Button for a Cocalico High School Bleacher Bum

I reckon this can qualify as ephemera, right? It's fairly flat. ... It's a blue-and-white button, about 3½ inches wide, for Cocalico Senior High School here in Denver, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

"I'M AN OFFICIAL BLEACHER BUM" is printed on the button along with the Eagle logo of Cocalico athletics.

I'd guess this dates to the 1980s. It appears to have been produced by a company called either Universal School Promotion or Universal School Promotions.

Do you collect buttons? When I was a student at Penn State, we picked up blue-and-white football buttons each week from a local bank. I kept them for years (in an envelope, of course), but don't have them anymore. Don't really miss them, either. Guess I'm not a button guy.

Here are some websites about button collecting...

• National Button Society
• Collectors Weekly: Antique and Vintage Buttons
• Buttons in Time
• Button Country

Century-old receipt for H.B. Beard & Co. of York, Pennsylvania

This receipt indicates that A.H. Morris of Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania, bought an "#805 Blanket" from H.B. Beard & Co., manufacturers of harness and horse collars, of York, Pennsylvania, on December 22, 1913. The cost was $5.85, which equates to about $135 today, according to The Inflation Calculator.

That must have been some blanket!

The bill was marked paid on January 12, 1914, with a Beard & Co. stamp, some initials and the word "Thanks."

H.B. Beard & Co. was located in the Spahr Building in York and its business was further described as being "jobbers of saddlery hardware, horse clothing, leather & shoe findings, trunks, bags, gloves and fancy leather goods." I believe the Spahr Building was located on or near York's square.

It wasn't that difficult to find some further information about H.B. Beard & Co. and customer A.H. Morris. Here are some tidbits I discovered online:

H.B. Beard & Co.

• Beard & Co. officials were at one point members of the Wholesale Saddlery Association of the United States.
• H.B. Beard is mentioned in 1921's "Autumn Leaves" by Samuel C. Frey, which I wrote about last October.
• An ALL-CAPS advertisement in the August 6, 1926, edition of the East Berlin News states: "H.B. BEARD & CO. AT 41 E. MARKET ST., OPPOSITE THE COURT HOUSE, YORK, OFFERS THE VERY LATEST STYLES IN TRUNKS, HAND BAGS, HAT BOXES, BRIEF CASES, SUIT CASES, DOG HARNESS AND IN FACT EVERYTHING FROM A SMALL HAND BAG TO AN AUTOMOBILE OR WARDROBE TRUNK — MR. BEARD IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE BEST JUDGES OF LEATHER IN THIS SECTION OF THE COUNTRY — ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE STATE — HAVE AN EXCELLENT REPAIR DEPARTMENT."
• From the June 28, 1940, edition of The (York) Gazette and Daily: "Adjudication of the estate of Alice Elizabeth Beard will be made in the near future by the Orphans court as a result of an agreement reached late yesterday by interested parties. Counsel interested in the settlement of the estate stated that as a result the business of the H. B. Beard and company, 41 East Market street, will be promptly liquidated. ... For years the Beard concern was numbered among the important manufacturers of harness and hone collars in the United States and did a large wholesale business. With the advance of motor vehicles this phase of the business dwindled, but the concern continued in business, augmenting its harness and horse collar enterprises with other lines."

A.H. Morris of Fawn Grove

• It's possible his first name was Alpheus and that his wife's name was Edith.
• In 1918, he was involved in the merger and consolidation of the Fawn Grove Light and Power Company and the Fawn Township Light and Power Company.
• From the May 4, 1933, edition of the Delta Herald Times: "Delta had a pleasant surprise on last Thursday night when the newly organized School Parade and Concert Band gave its first public concert under the direction of A. H. Morris, Fawn Grove's capable band leader. The small but enthusiastic group of embryo musicians performed with great credit to themselves and delight to their parents and friends."
• From the January 13, 1942, edition of The (York) Gazette and Daily: "At the meeting of the Fawn Grove borough council, Raymond Marsteller was elected chief burgess. No one had filled the office since the death of A. H. Morris."

TBT: Long-ago wedding photo

Nearly every post at Papergreat is, by definition, a throwback.

Here, for #TBT (Throwback Thursday) is a mystery wedding photo from, oh, about a century ago. Other than a reference to the studio where the photograph was taken, there are no identifications or notes written anywhere on the front or back of this piece, which is mounted on an eight-inch-wide piece of heavy cardboard (as seen to the right.)

The photograph was produced at The Gold Studio in Waukegan, Illinois. I did find a few references to Gold's Studio in Waukegan. Here is a 1921 advertisement for their business from the pages of Our Navy, the Standard Publication of the U.S. Navy.

I also found some evidence that Gold's first name was Samuel. But, beyond that, information on this photography studio is pretty scarce. And, of course, it would be a bit of a miracle if we ever determined who the subjects of this photograph are.

Happy осінь, høst, hydref, automne and Намрын

Celebrate! Today is the first full day of autumn, which is our favorite time of the year here at Papergreat Headquarters. (And, yes, I will freely admit that my love of autumn is helped by the fact that I have no leaves to rake in my yard.)

The title for this post features the word "autumn" in five other languages:

• осінь = Ukrainian
• høst = Norwegian
• hydref = Welsh
• automne = French
• Намрын = Mongolian

And here, as another still-fledgling tradition here at Papergreat, are some autumn-themed vintage postcards...

Above: This is a "'Curteichcolor' reproduction from Kodachrome or Ektachrome original." It is labeled as CK-153. I believe the original would have dated to 1954. This reproduction could be from the 1970s. Augusta, Wisconsin, is a tiny city with a population of about 1,500. It hosts an annual festival called Bean and Bacon Days.

Above: This postcard illustration was done by an artist who signed his/her work "L. DuPont." No publisher is listed on the back of the postcard, but the stamp box calls for a one-cent stamp for the U.S. and Canada.

Other posts with an autumn theme

• Postcard of "Autumn Woods" by American artist George Inness
• Postcard: "Farben-Aufnahme direkt nach der Natur"
• Postcard: Autumn in Nebraska and The Mite Society
• Postcards: Autumn scenes from Pavlovsk Park in Russia
• Here's Uncle Willie from Hartley, just sitting in the hay

Circa 1951 illustrated map of Taunus and Rhine, West Germany

Here is about three-fourths of an old foldout map (the portion to the right didn't fit on my scanner) for part of West Germany. It is signed by A. Schäfer, with the year 1951, in the lower-left corner. The map was designed, I would guess, to promote post-war internal tourism among West Germans.

At the center of the map is the destination city of Wiesbaden. That name translates to "Meadow Baths," and the city is apparently one of the oldest spa towns in Europe. It also has casinos.

Surrounding Wiesbaden are the Taunus, Hunsrück and Odenwald mountain ranges. And Wiesbaden sits on the northern bank of the Rhine.

Printed on the map, with regard to Wiesbaden, is Idealer Mittelpunkt für Autofahrten, which translates to "Ideal center for road trips." And Ganzjährig: Kur/Erholung/sport translates to "Year-round health/recreation/sport."

Here are some closeups of various portions of the map...

Previous posts featuring maps

• Maps, maps and more maps
• Detail shots from an old map of Venice, Italy
• Maps for the General Motors Futurama at 1964-65 World's Fair
• Illustrated "mapback" on vintage Dell paperback "Death with Death"
• Saturday's postcard: Illustrated map of Tokyo with taijitu symbol
• Bushkill Falls: "A Delightful One-Day Auto Trip"
• Map to help you find Coppini's Silversmith in Florence, Italy
• Illustrated map of "Desert of Maine"
• Five U.S. states as portrayed in 1932's "A Parade of the States"
• Cool map featured on endpapers of "At Camp Kee Tov"

Other posts about the Rhine

• Two stereographic cards from along the Rhine
• Weekend postcards: More Hazelden, the Rhine and the Pa. turnpike
• View of Assmannshausen, Germany, from 1910 book
• Story time: "The Goblins" from "Legends of the Rhine"
• Vintage postcard: Camping at Deutsches Eck in Koblenz, Germany

From 1982: William Shatner peddles Commodore's VIC-20

Roughly 991 days ago, I had a post featuring advertisements and other goodies from the March 1982 issue of Creative Computing magazine. One of the advertisements was for Commodore's VIC-20, which was available to fledgling computer geeks for $299.95.

The March 1982 advertisement had featured a lovely rainbow.

That apparently wasn't enough to motivate the geeks to buy.

It was time to bring out the heavy artillery.

It was time for Shatner.

The May 1982 VIC-20 advertisement features William Shatner, aka James Tiberius Kirk, Thomas Jefferson Hooker, airline passenger Robert Wilson and that guy named Rack who comes to a bad end in Kingdom of the Spiders.¹

Shatner is quoted as stating the following about the VIC-20: "The wonder computer of the 1980s. Under $300." (Whether he actually uttered those words is another question.) It's also possible that this part of the advertisement can be attributed to Shatner, as it also appears in quotation marks: "The best computer value in the world today. The only computer you'll need for years to come."

Commodore also ups the ante by showing some of the games and applications that run on the VIC-20, including:

• Vic Super Alien
• Sargon II Chess
• Draw Poker
• Personal Finance I and II
• Midnight Drive/Road Race
• Radar Ratrace
• Casino-style Blackjack
• Spacemath
• Jupiter Lander
• Superslot
• Vic Avenger
• Biorhythm Compatability
• Blue Meanies From Outer Space

Those all sound nice. But it was obviously Shatner who was the big draw here. I'm surprised, in a way, that his photograph isn't featured more prominently in the advertisement. This was published just before Shatner's new movie, a little something called Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, hit theaters on June 4, 1982. It was a very Star Trek summer. And it was a watershed time for home-computer users. The VIC-20 is still discussed every day at, among other places, a forum on a website called VIC-20 Denial.

Footnote
1. William Shatner was also recently featured in perhaps the Greatest Selfie Of All-Time, this gem posted on Twitter by actor LeVar Burton on August 24.

Shatner, 83, is himself very active on Twitter. His @WilliamShatner account has more than 21,000 tweets. Former co-worker Lyzz Jones and I were fortunate to take part in a short conversation about boy bands with him back in August 2013. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Postcard: Cheese-making illustration by Cornelis Jetses

A lot of great postcards have come in the door via Postcrossing here at Ashland Castle in the past week. One of my favorites is this card, which comes from Antje in Oosterwolde, Netherlands. She writes:

"This postcard gives a romantized [sic] image of people (family). They are making cheese at home about 100 years ago. The illustrator is Cornelis Jetses, very well known in the Netherlands."

Jetses lived from 1873 until 1955. Many of his best-known illustrations were for textbooks. He also designed book covers. This Dutch-language website by Dirk Sellis (which you can have Google translate) contains extensive material about Jetses' life and works.

Related posts about cheese

• Vintage postcard: Cheese market in Alkmaar, Netherlands
• Photo cards: Souvenir cheesemaking in Broek in Waterland
• Peachy little corned beef loaves and healthful cheese dishes
• Handy tips from "How to Prevent Spoilage in the Grocery Store"