Gran’s Suitcases ….
Gran, who is actually my husband’s grandmother, but with whom I developed a wonderful friendship, was about to throw away this and another suitcase which were actually her father’s (H.P’s) travelling suitcases back in the early 1900s. At the time I was visiting Gran and writing her life story, Gran brought out these suitcases and asked if I could use the contents in my writing. They were filled with all sorts of paper mementos of HPs travels and only recently did I start to photograph all the wonderful images which I will share on this blog to give further inspiration to my work.
In these boxes Gran was about to toss, were remnants of her past and that of her father’s. H.P travelled abroad by ship and later plane and gathered lots of bits of information: travel guides, postcards, calendars, paper doilies etc ~ ‘ephemera’.
I only opened the box recently and started taking photos of handwritten notes on menus and postcards and bits of paper and all the souvenirs of one man’s journey. A good omen these boxes of ephemera, I might just go on a bit of journey with the contents … will post again soon.