Visions of Academe

Here are a handful of great old-fashioned postcards that my father Nelson sent to my mother Beth (before they were married) and to his dad George, from Seattle to Michigan. They show the University of Washington campus and environs. He'd just gotten a teaching job there (1952) and seems to have already fallen in love with the place.

 He sent this first card to both Beth and George, upon arrival. This aerial shot is looking west from above Lake Washington, with Puget Sound and Bainbridge Island in the background.

The following shot looks east across Lake Washington toward the then new
(almost invisible among the trees) city of Bellevue.

The lawns shown below between the Suzallo Library and Administration Building were replaced in the 1970s by brick, hence the nickname of Red Square.

The last two he never sent. The first looks north over downtown Seattle
toward Queen Anne Hill and Lake Union.

Valentine

Happy St. Valentine's Day to all my faithful followers! Today's edition of Sepia Saturday concerns itself with this holiday, and so from my personal archives I dredge out these vintage cards which I have managed to hang onto for oh, over fifty years, knowing that someday I would find a use for them. Yes, these are actually leftovers from a batch I sent to my classmates around 1961, when I was in second grade, I think.

And here is the class itself! I suspect that this was one of my earliest attempts at photography, by my absence from the shot, and the tilt and altitude of the camera. I believe that the pensive girl at the center might be Wanda; at her feet is Lane, Preston (whose hair was always well Brilliantined) to his left in the stripes.

Here is another of my askew photos, of our beloved teacher, Mrs. Perry -- Gerry Perry -- Geraldine, that is. She taught me in third grade as well, before retiring. She was funny, kind, and occasionally fierce. I have never had a teacher I was more fond of.  And there is a self-portrait, myself drawing myself. Fidel Castro appears to be watching me, strangely. 

Anyway, on to the valentines... they came in a large booklet, and you carefully tore along the perforations... some, like this one, were their own envelopes.

This one is rather apt for me, isn't it?

Ooh, frilly underwear!

I love the combination of puns and stereotypes. Has anyone every really chewed on a piece of grass like that?

A bit stalker-ish...

I remember practicing telephone etiquette in class with one of these bulky things. We'd bought our house from a telephone company employee, who left Bell swag behind for my sister and me.

The "good old days" when no one worried about racism.

Or sexism.

When in doubt, go for a kitten!

Or a puppy!

Or...a pair of... sea lions. Whatever.

Sepia Lighthouse

This week's Sepia Saturday theme peripherally involves a lighthouse on an antique postcard... and I just happen to have a fitting entry in my collection, sent to my paternal grandmother seven years before my father was born.

Family historian though I am, I have no idea who cousin Camilla was. She must have been related to Jessie Bentley's relatives on the Daniels or Orr sides.

This park, and specifically the presumably decorative lighthouse, prove to have been popular postcard fodder.  Here's a bit more information about the park from another card...

And lastly, from Ebay, here's another copy of the card at the top of this page, sent a few years later to a Miss Vanderhoff at the Shredded Wheat Company in Niagara Falls!

Sepia Postal Wit

Here's another sampler from the recently discovered trove of postcards my father Nelson collected over the years.

The first one he appears to have, oddly, sent himself at the age of 19. Greenfield Village is not far at all from where he was living in Plymouth, Michigan west of Detroit. My guess is that this photo is a promotional item and not as old as it looks, as Greenmead Village was and still is a tourist attraction and "living museum" of historic structures collected by Greenfield-born Henry Ford. (You'll see on that website a recent photo of the Greek Revival building you see in this photo.)

I'm assuming this following postcard dates from around the same time (i.e., mid-1930s). His friends Bruce (Haines) and Bob (Warner) seem to have taken a road trip. Seems unlikely they actually visited the Williams Country Club.

"Nels - we have run out of money am sick and tired hope you are same." Damned if I know what that last word is. Here's what the scene looks like now...

Finally we have this acerbic little missive from a friend apparently on an extended east coast stay near Levittown NY. By this time my dad is in college at the U. of Mich. in Ann Arbor.

"...so quiet here that people often call it 'Deathpage.' I may die of boredom, but at least I'll save my money."

Interestingly, Bethpage is now home to another "living museum," Old Bethpage Village, presumably designed to not be boring.

Sepia Saturday: Exposition

My mother, now 90, excitedly phoned me to say she'd stumbled on an envelope full of old postcards in a drawer. They turned out to be my late father's collection, including a few that were sent to his parents in the early 1900s. Here's the first of what promises to be several posts about some of my favorites, by and large hand-tinted. For starters here are some souvenir cards from various exhibitions.

At age 21, my father Nelson uncharacteristically traveled, apparently alone, from rural Michigan to the 1939 World's Fair in New York. I like the abstract schematic nature of this card, partly because it's such an ironically unsatisfying view of the Fair! It looks sort of like a pizza that's been steamrollered.

"Looking up the Esplanade toward the Theme building, the gigantic Perisphere, and its attendant Trylon"

The postcard caption is a bit unclear but it appears that this is a photo of a model of the fair rather than an aerial photo of the actual fairgrounds. On the reverse side you can see his typical flamboyant pencil calligraphy as he updates his mother on his whereabouts.

Late the previous year, his friend Frank visited the same fair. Despite the "welcoming" statuary, I find this facade rather stark and monolithic.

"Her gesture is one of welcome."

Note the post office's admonition to "address your mail to street and number." Frank was good about this but Nelson, as you can see above, not so much.

A few years earlier still, Nelson's baby sister Margaret visited another exposition. I love the Art Deco architecture. I wonder if the blimp was really there or just added by an artist; it lens a rather "Metropolis" air to the picture. This is the year before the Hindenburg disaster...

"It is wonderful."

She refers to "we all" and as she was only 15, I assume she went with their elder sister Dorothy and father George. My grandmother was probably unable to travel due to her chronic tubercular condition and Nelson stayed to care for her.

By the time Nelson got to New York, his friend Frank had traveled to California. Here the architecture seems to meld Deco with Greek and Assyrian, neither of which have much to do with the Pacific Basin!

The names on the buildings aren't very legible but include De Soto, Federmann, Alvarado, Bougainville, La Perousse, and of course Cook.

Note that by this time my father has moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, attending the University.

Be sure to check out the Sepia Saturday site.