If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 24

Little girl in Hardanger bunad, ca 1900s
[Mittet & Co. No 6]

Postcards reached the height of their popularity in the early 1900s when they were a preferred method of sending short messages with the added bonus of a picture. Publishing companies branched out and added postcards to their selections. The company that printed this card, Mittet & Company A/S of Oslo, Norway, was established in 1899 by Ingebrigt Mittet and developed by his two sons Knut and Søren Mittet. They published children’s books and other items but are best known as the most productive postcard publisher in Norway printing a wide variety of cards. The Norwegian National Archives have 265 negatives from this company most on glass plates. Themes for the cards range from the Norwegian royal family, churches, Oslo, Arkerhus fortress, parades on “Help the Children’s Day” in 1906 and others. The glass plates were the basis for the postcards from 1905 to 1930. For more information about Mittet & Co. please see the Norwegian archives site at http://www.arkivverket.no/eng.

Since this card is of a child I did wonder if it might have been associated with the Help the Children’s Day. The postmark on the reverse of the card is not clear enough to read the date but there is a Roman numeral VI in the middle of the stamp. Mrs. Gimlet was delighted to see the detail on this postcard but somewhat horrified to see this little girl with the Hardanger lace in her mouth! And in truth, the reason the card attracted me to it in the first place was the detail of the lace embroidery on the apron as much as the cute little girl. It takes hours and hours of the most painstakingly meticulous work to do this type of embroidery and cutwork. Here is an example of Mrs. Gimlet’s handwork for the baby gown she is currently making for her newest little niece or nephew expected in this month. Curly’s mother and Curly will make the dress itself using the pieces Mrs. Gimlet has embroidered. Then later, in September, Mrs. G hopes to enter the finished product in the needlework competition at the Puyallup Fair. This is an heirloom in the making!

The collar section of the blessing gown
[photo courtesy of Heather Laurence]

I thought I would share a couple of family stories from the Landaas family. This family lived in the Hardanger area of Norway. All the girls had the silver sølje pins and some of them had the local bunad as well. Two examples of the pins are shown below. The pin on the top is modern the small pin on the bottom is old, probably about 125 years old, and is handmade. Both pins are silver with the top pin all silver while the smaller pin has brass spoons. The measuring tape is there to provide an idea of the sizes. The smaller pin would typically have been used on a child’s costume. If you look closely at the postcard you will see that this little girl is wearing a rather large pin that is attached to the blouse but hangs down into the vest.

Sølje

The Landaas family lived most of the year in the city of Bergen where the father, Peder Landaas, worked as a carpenter and woodcarver. I believe he also did some cabinetry work. Peder’s parents lived north of Bergen at a farm called Fiskeset. During the summer months the children and possibly their mother went up to the farm where they could help the grandparents. The two oldest Landaas girls, Mikkeline (Maggie) and Petra usually had the job of tending the sheep and goats up on the mountainside. Maggie loved the outdoors and the farm in general and thought it much better than living in the city. Petra on the other hand preferred living in the city and was not overly fond of going up to the farm. These girls were tiny. Even as an adult Petra never reached 5 feet in height and was quite slender when she was a girl. Taking care of the ewes, lambs, kids and nanny goats wasn’t too bad but there was at least one nasty ram that gave the girls quite a bit of trouble.

One of the stories Petra would tell was about the ram and how he would run at her and her sister and butt them hard enough to send them sprawling on the ground. He was a fearsome creature from her description with huge horns. One day he came at her and instead of walking away after tossing her down on the ground he kept coming back to ram her again and again. She did not know what to do to get away from him but she was on a steep hillside so she rolled up into a ball and went somersaulting down the mountain to escape.

Another memory she had of her summer stays at the farm was the year she had a very bad cold. It sounded almost more like pneumonia or the flu than a cold the way she told it. At any rate her nose was stuffed up for possibly weeks and finally her mother and grandmother had had enough of it and tarred the inside of her nose to get it to stop running and dripping. The cure was effective as far as the drippy nose went but it cost her the sense of smell. She said this happened in early summer and the last thing she recalled being able to smell was ripe strawberries growing on the mountainside. Ever after it was a big inside joke when she was asked what she would like as a gift she would smile and say perfume and then laugh.

Petra and Marjorie Lee with some chickens, ca 1920

I can never remember a time when my grandmother, Petra, was not dressed up so it is almost impossible to think of her on that farm in Norway. Here she is with my mother and some chickens and even then you will notice that she is wearing white shoes and jewelry!

Klara Kristofa Landaas

Klara Kristofa Landaas, ca 1903

The Landaas family was a close-knit group and often had picnics and family gatherings together. On one occasion they had a series of photographs taken dressed up in outlandish hats, ribbons, clothes, and making silly poses. In this picture we see Klara with fans for a hat and collar. Klara came to America with her mother, the youngest brother and two of her sisters in 1901.

Samuel Olai Hillwang, ca early 1900s

Klara Kristofa, ca early 1900s

This picture was taken shortly after all the Landaas family was in Seattle. Note the long sølje pin at her neck.

Klara married another Norwegian immigrant, Samuel Hellevang (Americanized to Hillwang), on 1 August 1903 in Seattle. They had five children:

1. Violet born 27 March 1904 and died the next day.
2. Thelma born 17 December 1906, died 15 February 1989
3. Helen Karen born 3 December 1908, died 15 June 1985
4. Lillian Florence born 29 March 1911, died 28 August 1997
5. Robert born 13 Jun 1913, tragically died 3 February 1922 from complications due to diabetes.

Sam Hillwang, Clara Lorig, Klara Hillwang, Karen Landaas, Trygve Landaas, Nora Johannsen, Petra Lee. Children: Thelma, Helen, Lillian and Robert Hillwang, ca 1917

Klara was the fourth child of Peder Landaas and Karen Olsdatter Kalvetræ. She was born 23 January 1877 and christened at Hosanger, Bergen, Norway. More sober (one might even suggest morose) than her two older sisters she was sure that she would never see her sisters again once they left Norway for America. She wrote a very sad note to Mikkeline telling of her fears that the family would never see her again. But Maggie and Petra had a different idea and by 1902 they had helped the entire family come to Seattle.

Klara’s husband, Samuel Olai Hellevang was born 13 July 1876 in Forde, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. He was a bricklayer by profession. When he came through immigration he had to choose his surname and that caused some consternation. The Immigration officer asked him if he wanted to be Sam Hell, Sam Hill, or Sam Wang? The name in Norway had been the farm name Hellevang. Farm names tend to be descriptive: Helle for a slab of rock, Vang for a grassy meadow area, thus Hellevang was rocky but also a place with a grassy meadow. None of the choices offered him came close to meaning the same as his farm name hence the compromise to something completely different Hillwang.

I can remember both Aunt Klara and Uncle Sam fairly well. I am not sure how many times we visited them but I do remember on their 50th wedding anniversary a party was held at their home in Ballard. It is crazy what things kids will remember. Aside from all the people the thing I remembered the most was the toilet. I am not sure if they had the house built or if the indoor plumbing was added after the fact but while the bathtub was inside the house in a bathroom the toilet was in a funny little closet of a room on the porch. I think my brother and our cousins and I spent a good deal of time going back and forth to the toilet just because of the novelty of the thing. Aunt Klara was said to have refused to have a toilet inside the house and that is why the little closet was built on the porch.

Uncle Sam died 21 March 1960, Aunt Klara passed away 11 April 1966.

Hardanger bunad, sølje and Setesdal mangletre

Each area in Norway has its own national costume called a bunad. We are fortunate to have two photographs of Petra Landaas Lee in the Hardanger costume one taken probably about 1893 shortly after she arrived in America and this one taken just before she was married in 1904. Petra was petite, only 4 foot 11 inches tall. In this picture it is possible to see the famous Hardanger cut lace pattern in the apron. The cutwork was all done by hand. No buttons or zippers were used in the wool and linen costume but the blouse and dress were pinned together with little brooches called sølje made especially for that purpose.

The long filigree sølje pin at her neck has become quite fragile and can no longer be worn but has been passed down and framed.