Oblong Folio album (ca. 24,9x33,3 cm). 24 card stock leaves with tracing paper guards (16 leaves blank). With 91 original gelatin silver photographs (including five loosely inserted photos and one real photo postcard), including two large photos ca. 25,5x20,5 cm (10 x 8 in), smaller photos ca. 7,7x5,4 cm (3 x 2 in), and the rest of the photos ca. 9x7,5 cm (3 ½ x 3 in). Most photos with period Dutch captions on the mounts. With a 1940 “Trade Review” (7 pp.), a 1940 “A Night in Holland” brochure (16 pp.: black and white ills.), seven period newspaper clippings mounted on two separate paper leaves, and a loosely inserted “Oakland High School” program. Period full snake-patterned boards fastened with a string. Binding rubbed on extremities, one tracing paper with tears, mild silvering of the photos, one loosely inserted large photo with a fold mark and loss of small fragment at the lower right corner, small tears to the program and the paper leaves housing the clippings and brochures.

Historically interesting collection of private photographs and period ephemera from the family of San-Francisco based Dutch florist, Gerard Schimmel (ca. 1895–1981), offering a first-hand account of the lives of Dutch Americans in the 1930s and 1940s.

Dutch settlement in the Americas began in 1613, and over the following four centuries, approximately half a million Dutch people arrived in search of a new life. Between 1840 and 1920 (the era in which both Ethna Mohr and Gerard Schimmel emigrated) nearly 340,000 people left the Netherlands for the United States. These individuals were largely driven by religious dissent and economic hardship, utilizing the rise of steamship travel to reach an American "Utopia."

The album belongs to the family of California-based Dutch Americans Ethna Mohr (ca. 1904–1972) and Gerard Schimmel. Born in The Hague, Netherlands, Schimmel attended the Agricultural College in Boskoop before arriving in New York aboard the SS Noordam at the height of WWI. After working in New Jersey and Pittsburgh, he moved to California and became an American citizen in 1927. In 1921, he established a flower, seed, and bulb store in San Francisco and later served on the Board of Directors of the Holland-American Society of California and a member of the Holland-American Chamber of Commerce for the Pacific Coast.

The collection contains ninety-one lively, vernacular photographs captured by the Schimmel family in California between 1935 and 1938. Most of the images document the daily outings of a middle-class Dutch family at Yosemite National Park, Oakland, and the San Francisco Zoo, depicting the Schimmels riding horses, traveling by ferry, posing with their automobiles, and visiting landmarks such as Alcatraz. Especially interesting is an excellent large-size photograph of a Dutch St. Nicholas Eve Celebration in San Francisco. The image shows Sinterklaas in traditional clerical attire surrounded by children proudly displaying gifts (including an iconic Lionel Mickey Mouse Handcar box). The album also includes four interesting photos of a marching band parade on Market St., portraying musicians in military-style uniforms with side-mounted snare drums and dozens of bystanders on sidewalks. The background of the images illustrates numerous iconic storefronts, including Benatar’s Cut-Rate Drugs, Feltman & Curme, and Chas. Brown & Sons.

Importantly, the album includes a tipped-in flyer for "A Night in Holland," a rare 1940 fundraising flyer for Dutch war victims likely distributed only among Dutch emigrants in California. The event took place under the auspices of the Queen Wilhelmina Fund, Inc. at Larkin Hall, San Francisco, on 12 October 1940. As indicated in the flyer, the floral arrangements were executed by album compiler Gerard Schimmel. The brochure opens with a foreword by Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Chairman of the Queen Wilhelmina Fund of New York, calling for the reestablishment of a free and independent Kingdom of the Netherlands. The flyer features a list of patrons, folk songs in Dutch, and advertisements for California-based Dutch businesses, (including, Schimmel’s Filmore Flower Shop on 1731 Fillmore St.; Studio and Workshop of Dirk Van Erp on 512 Sutter St.; Adrian J, Schoorl Flower Seeds on 903 Howard St.; Hendrik van Galen’s Upholstered Furniture, Drapes on 2224 Union St.; Holland Ivestment Co on 676 Market St.; Hellwig’s Holland Bakeries & Restaurant on 41 Stockton St. etc.).

Another important supplement is a November 1940 edition of the Trade Review, a San Francisco-based newsletter published by the Holland-American Chamber of Commerce documenting wartime humanitarian efforts of the Dutch-American community. The issue details a campaign to provide sterilized blankets for the British American Ambulance Corps via monetary donations and features a report on the "A Night in Holland" fundraiser. It also provides critical context on the "Trade with the Enemy Act," the protection of Dutch assets from German control, and a list of U.S.-based Hungarian contributors.

The album is also supplemented by an Oakland High School program for the Opera “Babes in Toyland” (2 June 1923) and seven newspaper clippings mostly related to Oakland High School, where Ethna apparently studied (including one with the photo of Ethna).

Overall, historically interesting collection of private photographs and period ephemera from the family of San-Francisco based Dutch florist, offering a first-hand account of Dutch-American life before and during World War II.