Sepia Saturday 73: 7 May 2011

So it's Sepia Saturday once again in Minnesota....and Alan has served a photo of a fascinating couple, Mr. and Mrs. Samuelsson, of Stigasa, Smaland, Sweden who are both tightly holding on to the other's hand...as a pledge of their love and as sturdy as their warm woolen clothes.....they are husband and wife......  So in honor of this lovely couple and Mother's Day (tomorrow) I'm going to follow the themers ....a bit this week and will introduce a few other engaging women......and of course.....their other half....

If you want to travel along the Sepia Saturday themes or post other sepia related photos then why not do it here http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2011/05/sepia-saturday-73-saturday-7th-may-2011.html

Before they were married...their life styles may have been sometimes peculiar, or off-color....

This silly posed lady says, "When a girl puts on a man's hat it's a sign she wants to kiss him."  This post card was mailed in 1909 (by someone with good humor)


here is the other side of it:

I actually got this postcard for free at a local shop.

...and while the ladies were out being stylish, or shopping...the men were often building new houses for their bride to be...before they popped the big question...as Andrew Peterson pictured here in 1898.  Isn't his log home just a masterpiece?  He built this log cabin in the 1850's for his new family.

(Note, actually women back in those days did work very hard, and more often sewed their own clothes ...)

 Perhaps Andrew Peterson knew the Samuelssons....since he was born in Sweden in 1818 and came to the United States in about 1850.  Peterson kept diaries until he died in 1898.  Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg based a series of novels beginning with "The Emmigrants," from those diaries...and later the series were made into movies.  Back in those days you helped your fellow neighbor and together with each other's help, they made it through thick and thin....

"In the morning I did a bit of everything, also did an errand at Lundsten. In the afternoon I cut more hay."

Here is a part of an interesting newspaper article from 1880 in the Minneapolis Tribune of life as a Swede in Minnesota...."The drinking water here is very poor, and to all good luck the population here is mostly Norwegians, Swedes and Germans, and they will of course not drink water, but whisky and beer, so they do not notice the need of good water very much as sober people might do.  I am lodging here in a saloon that is owned by a Swede whose name is Solberg.  They drank and played very good but this did not give me any pleasure..."

When I read these tidbits about life in the early days of Minnesota I have to wonder what is a true Minnesotan?  I wasn't born here, but two of my children were, and they have great-grandparents that were born in Norway and Sweden....hmmm.

Moving right along into the wedding section....and slightly out of the ordinary changes......to the traditional wedding dresses....

There are many thoughts about why a woman back then would decide on a black wedding dress, although they make many beautiful black dresses yet today....Yet, I'm sure a bride would not pick black for these past reasons.  Some say it was wise to spend money on a dress that would be suitable to wear more often then the frilly white dress, left to hang.  Or, that the bride was marrying a widower, (although in this photo he appears quite young to be a widower.)  Other countries outside of the United States wore them as a traditional dress.....for what ever reason, this bride wore black with a white veil...and what about his interesting cross shaped decoration..... is it made of paper (perhaps their marriage certificate or a prayer) and are there flowers there too?  Whatever he's wearing it's often found in wedding photos....someone please explain more about this if you know...I find it a mystery.
and then we have Mr. and Mrs. Prestige......or so they seem....

Doesn't he seem to have the look of really holding in his breath?  I do hope their life together after this day was filled with more pleasure then this!  Don't you?  We must notice that no cost was spared on this fashionable statement of wedding dresses....maybe the flower (weathered) like attachments had special meaning other than looking so out of place....maybe they were scraps from other wedding dresses of loved ones for good luck....sometimes you just never know....people can do the strangest things at weddings.  Something old, something borrowed, and something blue.....you know.