A mystery Found a Mystery Solved

Paging through Ebay on my phone one morning I thought I would look for postcards of the transition period that would be interesting as I research uses of the old and new Republic stamps. I don’t know why I looked further at this card but I am glad I did. The Barcelona post card shows an incredible view of the Passeig de Gràcia vers la mar in Catalan and Passeo de Gràcia hacia el mar. Gràcia is a district in Barcelona. Nice but not great.

Flipping the card over it is franked with a 15c. #683 Spanish feminist and writer Concepción Arenal and address to a Phebe (Phoebe) Stoddard living at 76 Midland Ave, East Orange, NJ. OK, still not special? How about the message written to her:

Feb. 18.

Dear Phebe

Hope that all goes well with you-and that the operation wasn’t necessary. As for me-am studying hard-I can understand quite a lot of the language by now. Both of us are well. L met me in Havre-spent 3 days in Paris and (?). Feeling well and getting around a bit. Best A.

OK, not too special. What caught my eye was the purple box stamp to the left of the postage stamp. It is somewhat faint but I could see C.N.T/ F.A.I and Durutti and my eyes bugged out. I knew what the organization was and the name Durutti is very notable.

José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was the Spanish anarchist commander who died during the siege of Madrid. The anarcho-syndicalist trade union Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) merged with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), forming the CNT-FAI. I will write more on both another time.

The Via Laietana was completed in 1926. During Durruti’s funeral procession supporters covered up the Via Laietana sign plates with the name Via Durruti, and until Barcelona fell to Franco it would remain so reverting back to Via Laietana after the fall. Via Durruti 32-34 indicated in the stamp was the address of the C.N.T-F.A.I and is now the home of other trade unions.

The top of the box states Service De Presse, there is another very similar one that dates before the renaming of the via.

Who was Phoebe Stoddard? I wasn’t able to find too much but the L.D.S genealogy database of the 1930 and 1940 Census for East Orange has a Phoebe Stoddard. In the 1930 census Phoebe is living with her parents Warren J and Ellen and her four younger brothers, she is 33 and single. In the 1940 Census she is 42 and lives with her parents and one brother. This is the same Phoebe the card was written to as the address on both censuses is Midland Ave.

Here is the home that Phoebe lived in when the card arrived-for about $200K it could have been yours.

I couldn’t find a connection between Phoebe and the C.N.T-F.A.I, nor any Stoddard. Makes me wonder if the use of initials was to prevent their being known? Or was there nothing to it or did he to possibly save space? Was it even a he? My hypothesis is that A was an American writer for one of the publications of the C.N.T-F.A.I as Service de Presse would indicate.

This goes to show that being educated as what to look for pays off as it did here.