January 7th 1916 Ellen Bradshaw and Louisa Bradshaw to ruth Victoria bradshaw

Sheffield

0 miles

the message

"Dear Ruth

I wish you many happy returns of the day

From your sisters

Nellie and Louie"

the sender

In this case there are two senders, Ruth Bradshaw's sisters Ellen (1903-1930) aka Nellie and Louisa (1910-1969) aka Louie. At the time of sending Ellen was 12 years old and Louisa was 5.

the recipient

For details of Ruth Victoria Bradshaw see a previous card at

the places

Sheffield

what the card says to us

The front of the card, like the previous card sent to Ruth Bradshaw in 1912 shows a purpose made birthday design, which my today's standards again looks quite mawkish. The picture at the centre does not really suggest birthday and neither does the heart shaped frame which looks more suited to a modern day wedding. It tells us that tastes in 1910s Sheffield were quite different.

We can't tell anything about the family except that 5 year old Louisa was probably not considered old enough to buy and send her own card and so was added to her sister's card. The part of this that I don't understand was why was it posted at all. Why wasn't it just handed over? They all lived in the same house. Perhaps Ruth really enjoyed getting cards in the post.