Miss Lillian's Postcards - Vintage Tweets: Tillie Has a Nice Vacation

Postcard 33

Sender: Tillie
Addressee: Miss Lillian Maguire, 1902 G" Terry Ave, Seattle, Wash.
Postmark: St Louis MO
Date: July 21, 1908
Image: Nature art (spring; polychrome art series)

Well, there's not much information about this art reproduction. The picture paints a lovely spring scene in nature. The trees are just starting to leaf out and is that a flowering cherry tree in the center?

Message:

Hello, Lillian; - 

How are you, I 

received your pretty postal,

was very glad to hear

from you, and I thank

you very much. I had

my vacation last week,

had a fine time. I

will write later, and tell

you all about it. Hoping

you are all well, and I

hear from you again soon.

Your friend, Tillie

Lillian's former co-worker, Tillie, sends a hello to Lillian in this postcard. She thanks Lillian for her last postcard, lets her know she just had a week of vacation and will write later with the details in a letter. Now if only I had those letters! :)

A lovely blouse with jabot and beautifully trimmed vest (1907)

What Was Miss Lillian Wearing?

While we have no pictures of Miss Lillian Maguire, we can look at fashion magazines from that decade and get an idea of what she may have been wearing. From a 1907 issue of Ladies Home Journal are these wonderful images of the fashion of the day. Don't you just love the lush and romantic look of the Gibson Girl-era fashion?

Goodness, they do wear a lot of fabric, don't they? I am trying to visualize Miss Lillian as one of these women.... So be watching for them - I'll be adding one of the ladies in the image below to my Miss Lillian's Postcards posts, just to help make our picture of Miss Lillian more...complete. :)

Introducing Miss Lillian's Postcards: Vintage Tweets from the 1900s

Long before Twitter and Facebook (let alone computers!), people used "penny postcards" (also called "postals") to send short messages, quick thoughts, and brief acknowledgments, often as an interim between letters.  Letters, of course, contained "full" correspondence.

I own an album of vintage postcards that begin in 1906 (the Gibson Girl era!), with the last card posted 1953. I thought it would be fun to share this vintage treasure with you. It is a journey to another time, looking at another life in snippets.

The life we are going get a peek at is the original collector of the cards, Miss Lillian Martha Maguire (born in 1882, died in 1974). The cards are mostly messages beween her and family and friends, while some are simply a record of places she visited (the images on postcards served as a record, in those days before people commonly had cameras).

How did I come to own these? Miss Maguire was an elderly neighbor who lived two doors up the street from the house where I grew up in Seattle (back in the 1950s and 1960s), and was single all her life. She was a member of the same church as our family (St Benedict's Catholic Church), and upon her death, she left her estate to the church. From the estate my mother purchased the album of postcards and a painting (I'll talk more about that in a later post). When my mother passed away about 10 years ago, I inherited both the painting and this album of postcards.

That was a bit longer introduction than I had planned. I hope that you find this series interesting. :) Let the journey begin!

Postcard 001

Sender: Sister of Lillian, Anne (and husband Adolph) Mueller
Addressee: Mrs. H. Maguire, 3004 Vine Grove Ave, St Louis, MO, USA
Postmark: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Date: July 17, 1906
Image: Stony Creek Bridge
Message:

Dear Mama,
We arrived here safe & sound & only 10 minutes late. We leave on the "Princess Victoria" for Seattle at 1 P.M. expect to get in there at 11 to-night. I guess Papa is home by now. We have traveled 3590 miles so far, & the trip is just grand. Love to all.

                                                             A & A

We crossed this bridge & my heart was in my neck all the time, this is a very deep canyon.      A.

Summer 1938 - Three Flattering Frocks

On the left, a crepe frock with a slim skirt, slim sleeves, and a colorful lightly gathered inset across the bust.

In the center, a pretty print redingote is worn over a plain slip of a dress, to excellent and flattering effect.

On the right, a full "Gibson girl" blouse of sheer fabric contrasts with a crisply knife-pleated skirt, with a print sash that pulls them together. :)