Sepia Saturday: Flowers of the Holy Land

The theme for Sepia Saturday this week is photos found in old books. Well, I can't quite match that theme but I do have an object found in an old book.

My father-in-law has a book with the front and back covers made of wood with the title Jerusalem inscribed on the front. The frontis page provides the details - it is a book of flowers of the Holy Land - and there is a handwritten note that the covers are made of olive wood.

Frontis page

The surprising thing is that the flowers are real. They are pressed plants that still, 100 years later, retain their colour. There are about fourteen pages in all.

Flowers from Bethlehem

Flowers from Mount Zion

There are two cards inside the book. The first one tells us the provenance of the book. It was brought from Jerusalem by William Pook and presented to Mr John Gordon M.L.A. (Member of the Legislative Assembly) in August 1914. John Gordon (1858-1937) was a storekeeper and grazier at Nagambie and Euroa in north-eastern Victoria. He was a local councillor for twenty years (1896-1926) also a member of Victoria's Legislative Assembly from 1911-1927, including a term as Minister of Agriculture and Water Supply. 

John Gordon was a brother of my husband's direct ancestor, Christina Gordon, who married Daniel McKernan. In 1941 another note was added to the card. It's signed 'CG'. This is Catherine (Kate) Gordon. She was a sister of Christina and John. She never married, and lived with her brother John who also never married. She supported him in his very busy public life. A year before she died Kate gave the flower book to her sister Christina's son-in-law, William Phelan, with the added stipulation that it be then given to William's daughter, Ina Phelan and then her brother Gibson Phelan. 

I'm not sure that Ina and Gibson ever received the book because it is now in the care of Neil who is the son of William Phelan's other son, Roy. Ina never married and Gibson married but never had children.

Card inside the book of pressed flowers.

The second card in the book is an invitation. When the Duke and Duchess of York visited Melbourne in 1927 John Gordon received an invitation to the Parliamentary Reception to be held at Parliament House on the afternoon of the 22nd April 1927. John didn't have a 'lady wife' so maybe he took his sister, Kate, to the reception.

Invitation card, found inside the book of pressed flowers.

On Trove I searched the newspaper articles of the day and found quite a few. The Argus, Melbourne's main paper, wrote about the royal visit in great detail (the poor royals must have been exhausted but they still found the energy to dance at the ball that night) but the Sydney Morning Herald provided me with a summary that I could fit comfortably in this blog.

Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Apr 1927

You could delve into the other 'found' treasures over at Sepia Saturday.

Four generations

It's common thing to do, especially with the first great-grandchild - when the four generations are together set up on the front verandah or garden for a photo. And this is what happened when my father-in-law, Neil, was a baby in 1924.

The people in this photo had all lived in the Euroa area of Victoria, but only the great-grandmother was living there in 1924:

• Great-grandmother Christina, about 75 years old, was born in 1849 in Scotland and came to Victoria with her parents in 1851. The Gordon family were farmers at Balmattum near Euroa. Christina married Daniel McKernan who was from Ireland and settled in the Balmattum area as well. (Daniel died in 1919, several years before this photo was taken.) 
• Grandmother Maggie, about 50 years old, was born in 1873 and married William Phelan who was the head teacher at Balmattum school. Maggie and William lived in the house attached to the school. 
• Roy Phelan, about 26, was born at Balmattum in 1897 and served in France during WW1. He was a storekeeper at Mitiamo when his son, Neil was born in 1923. 

It was the only possible four-generation photo for baby Neil. All of his other great-grandparents had died by the time he was born. The photo could have been taken in Balmattum or Euroa if Roy and Annie Phelan were visiting the great-grandmother, or Mitiamo if Maggie and her mother were visiting the new baby, or maybe at Rochford where William Phelan was teaching.

Four generations, 1924: Neil Phelan is the baby. He is held by his father, Roy.
His grandmother, Maggie Phelan (nee McKernan) is standing left,
 and his great-grandmother, Christina McKernan (nee Gordon) is seated.