7th of September 1904

"Just after our Tea will soon be home again lots of people on the sands." C.C.

This is a Reliable Series 1634 colour postcard of Municipal Buildings, Portobello. 
It was sent to Mrs. Morrison, at 33 Mayfield Gdns, Edinburgh from Portobello, Scotland on September 7, 1904, by Christina Campbell, who signs herself C.C.

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Mrs. Morrison was likely the lady of the house where Christina worked.  As with her brother, Christina addresses Mrs. M, with the same abrupt somewhat directive - 'Just ...'.  And as in previous postcards the focus is on time which occurs at the end of phrases:  after our Tea, again. There is no polite salutation 'Dear ...' on this postcard. And it concludes abruptly with no 'Love to all ...' sort of thing.  Salutations, and conclusions, on many of the postcards where very formulaic.  This lack of conformity is odd - giving Christina's postcards an abrupt sound.  Again, I wonder about speech patterns. 

Portobello is a beach area not far from Edinburgh.  This particular postcard shows the town and notably a 'hatter' in the lower right corner.  Pretty much everyone, domestics included, wore elaborate hats.  Some are visible in this photograph. 

There is a motorized double decker trolley operating in the center of the street and the photographer is at ground level looking up which adds stature to the buildings.  The time is just past 11:30 in the morning on the clock in the steeple.  There are electric street lights in this shot.   

Domestics of that era took short trips to beach areas on their days off, and sent postcards that would become part of each other's collections. 

24th of August, 1904

33 Mayfield Gardens

"Just a line to say if a dry day I will be along tomorrow afternoon. I will try to be before you go back from at your dinner hour."  Tennie

Mr. A. Campbell

c/o Mrs. Moir

15 Cathcart Pl

Edinburgh

The postcard picture was by E. Longstaffe with distribution by S. Hildesheimer & Co., Ltd. London, Manchester. Printed in Bavaria No. 5171.

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Christina sent this view of Pass of Llabberis from Edinburgh on August 24, 1904.  It is one of two postcards to her brother that were returned to her and have survived numerous travails – most of them involving water. 

Christina Campbell & Mother, Jane Grant Campbell circe: 1909

Christina Campbell left Scotland in about 1910.  The last postcard in her collection is dated 1908.  She married (September 13, 1911) Alexander Dewar, an immigrant from Stirling, Scotland.   

Christina left her family in Scotland and made the voyage to Canada alone – by ship, over water, of course.  With her, she brought her 350 odd postcard collection.  One can only speculate that she was tied to the views of Scotland or to the memory of all those people who had contributed to her collection.  For her to have brought them along, they must have had a sentimental value.  Or perhaps it was status in a domestic world where possessions were few and far between. I don’t know. Whatever the reason, they resided with her in her home on Inkster, in Winnipeg, until her death in 1948. 

Catherine Dewar & James L. Graham June 28, 1947.

Which is where my mother, Catherine Stewart Dewar Graham, steps in.  She married my dad, James (Jim) Lynch Graham June 28, 1947.  They continued to live in the upstairs of the Dewar home on Inkster which was a good thing.  I was born April 6, 1948, and my grandmother collapsed shortly thereafter and was cared for in her home by my mother until her death October 13, 1948. Mom then inherited my Grandfather. According to Mom, the day after my grandmother’s death, a brilliantly splendid warm Winnipeg fall display of coloured leaves ended abruptly when all the trees simultaneously shed their foliage.  But, be that as it may, upon Christina's death, Catherine Stewart Dewar Graham became the guardian of the postcard collection, and numerous other contentious items.  My mother had a sister. My Grandmother did not have a will.    

Spring of 1950 saw rising flood waters on Inkster and many streets throughout the city of  Winnipeg.  My mother, with her 2-year old daughter, me, left Inkster by boat in the wee small hours of the morning.  Dad was out sandbagging, to little avail. I don't recall ever being told where my grandfather was. Perhaps he manned the boat, or was also sandbagging. I know he spent the merry month of May with us - us being Mom, her sister Jean, my cousins David and Andrew, and me - in Matlock. They had moved everything they could to the second floor of the house before evacuating.  Somehow, I suspect that is where the postcards spent the flood.  They remained dry.  Next stop – St. James, where my dad reckoned we - he, Mom, Grandad and me - would be high and dry.

But back to this postcard.  It is a beautiful view of an old stone bridge with mountains in the background, rocks, stream and flowers – could be heather, possibly mixed with daffodils. There are two people on the bridge.  They look young.  A young boy in blue with a red tie, and a slightly older girl in yellow.  The background is slightly hazy.  The sky is idyllically blue with cumulous clouds drifting by. It’s a safe bet to say that this postcard is warm and cozy with it's bright colours and appealed to my grandmother on that day in August, 1904 when she selected it to send to her brother. 

The text on the back is short.  The return address is once more top right justified.  And again we see that abrupt omission of phrases that creates imperatives – Just a line …. Curious to see that she leaves a word out of the second sentence – ‘will try to be ______ before you go back …,’ but feels compelled to correct ‘from’ to ‘at’ a somewhat minor nuance of meaning. 

And again, we see Christina ending sentences with time references:  tomorrow afternoon, dinner hour.  This message is an attempt to arrange a meeting, so it is expected that there will be some mention of times, but as in the first postcard to her brother, Christina consistently ends sentences with time references. 

Perhaps there is more going on here than co-incidence.  Perhaps this is an indicator of marked speech patterns.  Fortunately, we have 3 more cards belonging to Christina to look at.   

7th of December, 1904

This Edinburgh postcard taken from Blackford Hill contains lines from the  poem Marmion by Sir Walter Scott.  It reads:

Blackford: on whose uncultured breast

Among the broom, and thorn and whin,

A tenant boy, I sought the nest,

Or listed as I lay at rest,

While rose on breezes thin,

The murmur of the city crowd.

The photographer was:  W. & A. K. Johnston Limited, Edinburgh, Glasgow & London.

"Just a p.c. to ask if you are keeping all right now. trust you are I had Miss Houliston up to-night.  She was asking kindly for you trust to hear from you soon."  Tennie

Mr. A. G. Campbell

c/o Mrs. Moir

15 Cathcart Pl.

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Christina Campbell (1878 - 1948) wrote this postcard to her brother, A.G. Campbell, and posted it in Edinburgh on December 7, 1904.  A.G. Campbell also lived in Edinburgh at this time.  Presumably, he returned the postcard to her for her collection. 

The message has an informal tone accomplished by removing the phrase 'this is' before 'just' and removing the pronoun 'I' before 'trust' which creates imperatives: Just a p.c. …, trust you are …, trust to hear …; the use of abbreviations: p.c.; lack of punctuation and initial word capitalization: … now. trust …, … you are I had …, … for you trust to hear ….; lack of salutation such as ‘Dear …’;  Abrupt closure: trust to hear from you soon. 

The message states that the p.c. is to ask after her brother’s well-being, and forward a message from a Miss Houliston who also was asking about her brother’s well-being.  She chooses to insert a positive appraisal of Miss Houliston’s manner of inquiry contained in the word ‘kindly.’ She also states ‘I had Miss Houliston up to-night,’ rather than ‘Miss Houliston was up to-night.’  This allows Christina to be the possessor, the initiator, of the visit that took place.  Miss Houliston is reduced to a subordinate position in Christina’s telling of the event. 

Looking at the nouns and pronouns, which are the participants in this scenario, Christina refers to herself once in this missive: I. This single use places her in charge of the event that follows.  She reduces her presence in the rest of the text by omitting ‘I’s’ and in so doing creates imperatives.  These imperatives are mild and read more like directives than orders.  She also removes herself from inquiry by personifying the p.c. and having it ask in her absence.  These choices substantially reduce her role in this message with the exception of her leadership in having Miss Houliston up.

Christina refers to her guest twice:  Miss Houliston, and she.  There are 33 words in this message.  The middle of this text would be the first reference to Miss Houliston.  Often the meat of a message is concealed in the center of the text. 

Christina makes four references to the recipient of this message – her brother:  you (4). Use of 2^nd person, you, is also an imperative – in this case, a directive. 

So, Christina had the kindly Miss Houliston up and Miss H was asking after her brother’s well-being after which Christina took it upon herself to immediately notify (it’s still to-night) her brother and trust that he will respond soon. Words like trust, and kindly, are emotive.  And the use of subtle directives suggest behaviour rather than demand it.  

So, initially, Christina reduces her presence in the delivery of the message.  Then she steps up with her single use of the pronoun 'I' and arranges Miss Houliston’s visit and appraises her query as kindly.  And finally, she emotively directs her brother’s response to what has transpired and what is expected of him.

It appears there might be an element of informal matchmaking in this postcard.

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Linguistic notes:  return address top right justified, sentences end with time reference:  now, to-night, soon.  Use of imperatives.  Signed Tennie. 

A FEW STATISTICS

These charts show that the majority of the postcards Christina Campbell received in 1904 were sent from Edinburgh, and mailed in the month of August. 

MEASURED WORDS

Like my grandmother, Christina Campbell Dewar, I am a collector.  I collect stories.  Measured Words an anthology is my first published collection of stories. In addition to text, I wanted this collection to be visual, so I requested pictures to accompany each story.  Many of the stories in this collection are historical memoirs.  That is what my grandmother's postcard collection became - a series of historical memoirs.  And Grandma Dewar was a cook, so I included recipes in this anthology. I have included a link to Measured Words because it is my 21st century postcard collection. I thank the following people who wrote the stories for this anthology: 

Lauren Blue, Ellen Burns, Charlotte Caron, Dana L. Coates, Tracy Gregory, Althea Guiboche, Elizabeth M. Hunter, Pamela Kat Johnson, Lovern Kindzierski, Leona MacDonald, Glynis C. Morris, Charmaine Johnson Putnam, Andrea Ridgedale, Clayton Schneider, Jennifer Schneider, Judy Stoddart, Oriole Vane Veldhuis

Edwardian Postcards - Picturing the Past

Welcome to Edwardian Postcards.  I will be sharing a collection of approximately 350 Edwardian Postcards that belonged to my grandmother, Christina Campbell Dewar.  She lived and worked in Edinburgh, Scotland from about 1904 to 1910, after which she came to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The postcard shown here is a picture of the Victorian mansion where she worked as a cook. Today 33 Mayfield Gardens is a Bed and Breakfast. I stayed there in 2006, and took my own shot of this street.

These postcards were the subject of an academic study in 2006, 2007 resulting in four academic presentations and papers published in Canada and Denmark. The study was by Dr. Karen Malcolm, University of Winnipeg, and Barbara J. Becker, Linguistic Consultant.  We looked at the text messages on the back of the postcards as well as the visual message on the fronts of the postcards. A link to the online Denmark paper is included.


Along the way, I learned a lot about Edwardian Scotland.