Happiness: can you help us trace these artists and their estates?

In 1953, while living in Germany, my mother began creating a remarkable book.

She called it Happiness. It is a deeply personal, carefully assembled collection of poems, biblical passages, prayers, prose and pictures through which she explored love, faith, beauty, belonging and the life she hoped to lead.

The album was created in Germany in 1953–54, when the Poesiealbum—a decorated book containing poems, quotations, pictures and words of wisdom—remained an important tradition among girls and young women. Although Happiness was overwhelmingly my mother’s own creation, rather than a collection of contributions from friends, it belongs naturally to that cultural world: part poetry album, part spiritual scrapbook and part portrait of a young woman discovering who she might become.

Happiness has remained an intimate family treasure for more than seventy years. Now, as my mother enters her 91st year, we are transcribing and preparing it for publication. We hope to preserve it not only for the generations of her family who will follow, but also for readers interested in women’s lives, personal archives, poetry, faith—and the quiet ways in which people create meaning from the words and images they love.

Can you help us solve a mystery?

The book contains around 170 pictures, including postcards, botanical studies, reproductions, photographs and illustrations. Some are signed or titled, but we have been unable to trace their original publishers or present-day copyright holders.

We would love to identify the artists more fully and, where necessary, contact their families, estates, publishers or copyright representatives so that their work can be properly credited and included with permission.

We are currently seeking information about:

• Vernon Ward (1905–1985) – a woodland and bird illustration
• Inge Klein –Rosen, a botanical illustration of roses
• E. Herzig-Welser – Enzian, a botanical illustration of gentians
• Dunstan Thompson (1918–1975) – the manuscript poem beginning “The Villages of England…”

Do you recognise any of these works or names? Do you know who published them, where their archives are held, or who now represents their estates and copyrights?

If you can help – even with the slightest clue -please leave a comment or contact us through this website. Sharing this appeal with art historians, postcard collectors, archivists, poetry specialists and anyone familiar with mid-century German illustration would also be enormously appreciated.

By tracing their stories, we hope to ensure that these artists and writers – and the beautiful work they created, remain visible to new generations.