The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Amsterdam on Monday the 7th. September 1953. It was sent to:
Dr. Bronan,
57a, Wimpole Street,
London,
England.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Monday.
I reached Amsterdam on
Sunday - it's like a fairy
tale come true. I can see
everything I want.
I had a lovely trip on a
boat all around the town.
These 2½ days are worth
all the rest.
I must see you soon while
I look so well.
All the best,
T."
Marken
Marken is a village in the municipality of Waterland in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It had a population of 1,770 as of 2019, and it occupies a peninsula in the Markermeer.
Marken was formerly an island in the Zuiderzee, although it is now connected to the mainland of North Holland by a causeway. The characteristic wooden houses of Marken are a tourist attraction.
For some time during the later 19th. and early 20th. centuries, Marken and its inhabitants were the focus of considerable attention by folklorists, ethnographers and physical anthropologists, who regarded the small fishing town as a relic of the traditional native culture that was destined to disappear as modernisation of the Netherlands gained pace.
Among them were Johann Friedrich Blumenbach who examined a human skull from the island which he called Batavus Genuinus. Another was the Belgian painter Xavier Mellery who stayed in Marken at the request of Charles De Coster. Mellery was asked to create illustrative artwork and delivered several intimist works.
Cornelis Lely's designs incorporated the island into a proposed Markerwaard. A partial dike, built in 1941 in the north, is the first phase of that project which was stopped by World War II.
In 1983, the Marken Museum about the history of the island was opened.
Nikita Khrushchev
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 7th. September 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became head of the Soviet Central Committee.
Hurricane Carol
Also on that day, Hurricane Carol caused the Panamanian cargo ship Eugenia to be driven ashore at Provincetown, Massachusetts, United States.
The crew were taken off by means of a breeches buoy.
A breeches buoy is a rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one place to another in situations of danger.
The device resembles a round emergency personal flotation device with a leg harness attached. It is similar to a zip line.
Lomela
The US fishing vessel Lomela was destroyed by fire in the Gulf of Alaska approximately 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Kodiak, Alaska.
