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Showing posts from April, 2015

Multilingual post cards

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As a young woman, Rita Marie Boudousquié (1886-1960) of southern Louisiana received and preserved hundreds of post cards with quick personal notes or holiday greetings from friends and family.    In 1917, she married Robustiano Bernard Ferro (1884-1965), a Cuban-born veterinarian.   Over the years, they lived in New Orleans, Lafayette, Wiggins, Kansas City, and Omaha, returning to New Orleans.    As the couple had no children, Dr. Ferro donated his wife’s early-century post card collection to Tulane University in 1965.    LaRC Manuscripts Collection 276 is the Rita Boudousquié Ferro post card collection, 1905-1937. These post card messages are in handwritten French and/or English.  Printed Spanish-language words appear on post cards from Cuba.   The brief notes sent greetings to Miss Boudousquié on mailed picture post cards depicting scenes in New Orleans, such as streets, buildings, parks and cemeteries, as well as other Louisiana and Mississippi places, other cities in the