by freelancing until eventually he got a full time employment as journalist at a local newspaper in the nearest town (1926). He also usually took his own photos when he was out and about on various jobs. 

He was more often behind the camera rather than in front of it, and I haven't got a lot of photos of himself related to his job. But there are these:

After he left the shoemaker's business, he had a room at the farm where his childhood friend Nils and his family (mother, two sisters and two uncles) lived - at first probably in exchange for also helping out a bit at the farm. This photo shows him at his desk in that room (which was probably in a small separate cottage rather than in the main farm house). 

(He was later to marry Nils' sister Sally, my grandmother; but I think when he first moved in at the farm they were still just friends.) 

This is a photo of him at work from later years
(not sure when or where)

This is not my grandfather, but one of his colleagues at the newspaper where he worked between 1926-1938. (In 1938 he was recruited to another, bigger newspaper in the same town.)

Linking to Sepia Saturday 713

G.018.2 Folkdräkter, Rättvik (ca 1901)

DALARNA: RÄTTVIK.

To: Herr Gustaf Ekman, Storegd, Fristad
Sent: ?? (Christmas 1901?)
From: ?? (Johansson, Odensberg?)

God Jul! Tycker ni inte dom här äro söta?
Hälsning fr. samtliga O-g bor [Odensbergs-bor]

Ett hjärtligt tack för v.k. [vykort?] men de där halfva meningarna låtsas vi inte om, undrar hur ni själf fördrifver tiden, h. kanske fl. st. på förslag ---

… jag klarar inte av att tyda resten!!!

Tänkte först att avsändaren är Oscar men när jag jämför med handstilen i adressen på andra kort stämmer det inte riktigt. Dessutom kallar avsändaren Gustaf för “ni”. Tanken slår mig att det kan vara “Johansson” som arbetade för Oscar men som flyttade i mars 1902. Jmf kortet G.006.1. Den här julhälsningen borde i så fall vara från julen 1901. Förslagen som jag inte kan uttryda skulle kunna handla om arbeten.

This card was sent as Christmas greeting, including greetings from everybody at Odensberg, and thanks for a card received. Unfortunately I’m unable to dechipher the last few lines, including the signature. (This is worse than modern text messages, way too many abbreviations!) The writer is wondering what Gustaf is doing, and he seems to have some suggestions that might have to do with jobs. At first I thought the sender was Oscar (Gustaf’s brother), but the handwriting does not match other cards written by him. My best guess is that the sender is Johansson, who was working for Oscar – cf. card 6.006.1. As Johansson moved out in spring 1902, and Gustaf emigrated the following winter, this card should be from Christmas 1901.

Sepia Saturday: Behind the Counter

“…boxes, paper, workers, machines and dangerously long skirts spring to my mind.”

This is another photo from my great-aunt Gerda’s photo album. I don’t think it’s Gerda behind the counter, though, but more likely either her sister Emma, or her sister-in-law Elin (married to her brother Oscar). I will expand my thoughts on that below. Anyway – it’s a workplace, and it includes a lot of little boxes! – which is why I thought of it for this week’s Sepia Saturday.

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Emma’s husband Brynolf Wilander had a country store in Floby near Falköping. I presume Emma stood behind the counter sometimes too. Gerda, I’ve learned from the old postcards, stayed with Emma and her family a lot during 1901-02, before she emigrated to America.

However, I also learned from a relative a while back that Wilander branched out and open a second store at Odensberg in or around 1904; which was run by Oscar, brother to Emma and Gerda. His wife’s name was Elin.

In my grandparents’ photo albums, I found these two photos of the Wilander house and store in Floby:

Wilanders hus i Floby. (Wilander’s house in Floby)

“Kaffehörnan” vid Wilanders i Floby
(“The coffee corner” at Wilander’s in Floby)

In Gerda’s album, next to the shop interior, however, there is a photo of a different house:

There are no notes in Gerda’s photo album, and the photos in it do not come in chronological order either. I can only guess, but maybe this is the branch store at Odensberg. At first I thought perhaps from the opening… But judging from hairstyles and clothes, I think the interior must be of later date than 1904.

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Bakom Disken

Veckans Sepia Saturday-utmaning utgår från ett foto av en kvinna som arbetar med att skära och vika papperskartonger. Mitt bidrag är ännu ett foto från Gerdas fotoalbum. Jag tror inte det är Gerda själv bakom disken i handelsboden, utan antingen hennes syster Emma eller deras svägerska Elin (gift med deras bror Oscar).

Emma var gift med Brynolf Wilander som hade lanthandel i Floby. Det framgår av vykortskorrespondensen syskonen emellan, att Gerda tillbringade mycket tid hos Wilanders under åren 1901-02 innan hon emigrerade till Amerika. Lanthandelsfotot måste dock vara från senare datum än så, att döma av kläder och frisyrer.

Jag fick veta av en släkting häromsistens att Wilanders också öppnade en filial i Odensberg, med svågern Oscar som föreståndare - men även det var redan ca 1904. 

I farfars och farmors fotoalbum har jag hittat två foton av det Wilanderska huset i Floby; de två mitten-bilderna ovan.

I Gerdas album, intill lanthandelsinteriören, sitter emellertid ett foto av ett helt annat hus (det fjärde fotot). Gerdas album saknar helt anteckningar, och fotona är heller inte insatta i kronologisk ordning. Det verkar ändå troligt att detta hus hör ihop med lanthandelsinteriören. Min gissning tills vidare blir därför att fotona är från filialen i Odensberg; och kvinnan bakom disken troligen Oscars hustru Elin.

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.

Sepia Saturday: Work on the Farm (ca 1911-1920)

“roll up your sleeves, put your overalls on and get working hard…”

My grandmother Sally, born 1900, grew up on a farm in south-west Sweden. After her father died in 1907, the family on the farm consisted basically of her mother Selma, one or two of her much older half-brothers from her father’s first marriage (Carl, and, after his return from the United States, Gustaf), her half-sister from her mother’s first marriage (Hildur, eight years older than Sally), and their younger brother (Nils, born 1902). They all remained living together on the farm until Carl died in 1928. In 1930 the farm was sold and Sally, Hildur and Nils all got married that same year. What Gustaf did after the farm was sold, I’m not sure.

Unfortunately there are very few dates and names in my grandmother’s old photo albums. When I first saw this photo, the hats they are wearing made me wonder if this was a photo that Gustaf sent back to his family while working on some farm in Pennsylvania. The boy’s hat especially makes me think “Amish”…

But then I learned that in 1910, Gustaf was not working as a farmhand but at a lumberyard; and in 1911 he was back in Sweden. So what I’m thinking now is that this photo is from the family farm in Sweden, after Gustaf came back, in 1911 or 1912. Perhaps he had the photo taken to send back to friends in the US? The boy must be his brother Nils, aged 9 or 10. Possibly the hat that Nils is wearing could have been a gift brought back by Gustaf. (Yes, I’m making this up, but it’s not too unlikely.)

There is also a possibility that the man in the photo is not Gustaf but Carl (who never left the farm). But Gustaf was the younger of the two and I think it’s probably him.

 

This next photo must be of later date, like around 1920, because the young man on the left is definitely Nils, and now he must be at least in his upper teens. Next to him is his mother Selma, then Hildur and Sally. And my guess is Carl to the right, and Gustaf up on the hay trailer. (The man I cut out in the enlarged photo must be some farmhand or neighbour helping out with the harvest.)

Someone on her way to milk the cows – probably my great-grandmother Selma.

In this photo I think it may be my grandmother Sally doing the milking.

There seems to be a fashion difference between generations in the way the women tied their headcloths. Selma tied hers under her chin. Her daughters tied theirs at the back. It’s the same way in other photos; and from my own childhood I remember my grandmother wearing her headscarves tied at the back too.

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På svenska

I min farmor Sallys album finns inte många anteckningar om datum eller namn på personer som ledtråd.

När jag först såg det första fotot ovan med mannen och pojken i hatt, så gick mina tankar till bilder från Amish-kulturen. Pennsylvania, där Gustaf bodde under åren i USA, är ett Amish-område. Därför tänkte jag först att bilden kanske var från något arbete han hade under tiden där. Men när jag fann att han 1910 var anställd på sågverk och inte inom jordbruk, och att han 1911 tycks ha återvänt till Sverige, så tänkte jag om. Min gissning nu är istället att bilden är från Storegården 1911 eller 1912, och att pojken som kör hästen är Nils (född 1902). Kanske lät Gustaf ta bilden för att skicka till vänner i USA. Och kanske hade han med sig hatten till Nils därifrån? Eller så var det “mode” med halmhatt även i Sverige vid denna tid.

Nästa foto är av senare datum. Där känner jag igen Nils längst t.v. och han måste vara åtminstone i övre tonåren. Bredvid honom står Selma, Hildur och Sally, och antagligen Carl, och så Gustaf uppe på skrindan. Mannen längst t.h. på originalbilden är troligen någon granne eller inhyrd hjälp.

Nr 3 har anteckningen “inför kvällsmjölkningen” och Nr 4 “kon mjölkas”. Jag tror det är Selma på foto nr 3 och Sally på foto nr 4. Det verkar som det är en generationsskillnad i hur man knöt huvudduken. Selma bär den (på flera foton) knuten under hakan. De yngre kvinnorna har den knuten i nacken. Mitt eget minne från barndomen är också att farmor brukade ha sin sjalett knuten i nacken.