Category Archives: Women

Young Woman In Hanover, Pennsylvania

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Photograph by John G. Feeser, Hanover, PA. Circa 1880s.

Size of photo:  About 4 x 6″       Size including cardboard frame:  About 5 x 7″

These are digital images, front and back, graciously donated by one of our readers. The family name that might belong to this beautiful young lady may be from among the following:

-Smith
-Myers
-Beitzel
-Underwood
-Wilt

Here’s to hoping someone will recognize this woman. But in any case, this is a lovely portrait showing wonderful details:  We wonder if this was taken for a special event, evidenced by the corsage of roses she wears on the left lapel of her coat, with its two large buttons perched on the other lapel. In peering at an enlargement, the writing on the top button, one feels, is almost readable. Beneath the coat, which is heavily gathered at the shoulders, is a bodice in velvet, gathered at the neck and likely waist, creating soft folds. The bodice is set off by a wide flowery ribbon at the neck, which is tied into a bow in back. Her wavy brown hair is parted down the middle, and is probably long but gathered up from behind. She gazes slightly up to her right, from clear blue or green eyes, underneath straight brows.

To Peter From Elizabeth

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Postcard, unused, undivided back. May 25, 1907.

Price:  $7.00

A twin of the beauty in the prior post, it seems. 😉 The sender wrote:

“May-25-07.   Hello Pet. bet you cant take my picture and make it look like this. Elizabeth”

This woman is Elizabeth, right? Well, maybe from another lifetime. (Who could not relate to our sender’s wish to be a knock-out beauty from a different era?) The artist’s rendition reminds me of the French Aristocracy, maybe Marie-Antoinette, that particular blue of her gown, the powdered hair and complexion, the hat full of ostrich feathers…..

Addressed to:   “Mr. Peter. Meutnech – Jr., Ulster Hieghts, Ulster Co., N. Y.” 

Surprisingly, we didn’t find either Peter Jr. or Sr. in Ulster Heights or Ulster County, though there may well be a different spelling of the name in city directories and census records that we hadn’t thought of.

To Max Lutzner in NYC 1903

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Postcard, undivided back. Postmarked from Goppingen, Germany, February 5, 1903. Printed in Germany.

Price:  $7.00

Another one in German. It was sent to:

“Mister Max Lützner. 334 Est. 41 Street. New York, Amerika”

Max Lutzner was found in the city directories at 334 E. 41st in 1899.

UPDATE:  See the comment from J. Hassel for translation of the message!

Source:  Trow’s General Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, City of New York. Vol. CXIL, for 1899. p. 806. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.

The Leichtweißhöhle Cave

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Divided back, unused postcard. Publisher or printer:  Carl v. d Boogaart, Wiesbaden, 1906.

Price:  $7.00

Two trees (wonder if they could still be there?) form a passageway…..to a certain location in a German forest, circa 1906. Behind a rustic wooden fence, three people pose on a front porch…..There’s a small pointed roof over a doorway…..and a jungle-gym-like mass of wooden branches attached….

We know this is a destination of some sort from the signs that are posted. But click on the image to enlarge (check out the graffiti on the tree trunks)…..That conglomeration of tree limbs is actually a railing for a walkway leading up a hill. Then with a quick internet search…..ahhhh, that doorway is a cave entrance.

Google translation to English from Wikipedia entry with photos:

“The Leichtweißhöhle is a cave in the Wiesbaden Nerotal . Its name can be traced back to the poacher Heinrich Anton Leichtweiß , who used the cave as a shelter from 1778 to 1791. Forest workers discovered the cave and light white due to rising smoke.

Access to the Leichtweißhöhle

Source at the Leichtweißhöhle

The Leichtweißhöhle is originally a small natural cave and not much more than a large rock overhang, a so-called abri . The local shale is not suitable for karstification . There are no other caves.

The cave was forgotten until Wiesbaden gained international renown as a spa and the cave developed into a popular excursion destination. It represented one of the new attractions that were to be offered to visitors to Wiesbaden. The Wiesbaden Beautification Association expanded the cave in 1856. A second entrance was created, a room on the side and a niche padded with moss, which was declared as a place to sleep. The cave was also decorated accordingly, including old weapons and pictures. A romanticization followed . The Schwarzbach coming from the Rabengrund and passing the cave received an artificial waterfall and a wooden bridge was built to cross the stream. A viewing pavilion was built above the cave, and the access paths to the cave were equipped with railings and the cave entrance with a wooden porch. These changes were so extensive that the original state can hardly be recognized today.

In 1905 Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the cave with his wife.

In 1934 the Gestapo used the Leichtweißhöhle as a torture cellar .

With the decline of the Wiesbaden cure, especially after the end of the Second World War , the cave lost its importance and was closed. The outdoor facilities were badly affected by vandalism and lack of maintenance. The cave was often used as a shelter. In 1983 the entrance was completely renewed. Since then, the cave has been regularly opened to visitors every six months.”

Sources:  Leichtweißhöhle. n.d.  https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichtwei%C3%9Fh%C3%B6hle. (accessed August 30, 2020).

Google translate (accessed August 30, 2020).

G. W. Jenks, Boots and Shoes, Shelburne Falls, Mass

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Trade card, circa 1870 – 1900. Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

Price:  $10.00        Size:  5 and 7/8 x 2 and 3/4″

Was looking thru boxes this morning for anything 4th of July related, and nothing. So, taking a break from the offerings from Germany, here’s a trade card from the U. S., Shelburne Falls, Mass., to be precise. No American flags or anything in there (imagine some red-white-and blue bunting draped along the porch rail, if you like) but it’s a beauty with an old-timey feel, in rural America:  an artist’s scene of a mill or home with a waterwheel, a woman shepherding a little girl across the wooden footbridge and another lady on the porch (if you enlarge, you can see her). Stamped on the card is:

“G. W. Jenks, Boots and Shoes, Shelburne Falls, Mass”  and  “Buy the light running ‘domestic’ “

G. W. was George W. Jenks, boot and shoe dealer who, according to the card, also sold sewing machines. A Massachusetts native, he was born about 1840. He appears on the 1880 Federal Census along with his wife, Abbie L., and their two children, Charles E. and Mabel L. Jenks. Also in the household is Maggie Chandler, a domestic servant. George must have had a successful business as he appears under this occupation as early as 1870 and as late as 1910 on census records.

He and Abbie (Northup) married on September 12, 1865 in Cheshire, Mass. After Abbie died in 1886, he married Mary Ellen Blanchard October 18, 1888 in Shelburne Falls.

Sources:  Year: 1880; Census Place: Shelburne, Franklin, Massachusetts; Roll: 533; Page: 221D; Enumeration District: 259. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1870; Census Place: Shelburne, Franklin, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_615; Page: 382B; Family History Library Film: 552114. (Ancestry.com).

New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1910; Census Place: Shelburne, Franklin, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_589; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0517; FHL microfilm: 1374602. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1850; Census Place: Cheshire, Berkshire, Massachusetts; Roll: 305; Page: 101B. (Ancestry.com).

To Fräulein Hedel Mandel, Halle, Germany

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Divided back postcard. Postmarked December 9, [1901-1909] from Striegau (Strzegom, Poland). Publisher unknown.  Number and/or series:  1117/18.

Price:  $10.00

Addressed to:   “Fräulein Hedel Mandel, Halle a/Saale, Leipziger St. 73 [?]”

A colored (hand-colored?) card of a beautiful young fräulein holding a bucket, smiling, head tilted. We might automatically think “milkmaid” but note the potatoes? at her feet.

It’s a good guess that the publisher is German, but we didn’t find a match online for the logo below. I’m sure someone knows; I just did not want to spend too much time searching. We’ll update in future, hopefully, but here’s the view:

The postmark indicates Striegau which is the German spelling for Strzegom, Poland. And was addressed to Halle, a.k.a Saale, Germany. Here’s a map link for the postcard’s journey, as the crow flies, though it must not have been that straight-forward!

And if anyone can read the note that was sent to Hedel, please send us a comment.

UPDATE:  See the comment from a kind reader for the translation of the message from the postcard’s sender.

Source:  Distance from Halle (Saale) to Strzegom. distancefromto.net.

Couple On Steps

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Real Photo Postcard. Unused. VELOX stamp box. Circa 1907 – 1917.

Price:  $4.00

A moment in time, somewhere in rural America…..

According to the particular VELOX stamp box on the reverse, this would have been taken around 1907 to 1917. The building the steps lead up to is not a house, but maybe rather a grange hall, a train depot, a hotel. Note the metal screening on the windows, and the possibility of various small signs (enlarge the image twice – see the nails?) that had once been posted to our left of the doorway. But, I was drawn to this postcard from my impression of two people, caught in a great, candid moment of laughter – the woman seems to be, doubled over would be overstating it, but how do you describe, when someone says something unexpected, maybe ridiculous, and you have that reaction, turning off to the side in mirth, a little bent at the waist? The gentleman’s pose is in wonderful contrast, with arms folded, looking into the camera. In close up view, we can’t really tell if he’s laughing, but we’re taking in the working clothes, the heavy gloves, the dried mud on his boots (he’s probably listed as a farmer on the 1900 and 1910 census), and of course, the metal bucket to his right.

Marchande de Poissons, Côte d’Argent, Bordeaux, France

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Divided back, unused postcard. Phototypie by Marcel Delboy, Bordeaux, France. Series or number 46. Circa mid – late 1910s.

Price:  $15.00

It’s always exciting to find a card like this – filled, or nearly so, with words. You know it meant something to the person that wrote it – it was not a casual thing. (And for us, the reader – anticipation, often resulting in…..delight!)  This one is pretty special:

“A fish woman merchant. It is remarkable how there old women will balance and carry great heavy loads. They are always women – never have seen any men. One day I was walking on the road at a good pace one of these women with a basket like this on her head overtook and passed me. There was a tin can in the centre of the basket which looked like a milk can but whether full or empty I can’t say of course. On each side of the can was a live duck with their necks stretched out over the edge of the basket looking this way and that way evidently enjoying the scenery as much as any one would in a “rubber neck wagon.”

The term phototypie that appears before the photographer (or printer’s) name is, in English, collotype.

Source:  Collotype. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collotype (accessed May 3, 2020).

Thunderbird Park, Vancouver Island, 1958

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Photo, snapshot with white border, June 1958, Vancouver Island, BC

Price:  $5.00       Size:  About 3 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/2″

Tourists in June 1958 posing at the foot of a totem pole (not sure if this particular one is still there) and in front of the Mungo Martin House which was built in 1953.

Mungo Martin. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mungo_Martin. (accessed March 14, 2020).

Holiday Ice Skater

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Divided back, unused postcard. Publisher:  P. F. Volland & Co., Chicago and New York. Copyright 1917.

Price:  $7.00

“To extend

the greetings of the season

and to wish you

a happy and prosperous

New Year.”

An illustration of a very stylishly dressed young lady, ice skating amidst whirling snow. You wonder who the artist was and whether we have, unbeknownst to us, seen their work before. Because this is such a nice one, with a magical quality to it, and I hope the artist was happy with their work (and in general), because he or she has brought us happiness!

The publisher, P. F. Volland & Co. was founded by Paul Frederick Volland.

Source:  P. F. Volland. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._F._Volland_Company (accessed January 5, 2020).