Over one hundred years ago, in February 1913, Maude Hart and her husband embarked on a journey across the world. Postcards were at the height of their popularity back then, and Maude wrote back to their family often during their 9 month trip, especially to her sister Myrtle (who she calls Toots) and her mother “Mussey”.
Family mementos like postcards and their stories have a way of getting lost when people move or families unite and separate… but somehow, Maude’s postcards survived 100 years until Patricia Eacobacci (Maude’s great grandniece) discovered them in her mother’s things and put the story together. She scanned, deciphered and uploaded every card with a lot of care, and set up a blog to share her Postcards from Maude.
The first time we laid eyes on this collection we were quite speechless. Postcards are often seen as a one-off thing, but Maude’s postcards (as well as her photos and letters) tell the tales of a epic adventure from another era, one that took place over the course of 9 months. The trip, organized by Thomas Cook & Son, started in San Francisco, and went on to Hawaii, Japan, Philippines, China, Singapore, India, Egypt, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Ireland and then back to the US. Here are some snippets:
Tokyo, Japan April 5
Hello Toots
We are doing Tokyo – a wonderful City. 3 millions natives living here. Only 50 Americans. Just think of it.
Maude
Port Said, Egypt. May 22.
My Dear Mama, We are now going through the Suez Canal in Egypt. Can only go 4 miles an hour. It is very narrow. Tomorrow we get off & go through Egypt for 14 days. This is a most interesting country. Will take 18 hours to pass through Canal.
Much Love,
Maude
Amsterdam, Holland – Sunday night Sept 7.
My Dear Mama.
Hello Mussey dear, how are you? Here is a view of a wooden wind mill. You see hundreds of them here & the people are dressed just like this. We leave here tomorrow. Hope I hear from home when I reach Brussels.
Tons of love,
Maude
Towards the end, you can feel Maude’s homesickness and her eagerness to return to her dear family. On October 22nd 1913, she boarded the SS Majestic bound to the United States on the final stretch of her trip, and wrote again on October 31st, delighted to see New York once more.
These postcards (and the story within them) are a real treat. Thank you Patricia, for all the work and research, and for sharing them with the world! You can see all of Maude’s postcards and follow her voyage in the Postcards from Maude blog.
40 comments so far
Incredible collection with a story behind it! I love this beautiful handwriting on the old cards. Today me and my parents were looking at some old journey postcards, too.
This hand writing very nice
So interesting!!a
Wow.
I love such old stuff - it tells a lot of history...
What an amazing treasure trove! How different the world is now. Makes me nostalgic & want to see the world that Maude saw.
Wow! So great!!
This is really wonderful! Various members of my family have quite a few postcards that my great-grandmother and her sisters sent to each other and I've been lucky enough to see some of them, though to my knowledge no one has ever put them truly in order. It's a wonderful treasure to have these, isn't it?
What a great "grand tour"! Thank you, Patricia!
Amazing - and it makes one wonder, how much of our conversations will remain in future generations, because I'm not sure whether Facebook messages or What's App, SMS or even e-mails will remain and be saved over a time of 100 years (but then there are so many lost postcards, I suppose it is quite the same)
What a treasure! Thanks for sharing this fabulous story. My great-grandparents did not travel the world, but they used to send postcards with family pictures to relatives during the same era (1900-1910).
It's always wonderful to find treasures from the past. I've got a great-aunt who has some postcards from family members in her home. She knows that I have an interest and will search for the treasured postcards.
I love this, so beautiful and precious!
What a lovely story !! I enjoy reading it !
reasons and reasons and reasons to keep sending postcards!
What an amazing collection of postcards from Maude's travels. There are many beautiful and interesting postcards from that time before the WWI. You are so fortunate to have such history and scenery and culture of that era. A treasure to keep always, thank you for sharing a little of your family tree and history. I have love reading and viewing all the collection.
I particularly love the old Irish postcards and social history on the blog page
So special!
Thanx for sharing the special story! :) I like it! :)
Interesting story! Thank you....
That's so great - Patricia has done a really great work with taking care of these postcards and sharing them with others. I believe this story will inspire others to do something similar - to send a lot of postcards of their travels or to take care of this kind of documents!
Waw, this is awesome! Love this story!
Thanks a lot for sharing it.
I feel I've been transported back in time and travelled with Maude and her husband :D Have thoroughly enjoyed this story and the postcards ... thanks for sharing with us Patricia! :D
AMAZING. Amazing enough to make me cry.
Speechless too. She must have been an intelligent woman with a great sense of humour.
Interesting on how she described Manila's temperature.
A journey back in time. Memories speak a lot. I am thrilled to read what's written and gives good perspective of people then. The good thing is it has been so wonderfully preserved. Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful journey and experience.
:) :)
good post, I realy enjoyed reading this :-)
Really interesting to read! I love the old postcards of Zeeland aswell, nice to see a bit of history from my area this way!
What a wonderful story!! The postcards are awesome!!
Thanks for sharing...
This is so fantastic ! I'm so grateful when I am aware of this story's of real life.
Thanks for cheering.
oh, what a treasure!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you for sharing!!
hopefully one day I can open the blog, too!!!
I'm excitedly waiting for!! :-)))
Lovely heritage of postcards!
An amazing family treasure, thank you for sharing it! You must be so proud of it!
Fabulous story. I'm afraid that no one will be able to read my handwriting if they see one of my postcards in 100 years!
When my best friend took a tour of Europe (oh, many years ago now), she did something similar for me. It really is a special treasure to receive such a gift. Thank you for sharing this with us!
This is wonderful! I love Maude's writing, frank as it may be at times! What really stands out for me is how she managed to communicate her love for her family in just a handful words...and how similar some of those messages are to what I might write myself, today. Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us!
Beautiful story indeed;') As if I was there at that time, and love looking at stamps and postmarks too...epic! Thanks for sharing;')
I started travelling in 1962 and became a permanent expat in 1970. When sorting through my late parents' belongings, I found all the postcards I had sent to them, hundreds of postcards over the years since 1962.
This is why I love Postcrossing. I wonder...in 100 years will all of our postcards be as treasured as Maude's?
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