Times of the Islands Spring 2023

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
This postcard was published circa 1906. The cactus farthing stamp was issued between 1922 and 1926, but was in use until 1938. The King
George V stamps were issued between 1928 and 1935/1938. (Note: The stamps weren’t cancelled and the postcard wasn’t posted.)
What made the mystery more interesting was that the
earliest postcard with Stave’s name and address stamped
on it was produced in 1906 (see above) and the latest
postcard bearing Stave’s name and address was produced
about 1928 (see below). In addition to factory produced
postcards, Stave’s name and address also appeared on
photographs of scenes on Grand Turk.
George A. Stave (née Arne Georg Stave) was born in
Norway in 1892. He arrived in New York in 1907 with
two of his eight siblings—two years after his father, who
immigrated in 1905. His mother and the rest of the family
immigrated to the U.S. in 1911. By 1910, George,
his father, and his two brothers were living in Seattle,
Washington. His father worked as a baker.
Following his service in the U.S. Navy during World
War I, George returned to Seattle where he was employed
as a paper salesman—probably for the American Writing
Paper Company. He married Wilma A. Moore in 1922 and
by 1923 they were living on Deane Avenue in Los Angeles,
California. By 1930 the Stave family was living at 1152
Murifield Road in Los Angeles—the address stamped on
the postcards bearing Stave’s name and address. The
Stave family was still living on Murifield Road in 1936,
but by 1940 they had moved to Salinas, California. In
1942, the Salinas city directory notes that Stave had his
own paper company and by 1962 he was the manager of
the Salinas Valley Wax Paper Company. George Stave died
in 1981.
Based on when Stave lived at the Murifield Road
address and the dates when the stamps that were affixed
to the front of some of the postcards he collected were
issued, one can deduce that Stave must have acquired
these postcards and photos between about 1928 and
1930.
There is nothing to suggest that George Stave had the
opportunity to travel to the Turks & Caicos Islands during
the years he resided on Murifield Road. As a wholesale
paper salesman and the head of a family of four—five
This sepia postcard of South Creek was published circa 1928. It was produced from an Edmund Neale Coverley photograph that was first
used to produce a colored postcard in 1909. Both color and sepia postcards from this photograph were printed for Coverley by Stengel &
Co. of Dresden, Germany. The King George V ½d stamp was issued between 1928–1935. (Note: The stamp wasn’t cancelled and the postcard
wasn’t posted.)
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