1920’s Biker Chick

This is an amazing picture. Here we have a woman out riding around on a motor bike. I am not sure when this picture was taken. Although if I was to guess it was captured in the mid to late 1920’s. The place is around Portland, Oregon. The woman’s name was Wanda J. Welke. In 1906 she was born in what is now Poland, along the Bug River on the border of Belarus. Her family were Germans living in Russian territory. During World War I they, along with many others, were shipped somewhere east, possibly Siberia. Starting in 1914 the Russian government displaced Germans along the border lands to guard against spies and to safeguard families from the advancing German army.

After the war and much tragedy, the remaining Welke siblings made their way to the Netherlands. The Red Cross helped them book passage on a boat bound for America. When they arrived, the family made their away across the country to Oregon to be reunited with their eldest sister who immigrated to the United States before the war.

Wanda had seen her fair share of devastation and chaos that are hallmarks of war. Here she is a few years later safe and sound and enjoying life in America.

Thank you for reading.

Jenny Findsen