Mormon history

Revolutionary

2 Comments

Featured on my Facebook page, and posted here for archiving.

This looks like an ordinary picture of a class of Seagulls (the oldest girls’ Primary class) in 1931. The girls are wearing their paper headbands, a sort of precursor to the bandlos.

But it’s actually kind of revolutionary.

.

.

This is a group of Seagulls from somewhere in the Swiss-German Mission (probably Basel). Eliza Walz Tadje, leader of the women’s auxiliaries and wife of mission president Fredrick Tadje, sent the picture to the Children’s Friend, which published it late in 1931 with the names of the girls and their teacher spelled out in the magazine. It is incredibly rare for local members, especially girls and women, to be identified by name in early 20th century Church magazines published for a largely Utah audience.

But here they are:

(front row, left to right:) Elizabeth Rupp, Edith Liber, Esther Schmidt, Gertrud Zimmer, Olga Emmery
(back row, left to right:) Edith Zimmer, Erika Blaser, Margaret Gutekunst (advisor), Elizabeth Sulzmann, Martha Bunner

Cite Keepa

Regrettably, meanies have stolen content from Keepa in the past! I'm confident you will choose honesty and cite this page like this:

MLA: Parshall, Ardis E. "Revolutionary." Keepapitchin.org, 01 Jul 2018, https://keepapitchinin.org/2018/07/01/revolutionary/.

APA: Parshall, A. (2018, Jul 01). Revolutionary. Keepapitchinin.org. https://keepapitchinin.org/2018/07/01/revolutionary/

HTML: <a target="_new" href="https://keepapitchinin.org/2018/07/01/revolutionary/">Revolutionary</a>

2 thoughts on “Revolutionary”

  1. This is a cool pic. Are there any extant illustrations of the seagull head devices?

    Swarms of Beehives (see “Margret Bryce”) flocks of Seagulls (I assume)…I rather like the more colorful descriptions the church used to have for it’s constituent groups. Not sure what you would call a class of MIA maids or M-Men, or even gleaners, I hated the loss of Blazers to 11-yo scouts and (shudders) class 11. Not sure I would Have liked being (were I an 11 yo girl) being a Merrie Miss, but maybe I am wrong about how the girls thought of their class name.

    I know that pictures sent in with ward and stake histories now require everyone to be identified (and accompanied by releases). I think that is a good thing, but I pity the stake clerk who was to obtain the information. O think however that including the individual names without the collective name is a problem too. Like where in the Swiss German Mission? You say probably near Basel, but that is not. Very specific.

    Knowing this group of readers, am am sure more data on these women will be forthcoming.I can hardly wait!

Comments are closed.