Sepia Saturday #172 - Mystery Wedding March

When I saw the archive photo for this week's Sepia Saturday prompt titled, "Palmer's Mystery Hike No. 2," I knew immediately what I was going to use.  I should probably save it for one of my "Wedding Wednesday" posts, but it just seems to fit this theme.  My photo is actually a real photo postcard of a wedding party from probably the 1940's walking down a cobblestone street.  I purchased this postcard from a gentleman in Germany and as it has a very European feel I suspect that may have also been the location.  Unfortunately, it was pasted into an album and then torn out so there are no identifying marks left on the back.

What a happy day this must have been for the couple,  I have to wonder where they were walking from (the church?), where they were walking to (a pub?), what was their story, who were they, were they happy the rest of their lives?

Take a hike on over to Sepia Saturday to see more great photos!

Sentimental Sunday - Women with Hats - Two Ladies Strolling in Berlin ca 1890

These two lovely ladies, possible sisters, are wearing nearly identical hats, dress styles and are posing with matching umbrellas.  The photographer was Pflaum & Co. of Berlin, Germany.  These unidentified ladies probably posed for this photograph about 1890.  I did not have any luck finding any information on the photographer.

Wedding Wednesday - 1905 - 1910 Couple from Milwaukee, WI

This first photograph features an unidentified  newly wedded couple in Milwaukee dated probably between 1905 - 1910.  In this photo the bride is standing next to the groom who is seated in a chair.  She is quite lovely in her white satin gown.  There are so many interesting details to this dress, the high neck, the sleeves which are poufy on the upper arms and fitted at the lower, and the trimmed tiers on the skirt.  Her headdress and white rose bouquet are quite simple and beautiful as well.  Her groom is very dashing in his dark suit and he sports a matching boutonniere.  I can see a ring on his right hand, but not on his left.  She has a small brooch at her neck.

What was interesting to me when I purchased this photograph was that it came with a second photo - one of the bride and her maid-of-honor which could possibly be her sister judging by their facial features.  In this photo the bride is seated and the other woman is standing.  The bride's pose gives us a better glimpse of her dress especially the lovely ruching detail of her sleeves and bodice.  In this photo you can see that she too is wearing a ring on her right hand. The second woman's dress is also white with many ruffles.  Her neckline is lower and she is wearing a pearl necklace.  She also appears to be wearing white gloves and is holding a large bouquet of white roses which may be the bride's.   I find the facial expressions on all the subjects quite interesting.  I know it was quite common for photographers to shoot their subjects sans smiles or with little expression, but these people almost seem bored.  I find the pictures striking however, especially with the starkness of the white dresses against the dark backgrounds.

The photographers were Gumerman & Gardner located at 412 National Ave. in Milwaukee. Gumerman was Johan Georg Gumerman born 10 Sep 1882 in Oberwarmensteinach, Bayern, Germany.  He changed his name to George at some point after emigrating to the U.S. and on 16 May 1905 in Milwaukee he married Amanda Mary Jubeck (1885 - 1979).  He operated a photography studio with George Gardner as early as 1905, but they moved to the 412 National Ave. address probably about 1906.  Gumerman died in Milwaukee, WI on 15 Oct 1962.  I no luck finding any  information on George Gardner as there are too many listings in that name on Ancestry.com for Milwaukee.

Wedding Wednesday - Starchy Hooper, Nebraska Couple

There's a lot to look at in this wedding photo of a young couple in the late 1890's or very early 1900's in Hooper, Nebraska.  The unidentified married couple are sitting side-by-side and their body language is a bit stiff. Although he is leaning his knee into hers, he seems rather tense, note how his hands are fisted.

The bride's dark colored dress is a little unusual with the floral bodice insert and high neckline as well as cuffs and belt.  The dress also has puffed up sleeves at the shoulders and beautiful trim sewn on the lower sleeves as well as in several tiers along the bottom of the skirt.  One can assume this dress was to be used over and over again as her Sunday best. Her bridal bonnet/headpiece was quite lovely and typical of the very early 1900's with the beautiful sprigs of flowers and trailing vines.   She is not holding a bouquet, but does have a small corsage which adds to all the busyness. If you look closely  you can see her wedding ring as well as the groom's.

The woman standing behind her I am going to assume is her sister because there is a striking resemblance.  She appears quite tall and trim and is also wearing a dark dress and corsage. She personifies the Gibson Girl look of the time.  Both the groom and best man are wearing boutonnieres that match the bride's headpiece and the best man has the most unusual striped bow-tie.

The cabinet card itself is most unusual and is the first I have seen like it.  The background is a striped paper and the photographer's mark is deeply embossed.  I had much trouble reading the photographer's name and after much research on the Internet I finally discovered that he is Peter Wilhelm Traulsen.  Traulsen was born 13 Sep 1862 at Tating, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.  He attended school in Germany and served three years in the German army.  In 1887 he emigrated to the United States from Hamburg with his two brothers, Herman and Claus.  Upon his arrival he worked as a painter in Minton, Iowa.  In 1891 he moved to Hooper, NE where after a short time he took up the trade of photographer.  He opened a studio in Hooper  and became one of the area's leading photographers of the late 19th and 20th centuries.  On 14 Jun 1896 he married Wanda Augusta Kruger, also from Germany, and they had three children.  Peter Traulsen died 30 Nov 1926 and is buried at Hooper Cemetery in Dodge County, NE.

Sources:
1.  NEGenWeb Project -Darrell Moyer,  http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/asc/photog/obits-notes.htm
2.  Find-A-Grave
3.  Ancestry.com

Sepia Saturday #132 - Love, Set, Match - Two Little German Boys

This week's Sepia Saturday theme centers around tennis, in fact the photograph on their blog site is from 1971 taken in Fort Lauderdale, FL of Dinah Shore and Burt Bacharach most likely at a celebrity tournament.  This is most interesting to me because I was a teenager growing up in Fort Lauderdale at that very time.  I spent many hours hanging out with my friends at Holiday Park where the famous Chris Evert practiced tennis on a daily basis with her father before she became a world class champion.  I myself could never hit a tennis ball worth a darn - I spent more time chasing the ball all over the court than actually hitting it!  Holiday Park is a large, very popular park with tennis courts, ball diamonds, basketball courts, playgrounds, a theater, etc.  My father coached Little League baseball for my brothers' teams and our family spent many nights at that park.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this time, but it brought back a lot of fond memories. 

However, I do have this CDV photograph of two very cute Hamburg, Germany boys in "matching" suits that I thought I would share.    It comes with an interesting story about the photographer.  In this photo the boys are holding toy tennis rackets and standing next to a toy rocking horse. They are wearing the most adorable outfits; I'm not sure how to describe them, they almost resemble sailor suits.  The photographer is Waarenhaus Hermann Tietz (department store).  On the back of the card it says, "Waarenhaus" which means "a site where mass products are sold" or "department store". According to Wikipedia, Herman Tietz was a German merchant of Jewish origin who was born on 29 Apr 1837 in Birnbaum an der Warthe  near Posen (today Miedzychód, Poland) and died in Berlin 3 May 1907.

He was the first to create the idea of a department store in Germany and founded the chain store which would become known as "Hertie".  His first store was opened in 1882 in Gera (Thuringia, Germany) by his nephew Oskar Tietz.  After successful stores were established in smaller towns like Bamberg, Erfurt, Rostock, Stralsund and Wismar, Tietz opened his department store in Berlin.  In 1900 he opened a store in Leipziger StraBe, in 1904 Alexanderplatz, Hamburg in 1912.  By 1927 the Tietz chain had ten stores and 13,000 employees.

In the Third Reich, all businesses of the Tietz family were "Aryanized" (seized and given to new owners) and the family members emigrated.  In 1933, Georg Karg, the new owner, changed the company's name to the less Jewish-sounding "Hertie Department Stores" as an abbreviation of Hermann Tietz.

I'm not entirely sure how to date this Cartes de Visite.  The card is slightly larger than most CDVs and is quite thick which would usually lead one to think it dated between 1880 and 1890.  CDV's were rarely seen after 1890.  Since it has been reported that Tietz did not open his Hamburg store until 1912 I am at a loss to explain or give a good date for this photo.  Perhaps one of my readers can offer some insight.

Sources:   

1.  Wikipedia

2.  Shoah Resource Center, 

http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205622.pdf

Please drop by Sepia Saturday to check out the other "love"ly entries for this week's tennis theme.

Wedding Wednesday - Couple from Waldmunchen, Germany

This well-dressed bride and groom are from Waldmunchen, a town in the district of Cham in Bavaria, Germany situated near the border of the Czech Republic.  There is no date and nothing to identify this couple.  The bride is wearing a beautiful headdress, white gloves, a floor length veil and is carrying a large bouquet of flowers.  She is wearing a dark colored dress with unusual lace panels on the skirt and around the high neckline.  She also us wearing several  unique pieces of jewelry as well.  You will notice she is several inches taller than her groom.

The photographer was Joseph Missoni of Cham.  I believe this cabinet card, which is on the black, graphite type cardboard to have been taken around 1900 give or take a couple of years.