Skip to main content

Featured

Women's History Month: Mom's Autograph Book

March is Women's History Month, so I'm looking at items owned, used, or made by some of my female ancestors, as well as my memories connected with them. In my last post for Women's History Month I'm sharing this fun autograph book my mom, Anna Margaret Kozlina Gilbride (1937-2010), owned.  Autograph books were around when I was in grade school, though I don't recall having one. By the time I was in high school, friends usually signed each other's yearbooks, a practice which took the place of autograph books over time. "Before there were yearbooks, there were autograph albums. Keeping an Album amicorum or 'book of friends' was first popularized among university students in 16th-century Germany, and the books were primarily used to record signatures. But they also included quotes, advice, and fond messages from students, professors, and people of note. It was not until the late 18th century that autograph albums arrived in the U.S., reachi

Mom's Big Trip

Mom, and friends Janet and Zora, in traditional Croatian costumes, taken at Braddock, Pennsylvania, May 1953.
By Nancy Gilbride Casey

"Boy were we surprised. We never expected anything like this hotel." 

A trip to Pittsburgh was the ultimate in excitement for a 15-year old from Cleveland, Ohio, back in 1953, if a letter home is any indication. My mother, then Anna Margaret "Margie" Kozlina, had just checked in to The Penn-Lincoln Hotel in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. Mom was a member of a Cleveland-based Croatian dance ensemble, and had set out to perform at a Kolo festival in the Pittsburgh area.

Mom was exposed to kolo by her father's family, who immigrated from Croatia in the early 1900s. A traditional communal dance, it is performed in a closed circle, a single chain or in two parallel lines. One of many European chain dances surviving from ancient times, kolo is spirited and often fast-moving. 1  (Click here to view a video of a kolo dance from the Sv. Jana region of Croatia; my great grandmother Vjekoslava "Louise" Baltorinic, was born in Sv. Jana, near Zagreb, Croatia.)

Mom's postcard and a longer letter capture her wide-eyed thrill at staying in a fancy hotel—on probably her first solo trip away from her family—as well as youthful antics with her friends. Four photos of her troupe taken on a hillside in Braddock, Pennsylvania provide a visual backdrop to her exciting teenage adventure.

It's a wonderful snapshot of a time in Mom's life which she clearly treasured.

Penn-Lincoln Hotel, where Mom stayed in May 1953.

Writing home to the family in Cleveland.




Captioned on the photo reverse: "Friends: Margie, Madeline & Janet. Taken at Bradock, PA, May 30, 1953"

Mom, standing, far left, and the rest of the ladies of the ensemble.

The men of the ensemble, enjoying a beverage!


NOTES

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (https://www.britannica.com : accessed 29 Nov 2019, 09:38:00), "Kolo."

2 J.I.M. Video, "Kolo “Croatia “ Croatian Independence 2019 San Pedro," uploaded 27 May 2019; YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMQNUpTmz7I : accessed 29 Nov 2019).  



Until next time... 

Subscribe to "Leaves on the Tree," to receive more family history stories, right in your email box. Click the green Subscribe link above.



Comments