Featured 1930s USA handkerchiefs

Here are a further 16, some of which only have place names.

After these, there are yet another 16 with no writing that I will try to photo and upload tomorrow. That makes 59 in the entire collection, if my maths are right

28:

29:

30:

31:

32:

33:

34:

35:

36:

37:

38:

39:

40:

41:

42:

43:

 

Marian Anderson? Nice...................

 

32: Lily Pons ?

 

My goodness, the collector really did get around.

Edgar Guest is a notable too - as well as Lily Pons and Marian Anderson. Marian's looks stamped?

I'm very curious about why the collector (assuming British) would have been at the Republican State Convention in Peoria, Illinois. Hmmm.

 

I have a sniggling feeling that the "collector" was the daughter of a "government" family - political, military, State Dept., academia, etc. and traveled with mum and da. Or collected as a youth and married into the UK.

 

Wait till you see the last 17! Up to Canada and down to Mexico.

Just rechecked Marian Anderson with online signatures, it is hers but I can't see any exact matches that would make me think it was a stamp. I think it is ok but never can be totally certain

 

I'm pretty certain that Anderson never did the "stamp" thing - she was much too "personal" and not that self-important. She was a lovely lady - lived next door to a relative of mine up in Connecticut and I meet/socialized with her and her husband frequently back in the 1950s-60s.

WHY can't I remember his name?????????????????

 

OK, here are the remaining handkerchiefs, perhaps prettier but without the autograph interest:
44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

51.

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58.

59.

60.

 

Here's Amelita Galli-Curci, yet another opera singer. But if you read her bio, she was already retired from singing at the time the hankies were collected. And the time frame coincides with her removal from New York to LaJolla, California, so meeting her on the west coast (LaJolla is just north of San Diego) is a possibility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelita_Galli-Curci

 

I knew the name Lloyd C Douglas looked familiar, but could not think why. Sure enough a minister, but whose literary works (and the films made from at least 2) were more notable. He was the author of The Robe! In the 30's he lived in Los Angeles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_C._Douglas

 

Looks like your collector was over here either longer than we were thinking or came multiple times. The "Chicago World's Fair" aka "Century of Progress" was only open 1933 - 1934.

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

 

Here's Lily Pons (another opera star, who succeeded Galli-Curci at the Met and starred in 3 films during the mid-late 30's.)

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

 

Gertrude Enders of Portland, Oregon appears to be just a regular person. In both 1930 and 1940 Census records she and her husband Clarence were living in Portland. He has something to do with Oil burners and rubber. A travelling salesman.

 

Edgar A Guest - "The People's Poet" was born in England but lived a lot of his life in Detroit, Michigan (which, if you were not already aware, is the US end of that Ambassador Bridge and Tunnel to Windsor, Ontario, Canada that appears on one of the hankies in your last group.)

He had a regular radio show in Detroit from 1931 - into the 40's.

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

 

There is so much to know about Marian Anderson, I think you should just read this whole article.

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

 

So, your collector was perhaps from a British merchant family, given the sort of red ensign on that one. Can you get a close up of it? I'm thinking it's a shipping line logo.

Those plain red hankies were, by the way, sold to blot one's lipstick. I have some of my mama's.

 

Harold Bell Wright was a best-selling author (we now have 3) with both religious and film connections plus living in southern California in the 30's.

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

 

Jesse Crawford has some interesting connections - well-known organist, played at the Chicago World's Fair, was a staff organist for the NBC radio center in Chicago, plus an association with Hammond Organ (as was Harry G Mills in the first group.)

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

 

I thought it was interesting that whoever wrote the name of Boulder Dam, misspelled it on the hankie. A really big deal during the Depression because it employed so many in its construction, plus was an amazing feat of engineering. Note that it was turned over the government in 1936, although FDR "dedicated it" the previous year.

Name was changed to Hoover Dam in the 40's.

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

 

We've added another state with Bethel Women's College of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. It's not on the Ohio River, but it's a straight shot south from Evansville, Indiana (of Flood of 1937 fame.)

http://www.westernkyhistory.org/christian/bethel.html