According to family legend, Elvera Schueneman (Nana) once had a beau who wanted to marry her but her father said she was too young. I’m using that descriptive term because that is what Mother called him. His name was Frank Hansen, and according to Mother he was very attentive. He brought her flowers, brought her candy, and took her to all the special concerts at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. They obviously participated in things together at Lincoln Park because in her album there are many pictures of him with her. On the left is a picture from this album of when they went swimming in Lake Michigan long before she met her future spouse, Harry Durland, because he wasn’t in Chicago when she was young.
My problem is determining the approximate date of the picture and all the other pictures in her album with Frank. I’ve unglued every picture but there are no dates on the backs. I know that according to the 1910 census Elvera was 16 and was working as a bookkeeper for a newspaper, probably with her brother Henry who was listed as a clerk in a newspaper, so we can only assume it’s the same newspaper. It’s amazing to me that Mother had a job at that age, knowing how protective she said her father was. She could work outside the home but she was too young to get married. However, she was not too young to have a special admirer. |
I know that in 1917 she married Harry Durland but I don’t know how long she knew him before they were married. In the 1910 census Harry was still in Flora, IL.
So let’s say this picture is from around1910. That makes it more or less 100 years ago and showing the style of the day for swimming in Lake Michigan. There are many more pictures of Frank in Elvera’s album, all taken ostensibly around that date and before she met Harry, but there are none of Frank after Elvera met Harry. Obviously Harry was not involved in the same activities as Frank Hansen. Harry was a friend of Henry, her brother, but not Frank Hanson, her beau.
So let’s say this picture is from around1910. That makes it more or less 100 years ago and showing the style of the day for swimming in Lake Michigan. There are many more pictures of Frank in Elvera’s album, all taken ostensibly around that date and before she met Harry, but there are none of Frank after Elvera met Harry. Obviously Harry was not involved in the same activities as Frank Hansen. Harry was a friend of Henry, her brother, but not Frank Hanson, her beau.
To see how drastically the style for swimming suits has changed in 100 years, just for comparison I offer this picture of my husband and me taken at the time of my honeymoon at Daytona Beach in 1941, thirty years after 1910. It is a two-piece, bra and shorts. That in itself was a big change from 1910. Today, in 2010, the difference is phenomenal. Not only is the bra nothing more than two pieces of material held up by thin straps, but the shorts have evolved into nothing more than a triangle low on the hip. All this in 100 years, from 1910 to 2010.
By the way, I have extra copies of Nana’s photo album, which were made professionally and are available to anyone interested. In the album there are more pictures of Elvera’s life with Frank, mostly at Lincoln Park. But none after Elvera met Harry. |