Love local history? Then grab a copy of the Belleville Historical Society’s calendar
The Belleville Historic Society touts its 2021 calendar as a painless way of learning history.
It’s also a lot of fun, packed with old photos that range from the latest in period fashion to swimsuits and bicycle wear complete with bleekers, which are knee high protective socks.
I know about bleekers because of Emily Smith who came up with the concept and the fashion vocabulary and selected the pictures for the calendar. Bob Brunkow, local historian, is the man who came up with some fascinating facts about the people shown in their finery.
The photos are from the vast archive of the Belleville Labor and Industry Museum which is available for public research online at laborandindustry.pastperfect.com.
“We’re always looking for the story behind the photo,” Brunkow said. “The most fun of all the stuff I do is to delve deeper into how people lived.”
As shown in some of the calendar photos, the women, at least, had to live with leg-o-mutton sleeves which made them look like their upper arms had swollen to gigantic proportions. Even on a hot 4th of July it was long skirts for the women, long pants for the men and long sleeves for everyone.
“On the centennial of Women’s Suffrage it is appropriate this calendar is in some ways a women’s calendar,” Brunkow said.
And not in just style. Many of the women pictured went on to have successful careers and take leading positions in family businesses. Marguerite Meyers, part of December in a fur coat and chic hat, was a bookkeeper for Meyers Brothers Auto Company on West Main Street until becoming parts manager and winning GMC parts manager of the year in 1940.
Helen Day, one of four socialites dressed to the nines on the May page, served with the Red Cross in Europe in World War I, helped form the Women’s Overseas Service League and was an author and editor of Dream World and Modern Romances.
The Muren family, how to get a calendar
The Muren family has a couple of photos in the calendar but no one is identified in either because none of the people in the many pictures the archive has of the family are identified. But Albert Muren is identified as the male bicyclist in November along with an unidentified female cyclist. A familiar looking Muren is wearing the same derby hat he sports in one of the family pictures, so at least we can pick him out.
For even more fun, Brunkow slipped in a few old time ads in advertising space that weren’t filled, such as Leunig-Rhein Shoe Company ad for a ladies shoe.
“The Tramp,” a name which they probably intended to mean something different from my first thought, sold for $3 and $3.50. “A stylish shoe with lots of room for five toes,” the ad advised.
Calendars are $10 and are available locally at Balance Coffee and Tea, Circa Boutique, Eckert’s Country Store, Eckert Florist, Local Lucy’s and Peace by Piece. The calendars are also available online at the historical society website, bellevillehistoricalsociety.org.
