If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 496

 

 

 

 

 

Exterior, side view of Johanneskirken, Bergen, Norway, 1909

 

This week two different views of Johanneskirken, Bergen on postcards are being shared.  The card above is identified as an Eneberettiget & Mittet Co. and dated 1909 at the lower right corner.  Mittet & Co. was one of the major postcard publishers in Norway in the early 1900s.  The company name is sometimes written as Eneret & Mittet Co.

 

Below is a Normann postcard from 1951 that shows the front view of the same church.  It has “Normann” written at the lower right corner and the number 14/645 at the lower left corner.  Both cards were found pasted in one of Dick Thompson’s scrapbooks.

 

Exterior front view of Johanneskirken, Bergen, Norway, 1951

 

It is a red brick church built between 1891 and 1894 and is one of the five churches that form the Bergen Cathedral parish.  Herman Backer (1856-1932), architect, designed the cruciform, Gothic Revival style building that seats about 1250 people, making it the largest church in Bergen.  In 1924 ceiling frescos were completed by Hugo Lous Mohr (1889-1970 and in 1967 the original organ built by Schlag & Söhne of Wurttemberg, Germany was modernized.  The altar piece was designed by Marcus Grønvold in 1894 and shows Christ in prayer.  There are four stair towers and a carillon designed by Verein Bochum, in Bochum, Westphalia.  Johanneskirken was a parish church in Bergen from 1894 until 2002, at which time several of the urban churches combined to form the Bergen Cathedral parish.

 

The Interior views of the church are found on Wikipedia.org.

 

The interior

 By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82675180

 

 

 The organ

By Alfred Diem from Wien, Austria - 0906_Kreuzfahrt_Norwegen_1868Uploaded by Jorunn, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7393134 

 

 

 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John’s_Church,_Bergen

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 495

 

 

 

 

 

Statue of Ludvig Holberg, Bergen, Norway, ca 1951

 

The postcard shared this week is one from Dick Thompson’s scrapbooks.  It has a photograph by Normann with the number 4704 at the lower left corner.  The title is "Bergen – Holbergstatuen."  This card was purchased when Dick visited Norway in 1951.

 

Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) was born in Bergen, Norway when the country was under a dual monarchy between Denmark and Norway.  He was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian, playwright, and considered to be the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature.  Although his works concerning natural and common law were widely read by many Danish law students, he is best known for the comedies he wrote for the Lille Grønnegade Theatre in Copenhagen. 

 

Given that his father died when Holberg was very young, and that he was the youngest of six brothers, it seems remarkable that he was able to become well-educated and well-traveled.  He had to live a modest life in his youth and young adulthood, earning his living as a tutor and acting as a traveling companion for noblemen.  Because he lived conservatively most of his life, he was able to invest a large part of the profits from the sale of his books.  Some of his investments included real estate.  He liked traveling on foot and continued walking most of his life, stating that it kept him healthier by helping him control malaria he had caught while in the south.

 

When he was in his teens, he visited large cities in The Netherlands, and France, spent time in Rome, and a longer period of time in Oxford, England. He taught at the University of Copenhagen for many years, at the same time starting a successful career as an author.   Although he was never formally admitted to Oxford University, he spent time there using the libraries and participating in Latin discussions with English students.  His travels were the main inspiration for his later writings.  He believed in people’s inner divine right of reason and that education was to teach students to use their senses and intellect instead of just memorizing material from books. 

 

Holberg never married and was childless.  By the end of his life, he had a small fortune.  In his will he left a legacy to the Søro Academy.  Because of his generous donation the king agreed that the entire estate would be free from taxation.  Holberg also earned the title of Baron of Holberg. 

 

The statue on the card was created by the Swedish sculptor, John Börjeson (1835-1910) and is located in Bergen, Norway.

 

 

 A slightly different view of the statue, 2014

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludvig_Holberg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Börjeson

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 494

 

 

 

 

 

Wm. Brown and dog team, 1909

 

The caption on this vintage postcard says:  “Wm. Brown made the trip from Grand Forks [North Dakota] to Seattle [Washington] at an average of 45 miles per day.”  Dick Thompson has penned in the date of 1905 and a note: “If you look close you find me there.”  There is a barely visible “X” just above his head at the upper mid left of the photo.

 

This is one of several postcards found in Dick Thompson’s scrapbooks.  I’m not sure when he assembled the scrapbooks but probably toward the end of his life in the 1960s.  He used magnetic photo albums that were popular at that time but have proved to be ruinous for photos.  He also used glue and tape on many of the pictures and clippings.  As a result, most cannot be removed from the pages to see the reverse side and many have been damaged over time from the glue and tape.  This image has been altered to remove some of the damage from tape.  Also, since he put the books together long after the events, some of the dates are inaccurate, as is the case in this example.  A newspaper clipping from the Bismark Daily Tribune [North Dakota], dated 30 April 1909, provided information about the upcoming race. 

 

Two men, W. G. Buchanan and William Brown with their buggies and dog teams started out from Grand Forks, N.D., on the 10^th of May 1909 heading for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition just opening in Seattle, Washington.  On their way across the country, they planned to do some “boosting” for Grand Forks.  They hoped that local Grand Forks businessmen would help support them as a form of advertisement. 

 

Buchanan and Brown both had similar four-wheel buggies.  Buchanan’s dogs were bird dogs while Brown’s team were Newfoundland dogs and stag hounds.  Both men had been training their dogs all winter.  Brown estimated that his team could average 45 miles per day and where the roads were good, better than that.  He admitted that the mountains would be more challenging and slower.  Among his long-distance training runs were trips from Grand Forks to Minneapolis, and another trip to Winnipeg, he said, to give the dogs some exercise.  Buchanan’s bird dogs, (Labrador retrievers, German short-haired pointers, Boykin Spaniels, Golden retrievers, Vizslas, and Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retrievers), were slightly lighter weight dogs but he was confident they would give Brown’s team a good race. 

 

As can be seen from the card, Brown and his team of dogs were the winners, averaging about 45 miles per day.  Other stunts like this were carried out by walkers, such as Helga and Clara Estby who entered a $10,000 challenge from a sponsor in 1896, and walked from Spokane, Washington to New York City.  Although they walked the distance and hoped for the money to save the family farm, they did not receive it.  In 1905, for the Lewis & Clark centennial, a pair of 7-horse power Curved Dash Oldsmobile Runabouts, Old Scout and Old Steady, went from New York to Portland, Oregon following the Oregon and California Trail and the Union Pacific railroad.  Since there were no regular roads from Nebraska westward the route was chosen to facilitate supplies along the trip.  Old Scout, the winner of the race, was driven by Dwight Huss and his mechanic and co-driver, Milford Wigle.  Old Steady was driven by Percy Megargel and Barton Stanchfield.  In more recent times there have been a number of individuals who have biked or walked across the country to raise funds for various causes. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poeple_who_have_walked...

https://en.wikipedi.org/wiki/Newfoundland_dog

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30361914/william-brown-and-wgbuchanan-to-race/

https://www.worldofspeed.org/archive-blog-1/2017/12/19/old-scout-made-it-to-portland-in-1905-winning-the-first-transcontinental-car-race

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 493

 

 

 

 

Gare des Bénédictins (railway station), Limoges, France

 

This used Editions Rene postcard has the number 87098 at the upper left corner on the reverse.  The photograph, by Chalou A., is of the Gare des Bénédictins, Limoges, France.  This is the main railway station of Limoges and was named after a Benedictine monastery.  During the French Revolution the monastery was closed.

 

The early French railways company, Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans or CF du PO, opened the first Limoges rail station in the 1850s.  It was built of wood and about ten years later replaced by a stone station that opened in 1860.  Then, in 1918 the city council  reached an agreement with CF du PO for the construction of a new station, built between 1924 and 1929.  Under the tracks is an underground roadway used by the Germans during World War II as a passive defense shelter that is partly walled off today.  However, a sign “nur für Wehrmacht (only for army)” is still there.  In 1944, acting on information from the Resistance, the Allies bombarded the area and prevented movement of trains for more than a week. 

 

In January 1975 the station was listed as an historic monument and work began to restore the Great Hall that was completed in 1979. 

 

Disasters associated with the station include a fire that broke out in the dome in 1998 with no loss of life, and, a derailment in 2013 that resulted in the death of seven people.  Following the fire, the city had the dome rebuilt to its original design. 

 

Roger Gonthier (1884-1978) was the French architect who designed the station.  It was built over ten railway lines instead of next to them.  A 90 by 78 m (approximately 297 by 257 ft) platform supports the building.  Constructed of concrete the building is filled in with limestone with the dome having a metal frame and covered in copper.  The clock tower, seen at the left on the card, is 200 ft or 67 m tall and has four clocks.  The first floors of the station contain offices.  Stunning views of the city can be seen from the top floors.  Considered one of the last great monumental train stations in France it remains a landmark building.

 

As always, thank you to a friend for sending this card.

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limoges-Bénédictins_station

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limoges

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Gonthier