Lögberg-Heimskringla - 11.02.2005, Page 8

8 « Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 11 February 2005
1. Four Icelandic ladies in Winnipeg during the 1880s, including sisters Steinunn and Soffía Ár-
nadóttir (second from right and far right, with hat). Steinunn married Jóhann Þorsteinsson and
raised a large family near Lundar, Manitoba. Soffía and her husband Jón Sigfússon Olson had a
dairy in Winnipeg for many years before settling at Lundar.
2. Five Icelandic matriarchs in Winnipeg, photographed be
scription on the back) is the handsomely dressed “Mrs Polsoi
Olson, namesake of the late Signy Eaton of Toronto. At the 1
When Brian Tomasson of Winnipeg happened
across a number of old photos, he recognized
he had stumbled onto something lcelandic.
Though unable to acquire the entire set of
pictures, he turned his findings over to historian
Nelson Gerrard, who began to unearth the
mystery behind who was in them...
4. Three well-dressed Icelandic immigrant men, photo-
graphed in Winnipeg studios about 1885. At the left is Helgi
Jónsson, the East Fjord entrepreneur who launched the Win-
nipeg newspaper Leifur in 1883 and later went into business
at Shellmouth.
5. Three photographs of Icelandic children, taken in Winnipeg
between 1880 and 1885, all unknown.
Abatch of 24 very old
“carte de visite” pho-
tographs recently
surfaced at an antique fair in
Winnipeg, and thanks to Brian
Tomasson, who is interested in
all things Icelandic, they were
rescued from certain oblivion.
Brian, whose special interests
include photographic post-
cards, recognized that one of
the pictures was taken in Ice-
land, and he was told by the
vendor that these pictures had
been acquired at an auction
sale somewhere “near Arborg.”
Convinced that here was some-
thing Icelandic, he also leamed
that there had been numerous
larger pictures in this batch,
but they had already been sold
to an unknown buyer.
The tragedy of old fam-
ily albums and photos ending
up in garage sales and antique
stalls is that once these historic
objects are separated from their
background and relegated to
the status of “collectibles,” they
are unlikely ever to regain their
original significance as visual
records of specific individuals
whose history is known and
whose existence was important
to descendants. Removed from
their historical context, they
become lost as family heir-
looms and as visual records
of the Icelandic immigrants in
North America, and from that
point on there is usually no
way of recovering or identify-
ing them.
In this case, only one of
the photographs bore any
identification aside from the
name of the studio or photog-
rapher. All were well wom and
much handled, and some were
stained, cracked, and faded.
All were “carte de visite” or
“calling card” photos, a small
format measuring about 2 1/2
x 4 inches (6 x 10.5 cm), con-
sisting of delicate paper prints,
sepia brown in colour, pressed
onto cardboard cards.
Judging by the names of
the photographers and studios,
all these photographs were tak-
en in Winnipeg between 1880
and 1890. The mystery now
presents itself — who are the
people on these 115- to 125-
year-old pictures? Without
knowing exactly where they
came from or whose relatives
they might be, how is it pos-
sible to put names to faces so
long vanished from our midst?
How can we even be sure they
are, in fact, all pictures of Ice-
landic immigrants?
When Brian called to tell
me about his find, I was anx-
ious to have a look for my-
self. By the studio names, it
was clear that we were talking
about photographs from the
1880s, and haviug seen a good
many of these I was sure they
would be interesting. I suspect-
ed some of them might even
look familiar.
Eventually the day arrived
when I had an opportunity to
take a look at this little pho-
tographic treasure trove, and
sure enough, they presented
a fascinating glimpse of the
past. Some qf the faces imme-
diately stood out as ones I had
seen before, and it soon became
evident that there was a strong
East Fjord connection, as all the
pictures I recognized were of im-
migrants from that part of Ice-
land. As a rule, however, people
of that era exchanged pictures
not only with their relatives and
friends from back home, but with
new friends and neighbours here
in Canada, so any given batch of
photos may well include images
of people with a variety of con-
nections — often connections
that are no longer apparent to us.
The only picture with any
identification bears the faint pen-
save you mc
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