Vintage Old Trunk For White Wednesday

This is really pretty cool....I had no idea what we had until we opened this old trunk!

When we moved 21 years ago we moved this old trunk from my husbands old farm house which he bought from his grandparents. We left it in the garage, it looked crusty and smelled pretty bad so neither of us felt like going through it and sort of forgot about it. A couple of weeks ago we decided it was time to move it out to where the climate is drier and then we would look inside.

It belonged to my husbands Great Grandmother's sister Mary Gausman. Mary was an unmarried school teacher and enjoyed traveling during her summers off. I love that some of the old sticker is still visible. I imagine this is Union Pacific Railroad, we know she traveled out west often. Dated 1899. Looks like St. Paul and that would be the closest town. It looks like 7 15 before the 1899 so that tells me it might have been checked in on July 15.

We have the travel brochures and souvenirs from her travels.

I took photos while opening it....

An old fur collar surprisingly in very good shape with a really cool old button on the end. It was on top just like this so she must have cherished it...


An old pennant from a trip...

Old spats (I wonder why did she have 2 pairs of spats), crochet night caps (I think), a cotton petticoat trimmed with crochet lace, an applique tablecloth, maybe it's a light weight bed cover, a few crochet doilies and some old blankets and old underwear bottoms!...

A beautiful black purse carefully wrapped up in something else and in perfect condition...she must have cherished this purse!

There were some other items but I'm only showing the best, otherwise this post would be way too long...

A beautiful hand pieced and hand quilted quilt...it's a little yellowed, it should be off white and I think I'll try to soak it properly and brighten it up a little. Otherwise very little wear, mostly just on the scalloped edges. Did she make the quilt? We'll never know.

A chenille bedspread that is in good shape but could use a gentle washing.


All of the photos are shot in our pole barn which has only a dirt floor for now but great care was taken while going through all of this and nothing touched the floor. Someone had put a very nasty smelling bug deterrent inside years ago which is completely gone except for the smell...I'll bet whatever it was has been long banned...but...not a single bug was found, not even in the fur collar!


This trunk has sat like this for decades, I suppose Mary G. packed it all away herself a long time ago. I can't believe I didn't look 21 years ago but then maybe I would not have appreciated it as much as I do now. I was pretty much surprised to say the least when I found what was inside.

We have more things that belonged to her that are not from this trunk that I'll post another time.

Thanks for stopping by!


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