“I’ll tell you what that thing is on my head. It’s a hat, but it don’t look like one”. The young lady in this postcard portrait is  unhappy about the appearance of her hat and she shares her feelings with the addressee, Cecilia Knapik. The hat is made of feathers (ostrich?) and closely resembles a bird’s nest. Note the hat pin sticking out of the hat. Cecilia was born in California in 1898. In 1910, she was living with her father, a farmer, in Idaho. She was married to Eddie Whitten in Moscow (1919). The 1930 US census finds Cecilia living in Tumalo, Oregon, with Eddie, who worked as a farmer. The photographer of this photograph is Halvor P. Eggan. He operated a studio in Moscow, Idaho between 1901 and 1903. He then continued his photography career in Washington and Oregon. The imprint from his Moscow studio can be seen below. Eggan was born in Norway in 1856 and arrived in the United States in 1876. His wife joined him in the US ten years later. While in Moscow he established the Eggan Opera House. A guide to photographers,  lists both Halvor Eggan and James P. Eggan (1873-?) as working as photographers in Moscow between 1909 and 1910. James and Halvor were likely brothers. At one point, Halvor was a partner in the Eggan Brothers studio, which was located on the West Coast. This postcard portrait was most likely taken in 1909 or 1910.       (SOLD)