Graduation Day, 1915

Here we are at the end of the first of Alice's albums. 

Posted on the last page is one of its oldest photos.

Alice Bierbaum in 1915 on the occasion of her graduation from the eighth grade

If this photo was taken in the spring of that year, then Alice was a girl of twelve. 

This is the earliest photo of Alice in this collection. 

 This photo is not from the same album page as the others shown here, 

but it is from the same year, if not the same day. 

 Here is Alice's younger brother Joe with their baby sister Dotty in 1919.

We've seen a slightly different version of this photo earlier in the album—

Great Grandpa Bierbaum at the beach surrounded by the girls--

daughters Anne and Alice, and their friend Ann Fisher. 

I will start posting photos from another, smaller album of Alice's. 

The photos are from the same period as this album--the late 1910s to the mid 1920s, 

and they show many of the same faces and places. You'll see! 

More Friends From Work

 No date on this one.

 Anne, Papa Bierbaum, Alice, in 1919--

although an earlier photo of the Anne and Alice in the same clothing is dated 1918

No names, no dates

Alice Laughing, 1919

Alice, goofing around, in 1919

No date on this one, but the shorter skirts and girlish faces 

suggest that it's from earlier; school days most likely.

Anna Fischer, 1919

Alice's First Boyfriend, 1917

 He's very handsome, but Alice would only have been 15!

Alice Bierbaum and Friend, 1919

Welcome to Alice's Blue Gown, a blog devoted to dozens of photographs of and by my grandmother, Alice Bierbaum Smith. Born in 1902, Alice lived through nearly an entire century. Before her death in 1999, she gave me a cache of photos that she had collected or taken between 1915, when she was a teenager, and the mid 1950s, when her son Elwood, my father, was a young man returned from service in World War II. Many of the photos are faded. Her honeymoon photos are almost beyond recognition. As a result, my cousin Kathy has been gently reminding me over the past year that it is time to get those photos scanned and saved so that everyone in the family can enjoy the images before they are completely lost. 

Many of the photos are glued permanently into albums. By creating blog pages, I can scan the images without removing them from the paper backing and possibly damaging them. Also, the blog will let me write any notes on or under the photos, so the images can be seen in context. Finally, the blog format will let everybody in the family, and others who are interested, make comments and corrections. 

What do we know about this photo? Alice, on the left, told me years ago,  that the girl she is hugging here was her best friend, Ann Fisher (or Fischer). The two were inseparable for a time. You'll see her again in other photos. I love this photo because of the joy in the two girls' faces. Best friends forever! 

--L