My Cherished Poesie Album

Squirreled away with my prized collection of family treasures is a small, 80-year-old, poesie (poetry) album.  The album was given to a little girl named Cornelia van Dieren to mark her tenth birthday.

The good-natured, 10-year-old girl, affectionately called Corrie, carefully shepherded her album through the hands of all the people that were important to her—including her father, her mother, her 8 sisters, her 4 brothers, her nieces, nephews, classmates and friends.  Each one of those people took the time to write a thoughtful verse and record their best wishes.  It is like a multi-faceted snapshot of her life.
Here’s a rare photo of the van Dieren family taken on the occasion of the parents’ 25^th wedding anniversary.  Corrie, standing on the far right, had just turned 10.

The first page of Corrie’s album serves to introduce the owner.  It is dated 19 Maart 1941 in Moordrecht.  Moordrecht is a small town in South Holland, the Netherlands.  Corrie was born and raised on the family farm which looked like this about 70 years later.

Here’s Corrie’s introduction.

The word-for-word translation is:
“This album belongs to me
As long as I have life.
Cornelia is my name,
By elders given.
van Dieren is mine because
That is my father’s tribe.
Moordrecht is the place
Where I came into the world.”
The next entry was by Corrie’s father.  He followed the custom of emphasizing family ties and religious piety.  It is followed by this message from Corrie’s mother.

The word-for-word translation of her Mother’s entry is:
“Dear Corrie
It’s not always in this life
warm sunshine.
No, there can be dark days
in our lives.
But whatever your share may be
joy or sorrow,
think of me and our love
and forget me not.
In memory of your loving Mother.”
The next entries are written by Corrie’s sisters—all in birth order.  Most entries are embellished with colorful stickers of flowers, birds and kittens.  These stickers, I’ve learned, were called scrap pictures or die cuts and sold in sheets.  Here are a couple of examples.


The entry with the most lavish embellishment was crafted by Corrie’s sister, Stien.  It features a blue silk ribbon woven through the page into a charming wreath.

It’s obvious the authors took time and care with their entries.  In addition to meaningful messages and pretty embellishments, their penmanship is outstanding.  Here’s an example.

Even young authors, such as Corrie’s youngest sister, Paulien, entered beautifully crafted messages.

Translated word-for-word, the verse reads:
“Roses wilt
Flowers perish
The love of us
Will last forever.”
This author, Marry de Jong (Corrie’s niece I believe), took the time to create a particularly lovely entry.

Corrie collected entries, a total of 49 messages, until 1953.  That’s really quite a feat considering the circumstances.  The poetry album was presented to Corrie in 1941 which was two years after World War II started and during the German occupation of the Netherlands.  She collected entries throughout the War and beyond.
Poetry albums, like Corrie’s, have an interesting history.  It is believed they originated from the German and Dutch speaking areas of Europe where they were known as an album amicorum (book of friends) or stammbuch (friendship book).  The first known stammbuch dates back to 1545.  Originally, it was “fashionable among graduating university students to have one’s personal bible signed by classmates and instructors. Soon inscriptions went beyond simple signatures to include reminiscences of common experiences, good wishes for the future, or a favorite passage from literature or poetry. Publishers foreseeing a lucrative market printed bibles with empty pages and soon also turned out small decorated books with only empty pages.” reports Antje Petty from the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies.  She goes on to explain that over time, the practice shifted to young girls using what is now commonly known as an autograph book.  Petty notes that although these albums were once dismissed as trivial, they have been re-discovered as a great source of historical insight providing unique perspective of life at the time.

Back to the heroine of our story.  In 1955, shortly after marrying the boy next door, Corrie sailed across the ocean with her new husband and immigrated to Canada.  They settled on a dairy farm in Nova Scotia and had a family.  As you may have guessed by now, Corrie was my mother.  Sadly, she passed away this week.  My Mom wouldn’t have appreciated a public tribute nor would she have approved of a showy display of affection so I’ll simply say… she is loved and she will be missed.

More Info

I credit my Mother for instilling my love of “making things”.  You can read more about it on the FanningSparks About page.  Her specialty was hand knit socks which the family affectionately called “Oma Socks”.  I shared this story in the post Socks by Mom.
You can learn more about the history of autograph books in the article From Album Amicorum to Autograph Book by Antje Petty, Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cheers,