Four Ladies. Bright Angel. hats.
Dear Readers – I am completely fascinated by this postcard. Four ladies, complete with hats, clearly wearing corsets, one with a bustle, on four white horses, descending the zigzags of the Bright Angel Trail.
I hiked the Bright Angel Trail in college, found it quite challenging, thought about going again and riding a mule, but never could I imagine doing this on horseback, with full, restrictive, acceptable female fashion of 1906. Cannot. Imagine.
So here we are, trail guide at the head, black pack mule – or is it a horse in the middle and the four women. They are fully, properly dressed for a tea party – no pants in sight.
I googled this postcard and found it in museum and library collection around the country. I found an art website that has this printed on canvas. It is a remarkable card. I like that mine was written, sent, kept somewhere in a collection and appeared in my mailbox, 118 years later. I sort of like the idea of this portrait hanging on a wall in my house. In many ways, this is representative of the women I’ve previously written about.
The photo was taken in 1902. I can’t quite figure out where the photographer was standing when he took this, because the trails I remember had only one rock wall, and then, just a very deep drop to the bottom of the canyon on the other side. The card is postmarked January 8, 1906, with a Grand Canyon postmark. The second postmark, in our recipient’s home city is postmarked January 12th. It must have been put immediately on a train for delivery in Westchester. That’s an amazing delivery time for 2300 miles in 1906. The US Post Office at its finest.
The card is written:
“Dear Mrs. H – we are having a beautiful time here today, snow on the ground but it is pleasant. Thank you so much for the remembrances. With love A. F…”
Mrs. Haines lived in Westchester, PA, with numerous mentions in regional newspapers. She and her set must have lived interesting lives. In a 1909 paper, Mrs. Haines has a mention as the owner of a Bird of Paradise plant, presented to her by a friend in Santa Barbara, CA. It was blooming and warranted a news story, and was considered very rare. I am fairly certain that the Mrs. Haines I find often in papers of the times appears to have been a prominent woman of the time. She is often mentioned as a wedding guest. One mention is about a fishing party she hosted over several days, tents on her property, and a concert with “two of the best violin players, and an E flat cornet and every evening after the dishes were emptied…”
There is mention of her husband overseeing the management of a “temperance hotel”. Lots of visiting in various cities. Notably, right above the newspaper story of her fishing party, is an article about Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes. The article calls him simply “a French chemist”. And to think – he changed medicine, health, longevity and our lives – A French Chemist.
Back to the Bright Angel trail and its zigzags. I wonder if the trail guide or the concessionaire chose white horses for the women? I can imagine some talk about Angels on the angelic, white horses on the Bright Angel Trail. Given the 1906 postmark, the writer would have stayed at the Bright Angel Hotel, the Cameron Hotel or the El Tovar Hotel – all of which appear to have been available at the time.
As I write this, I believe that a woman wrote the card, due to the elegant penmanship. I confuse in my mind the writer with the women on the horses. Perhaps this was an early 20th century, adventurous trip to the wild, amazing Grand Canyon. Maybe this card was chosen by a group of women – traveling alone?
No matter how many times I’ve been there, I am awestruck when I look over the vast, vivid, 400 million years of change. I wonder what our writer thought at her first glimpse across that unimaginable expanse of color.
Here’s to Mrs. Haines and her Bird of Paradise, fishing parties and friends writing from the Grand Canyon!
Until next time and place.
Sherry
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