A Spring Greeting, 1902

This whimsical spring greeting card was fashioned with real pussy willows in 1902 - back when pussy willows bloomed in April.

We think the artist, K.E.B., was Katherine Ellen Burke Bardwell, because this card is among a stash of Bardwell papers in the Colrain Historical Society’s extensive collection. Born in 1878 and married to William Bardwell, she is buried in Arms Cemetery in Shelburne Falls.

There have been Bardwells in Colrain since the late 1700s, some of them prominent.

Elias Bardwell, from A History of Colrain, Massachusetts by Lois McClellan Patrie, Genealogy section, page 12.

Elias Bardwell, an early settler in southeast Colrain, was the son of Gideon Bardwell, Sr. of Montague. Katherine Ellen Burke Bardwell’s husband, William Allen Bardwell, was a great great grandson of Gideon  Bardwell, Sr., but descended through a line of Shelburne Bardwells. Elias’ brother Gideon Bardwell, Jr. (William’s great grandfather) was an early Shelburne settler.