As stated in my last post, when I got the two "treasure chests" or "time capsules" down from the upper loft in my mother's garage, I saw another larger "old steamer" trunk in the back. I tried a couple times with help to get it down but was unable to find enough muscled men to complete the task for me.
I have been busy going through my mother's documents, letters, notes, journals & other papers. I found these notes about this mysterious trunk.
My mother & I loved Reminense magazine. She responded to a question asked in the Jul/Aug 2001 issue. A reader asked if anyone knew what a certain wooden item was that looked like an anchor, which she found in a vacant house. My mother wrote a personal letter explaining what the piece was. She wrote, "This item is a clothes hanger from a wardrobe trunk. To be more specific: the trunk was about 4 feet high & about 2 feet square & opened up from the front into two equal sides."
As seen above, she drew out what the interior of the trunk looked like with the interior types of hangers & drawers. Drawing the anchor-shaped form hanger she explained how it was used to keep dresses and suits from getting wrinkled during transit. "This particular hanger was for long formal evening dresses with the hanger held upside down, the dress was hung on the curved part of the hanger then flipped over to fold the long skirt over the horizontal piece then hung on the telescoped bars that have been pulled forward on the left side of the trunk."
"The hangers for day dresses had a very short vertical piece. My older sister, Irene, attended college in the early 1930s when the very strong and sturdy trunk was purchased for her for $30. Eventually, it became mine [my mother]. Because I was a Navy nurse during World War II & later married a Naval officer, this wardrobe trunk has been all over the world & now occupies a place in the loft of our garage. This style trunk today is worth about $300-$400 to collectors.” [as of 2001] What would be its value now in 2020?
After my mother's death, her estate sale & taking the items I wanted to keep; I made arrangements for the remaining items to be donated to a local charity to be sold. Unfortunately, I was not present when the house was cleaned out. This breaks my heart as I will never find out what could have been in that larger trunk.
I found these photos of other old steamer trunks via Pinterest. These best show mother's descriptions of her trunk.
