The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by Leroi of 524, Oxford Street, Marble Arch, London W.
Although the card was not posted, the subject of the photograph has written the following across the divided back:
"Dad with love from
Winifred Vyvyan-Smith.
Photo February 8th. 1915".
The 8th. February 1915 was in fact a Monday.
Winifred Vyvyan-Smith
The Internet reveals that Winifred Vyvyan-Smith was born in 1894, therefore she was aged 20 or 21 when the photograph was taken.
Winifred's mother was Kate Courtenay Vyvyan, who was born in Blackheath, Kent on the 13th. March 1865. Kate passed away on the 21st. February 1957 in Bournemouth, Hampshire, and was almost 92 when she died.
Her daughter Winifred survived her mother by only ten years; Winifred died in Dorset on the 18th. April 1967 when she was either 72 or 73.
'The Birth of a Nation'
So what else happened on the day that Winifred had her photograph taken in London?
Well, on the 8th. February 1915, the controversial film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish, premiered in Los Angeles.
Adapted from the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon Jr., the American Civil War epic became the first movie blockbuster, and retained the rank of highest-grossing film ever for the next 25 years.
However, the film also drew major criticism for Dixon's revisionist history of the Reconstruction era that followed the war. This portrayed the members of the Ku Klux Klan as heroic defenders of freedom, and African-American males as violent and sexually aggressive towards white women.
Some film historians attributed the film's popularity to a rise of Klan memberships during the late-1910's and 1920's.
The Collapse of Owen's Electric Light Tower
Also on that day, a violent wind storm weakened the structure of Owen's Electric Light Tower in San Jose, California. The city budgeted $5,000 in repairs, but before they could be carried out, another wind storm in December toppled the tower.
Georges Guétary
The 8th. February 1915 also marked the birth in Alexandria of the French singer Georges Guétary. Georges was best known for his role in 'An American in Paris'. He died in 1997.
