Four vintage book covers featuring illustrations of women

Hello bibliophiles! For your Friday viewing pleasure, here is a foursome of vintage book covers featuring women.

Betty Gordon at Boarding School

This juvenile fiction title was written by Alice B. Emerson, which was one of the pseudonyms used by Stratemeyer Syndicate. It was published in 1921 and the full title is Betty Gordon at Boarding School or The Treasure of Indian Chasm.

Previous owners of this volume include Marion Brougher and Janet Brougher of Wellsville, Pennsylvania, and John Brake of Greenville, Virginia.

And, just so you don't get too nostalgic on this Friday morning in September, here is the very unfortunate opening paragraph of the book:

"Me make you velly nice apple tart, Miss Betty." The Chinese cook flourished his rolling pin with one hand and swung his apron viciously with the other as he held open the screen door and swept out some imaginary flies.

Kathleen's Diamonds

This paperback volume was written by Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller and was published by The Arthur Westbrook Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It is copyright 1891, but, according to a couple different sources, I think these books were actually published as cheap reprints between 1909 and 1929. (Read more at American Women's Dime Novel Project.)

The full title is Kathleen's Diamonds or She Loved a Handsome Actor.

It is No. 45 of at least 132 in The Hart Series. Other titles include A Handsome Engineer's Flirtation, A Fatal Elopement, The Mystery of Suicide Place, The Curse of Pocahontas and Daintie's Cruel Rivals.

Grace Harlowe with the Red Cross in France

Hey, it's Grace Harlowe again. This is the third one of the book covers from this series that has been featured on Papergreat. (See the posts of July 8, 2012, and August 8, 2012, for the others.)

The copyright date of the book is 1920, and it was written by Jessie Graham Flower, which was a pseudonym.

The Secret of the Sundial

And here's the colorful (and well-worn) dust jacket of The Secret of the Sundial by Ann Wirt. The book is copyright 1932 by The Goldsmith Publishing Company of Chicago and is part of The Madge Sterling Series.

Wirt is one the pen names that was used by prolific author Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (1905-2002), who is most notable for writing many of the Nancy Drew books under another pseudonym -- Carolyn Keene.

Here's something spooky, though. I did not open this book before I picked it off the shelf to write about it this morning. Check out the opening passage:

On a certain evening in early September — Friday the thirteenth — to be exact, a stranger in Claymore, Michigan, might have been startled to behold two figures, grotesque in long white sheets which draped them from head to foot, scurrying along an alley leading to Summit Street. It was an appropriate night for ghosts to be abroad. The moon was in the dark and the wind whistled weirdly through the trees.

Today, of course, is a Friday the 13th in early September.

Spooky, indeed.

Finally, here's what these four books look like, side-by-side, on a bookshelf.

Flyer for a November 1991 Bunny Wailer concert in Jamaica

Tucked away inside a copy of Woodcarving Illustrated¹ by Roger Schroeder and Paul McCarthy were three concert flyers.

They are all for a concert that featured Bunny Wailer and was held on November 23, 1991, in the resort town of Negril, Jamaica.

(If you went, let us know how it was. We would like a set list, too.)

Bunny Wailer was a founding members of the reggae group Bob Marley and the Wailers, along with Marley and Peter Tosh (both of whom died in the 1980s).

His birth name, of course, is not Bunny. He was born Neville O'Riley Livingston and, in addition to Bunny Wailer, he has gone by these names:

• Bunny Livingston
• Bunny O'Riley
• Jah B

As for the "Don Dada" reference on the flyer, the Urban Dictionary tells us that it's a superlative that transcends a mere don.

Don Dada is defined as "A combination of Don and Dada. Meaning the top pimp, the biggest player, and even one step above mack daddy."

So there you have it.

Footnote
1. Woodcarving Illustrated contains instructions for the following projects: Traditional New England Handcarved Pineapple, Carving the Sperm Whale, The Shell Doorknocker, The Gold Panner, Ball-in-the-Box Key Chain, Miniature Beaver and Shovel, The Carved Letter Opener, The Loon.

From the readers: A mystery solved, breeches, buildings & raisin pie

This past Tuesday, I presented a mystery to Papergreat's readers in the form of an old black-and-white postcard with no identifying information whatsoever. The city looked European. There was a horse cart. A woman in a knee-length dress. And some buildings. That's it.

In less than 13 hours, someone came up with answer.

Shown above are the original postcard and an August 2010 photo by Hermann Luyken from the Wikimedia Commons.

The town in both pictures is Amberg, Germany.

How the answer was arrived at so quickly is the product of two readers, as you can see from these comments:

• Bonnie Jeanne (aka PostMuse): I posted this to my Facebook page and I think my friend Sarah found it! Amberg, St. Martin Church, I don't know how she did it, but it seems to be the location! I'm thinking it is 1940s. ... The horse and buggy look out of place, but can't be much earlier with the skirt that short."
• Sarah: "I submit that the town is Amberg, Germany, and that the church in the background is St. Martin's. ... I found it by Googling the names on the building, and then following up on some current listings for a bookstore in Amberg. Then off to Wikipedia and Google Maps to confirm!"
• [PostMuse and Sarah also shared this Flickr image of St. Martin Church in Amberg. You can see by its distinctive roof that it's the same building that appears in the black-and-white postcard. The church, by the way, dates to the 1300s.]
• PostMuse: "It looked familiar because I'm pretty sure I passed through this town on my way to Regensburg years ago."

Such wonderful internet detective work! Thanks to both of you for taking the time to dive into this mystery. Bringing ephemera "back to life" in this way is one of the main reasons I love doing this.

* * *

J.C. Savage of Belfast, tailor and breeches maker:
I also love it when a family connects personally with ephemera that gets posted and discussed here.

Kerry McIlwain writes: "This was my grandfather's shop! Lovely to find this!"

And, shortly after Kerry's note, this came from an anonymous commenter: "My late husband, J.C. Savage, was a teenager when shop closed after the war when business was badly affected. I have some memorabilia from shop including name tags, which I used for my son when at school (also J.C.Savage). Have cheval mirror from shop and photos from satisfied American customers. Was told General Patton was one of them."

* * *

Saturday's postcard: America House Motor Inn: Anonymous writes: "I'm happy to say that the America House Motor Inn is still in business and is now called the Sunset Beach Inn and Grille. I've stay at the motel many times since the early 1970s, it's always been one of my favorite getaway spots. I haven't been back for several years, so I don't know what it's like today, but whenever I visited it in the past the rooms were always very clean, the food was good in their restaurant and the staff friendly. The Kiptopeke/Cape Charles area is a great place to kick back on a weekend getaway. Not much to do but enjoy the scenery and small town life."

* * *
Pennsylvania Dutch recipe for funeral pie (aka raisin pie): Valerie Rankin writes: "I remember my Grandmother making a raisin pie as a kid (she was an award-winning pie baker). I hated the pie. Hey, I was a kid. I don't remember the sweetness, but I do remember the texture of the raisins. I'm thinking of making the pie, just to make it. It does look really sweet. What do you think, 3/4 cup of sugar?"

* * *

Illustrations of Pennsylvania's orphanages, circa 1880: Jill writes: "Thank you for taking the time and initiative to do this. This piece of history should not be lost. I am interested in researching this further and appreciate your efforts to contribute. It is only through people like you, who sometimes hold valuable gems of our history, who selflessly offer them to the public, that we are able to preserve what otherwise might be lost forever."

* * *
Family Circle's "Most Beautiful Christmas Tree" of 30 years ago: Previously, Gary Bowers left a short note to say that he was excited to see his family Christmas tree on Papergreat more than three decades after the fact. He followed up with a little more information: "There is a story here about the tree. Actually my wife decorated the tree but it was already up when the photo contest was posted in the Family Circle Magazine, therefore it was our annual tree. Much more could be said. My wife was thrilled to know after all these years, there was an interest. Our local newspaper ran a story the following Christmas with the entire front page with our tree. It was awesome."

* * *

"The Mermaid of Legend and of Art" (The Art Journal, 1880): Shloime writes: "The Animal Planet TV show about mermaids references a P.T. Barnum poster for a 'real mermaid' display of 1865 (NOT the 'feejee mermaid'!). Is there any confirmation of the provenance of this poster (or even of the P.T. Barnum show that was cancelled) from an independent, reliable source, prior to the (2012) TV show?"

Ummm. Great question. Anyone?

* * *
Illustrated postcard mailed in 1907 and a bat stamp from Latvia: Anonymous writes: "I guess there's no clue as to the artist who drew the 3 kids ... because they sure look a lot like an early version of the Campbell Soup Kids."

#FridayReads — Roads, rubber suits, restaurants, rarities and more

Postcard of the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Fort Littleton
interchange, from a November 2011 post.

Spanning the internet to bring you the constant variety of great reads...

• Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission: "Pennsylvania's Roads Before the Automobile"
• Postcrossing: "Ellen Clapsaddle's postcards"
• The New York Times: "Rubber-Suit Monsters Fade. Tiny Tokyos Relax." by Martin Fackler (Godzilla alert!)
• Curbed: "Revisiting The 11 Pools Whose Gala Openings Defined 1936," which examines one of the legacies of Robert Moses, by Hana R. Alberts
• i09: "Lovecraft sketch shows the author's vision for Mountains of Madness" by Meredith Woerner
• English Russia: Not a "read," necessarily, but a jaw-dropping photo gallery titled "1920s: Indigenous Peoples of Kamchatka"
• Brain Pickings: "Natural Histories: 500 Years of Rare Science Illustrations" by Maria Popova
• Smithsonian.com: "Deep in the Swedish Wilderness, Discovering One of the World’s Greatest Restaurants" by Rachel Nuwer
• Bibliodeviancy: "Fear and Loathing in Book-ville" (regarding the intersection of the rare-book trade and the internet)
• The Atlantic: "How to Make Nice With the Call Center" by Deborah Fallows (a short, fun piece on linguistics)
• Colossal: "Secret Fore-Edge Paintings Revealed in Early 19th Century Books at the University of Iowa"

1966 Tulpehocken High School sports schedule tucked inside a book

Shown above are the front and back of a 1966 schedule for spring sports (baseball, girls' tennis, boys' tennis, track and field) at Tulpehocken High School in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

The card was tucked away inside a 1966 Scholastic paperback copy of The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp.

Regarding the schedules, for those of you not from central Pennsylvania, I can tell you that:

• Norlebco stands for "Northern Lebanon County" or, specifically, Northern Lebanon High School
• Elco stands for "Eastern Lebanon County" or, specifically, Eastern Lebanon County High School
• Conrad Weiser (1696-1760) was a Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer, Native American interpreter, farmer, soldier, monk, tanner and judge. Now he has an entire school district named after him.
• On the track schedule, Venzke refers to the Venzke Relays, which were first held in 1939. There was a long hiatus before organizers attempted to restore the event to its former glory in recent years. Gene Venzke (1908-1992) was an Olympic athlete who ran middle distances.

Meanwhile, it does not appear that The Gettle Press of Rehrersburg, which was established in 1933 and offered free white Bibles with purchases of $30 or more, is still in business. But, with this blog post, a slice of the company's history will live on a little longer.

Some vintage maps from an old Bartholomew atlas

Before I dive into today's post, let me state that yesterday was an awesome day for Ephemera Sleuthing on Papergreat.

Yesterday's post was a mystery postcard from an unknown European city. And, within hours, a couple of fine readers helped solve the mystery! Check out the comments section of that post to see how they discovered that Amberg, Germany, was the city in question.

I'm going to do a full wrapup of that detective work in a From the Readers post later this week.

* * *

This is a cover of a slender, undated volume titled Atlas and created by J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S. It was published in London as part of The People's Books series.

F.R.G.S. are post-nominal letters granted to Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, which was founded in 1830.

It's hard to know which J. Bartholomew created the maps for this book. The Bartholomews are a family of famed cartographers, and many of them were named John:

• John Bartholomew, Sr. (1805-1861), the founder of John Bartholomew and Son
• John Bartholomew Junior (1831-1893)
• John George Bartholomew (1860-1920)
• John (Ian) Bartholomew (1890-1962)
• John Christopher Bartholomew (1923-2008)

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the J. Bartholomew associated with this book is either John Bartholomew Junior or John George Bartholomew.

Here are a few of the fabulous maps featured within Bartholomew's atlas.¹ With all of these, for maximum viewing pleasure, you'll want to click on them to bring up the magnified version.

(This next one is my favorite. It's filled with regions that provided source material for many of Ruth Manning-Sanders' retold fairy tales.)

And, hey, if you look closer at that last map, you can see Amberg!

* * *
As an added bonus, this book contains a bookseller label for L.B. Herr's bookstore in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on the inside front cover. This is the second label from Herr that I've come across. The first one was discussed in this July 2011 post.

Footnote
1. Want more vintage maps? Check out these previous posts:

• 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

Mystery postcard: What European city is this?

This never-used photo postcard has only word printed on the back - KODAK.

I'm looking for your best guesses as far as what country and city are pictured here. Also curious what decade you think this street scene is from.

Here are some magnifications of some portions of the postcard.

So, have it at, sleuths! I can't wait to see what you come up with in the Comments section.

1907 postcard of Willow Grove Park, with lights ablaze at night

Here's a festive, hand-colored postcard for your enjoyment as Labor Day descends into dusk here on the East Coast of the United States.

The caption on the front states "NIGHT VIEW OF LAKE AND FOUNTAIN, WILLOW GROVE PARK. Photo. Copyright 1907 J.M. CANFIELD."

Willow Grove Park was a trolley amusement park in Abington Township, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1896 until 1975. For many years, it was one of the grandest amusement parks in the country. In its early decades, John Philip Sousa and his band played there annually.

According to the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City, J.M. Canfield "established himself there, where he became the official publisher of postcards depicting Willow Grove’s points of interest and vast music programs," from 1907 and 1909. Indeed, the text on the back of this postcard, which was printed in Saxony, states: "This is the only official post card of Willow Grove Park."

CardCow.com is a good place to see some other vintage postcards of Willow Grove Park. Also, there's a neat, detailed post about The Girl from Montana and its mention of Willow Grove Park on GraceLivingstonHill.com.

The best history of Willow Grove Park can likely be found in the Images of America book about the park that was published in 2006.

The former site of beloved trolley amusement park, by the way, is now a shopping mall.