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Rochester (Pa.) High School Freshman manuscript year books, 1912
2 volumes
This collection consists of two variations of a 1912 yearbook for members of the 1915 co-ed class of Rochester High school in Rochester, Pennsylvania. These yearbooks include pencil and pen-and-ink portraits of students, faculty, and sports teams, as well as caricatures, cartoons, and humorous drawings. Several poems are also included. Their content touches on humor, social affairs, class members' personalities, curriculum, athletics, and gender. The content is very similar between the two volumes, with some variations of student descriptions and introductory matter.
The first volume, titled "The Nightmare," includes an introduction stating that "the only excuse for publishing this book is because the rest of the bunch have one apiece . . . [and] merely aids one in passing some idle hours in school . . . this book is strictly 'Entre Nous,' so don't tell anybody outside of America." One page, headed "Familiar Quotations" quotes Bunny Amos Rex as having said, "Aw fellows let's git together and do some devilment." On the opposite page of the "Quotations" section is a drawing of the Rochester High School with the label "Agony Building." Accompanying the student portraits are humorous descriptions of said students: Armin Barner is described as an elegant musician, politician, electrician and magician of the lowest rank.
The second volume, titled "Freshmen Class Book 1911," includes a preface claiming the book "touches on such topics as Elementary Science, Natural Science, Natural Phylosophy, Orthography, Uranography, Geodasy and Wireless Telegraphy" to emulate "when all writters chiseled out dedications for a book thereby showing their originality." It further states that the class has attempted the same "because of our first class solid ivory domes." Many pages feature illustrations or descriptions of the school's sports teams. It also contains croquet scores for the women's team, who apparently gave the class "the thing we need to brag over," as they "mopped the valley clean" in their season.
Rogers Family Trip to China Photograph Album, ca. 1910
81 photographs in 1 album
The Rogers family trip to China photograph album contains 81 photographs from a visit to Shanghai, China, by a group of Americans.
The album (18.5 x 27.5 cm) has green cloth covers with "Album" stamped on the front. No captions are present for any of the images. The inclusion of a White House invitation issued to Allan H. Rogers (Superintendent of Public Works in Garden City, Long Island) in 1957 requesting his participation in a traffic study conference raises the possibility that his parents Caroline and Newton Rogers may have been the original compilers of the album.
Images mainly document the activities of a group of Americans visiting China around 1910, but they also provide a glimpse of the U.S. military presence in Shanghai at a time when protection of American commercial interests in the region (especially on the Yangtze River) was a high priority. Images of people playing tennis, attending social events, riding through Shanghai, naval officers aboard ship, sailors marching on land, and a U.S. Navy destroyer in the harbor are all included. Also present are a relatively small number of snapshots documenting street scenes, rickshaws, and commercial river traffic.
Rosa Boyer notebook, 1881-1887
1 volume
Rosa Boyer, likely a student from Pennsylvania, kept this notebook between 1881 and 1887, in which she copied rhyming maxims and poems, wrote names of friends, produced various lists, and drew a number of pencil sketches. Boyer drew people, animals, buildings, furniture and household goods, geometric designs, and one small map of South America.
Boyer also recorded the death of James A. Garfield. Several pages may have been used in relation to her education, such notes on the Pennsylvania congressmen and governor, sentence diagrams, a record of the numbers of days attended and missed from school, and a testimonial about her teacher Samuel S. Diehl.
Rowland Stephenson Scrapbook, ca. 1767-1840
1 volume
The Rowland Stephenson scrapbook contains numerous clippings, engravings, illustrations, notes, and ephemera primarily related to British banking and finance, the Royal Family, and prominent political and historical figures.
The scrapbook (23 x 18 cm) has brown board covers, is lacking a spine, and contains 184 pages in total. While it is unlikely that Stephenson himself created the scrapbook, it does appear that it may have been compiled by a close associate or relative of Stephenson's. Dated contents range from ca. 1767 to 1840 and generally speaking include numerous engraved portraits of various individuals (mainly royal personages, aristocrats, politicians, military and religious leaders, writers, artists, doctors, scientists, athletes, eccentrics, criminals, and historic figures), engravings and illustrations of buildings and other scenes, handwritten notes and ephemeral materials related to various subjects including royal finances and banking, multiple pasted in signatures, and newspaper clippings regarding various subjects including a reward notice for information on Stephenson's whereabouts after his disappearance following his embezzlement scandal. A number of engravings appear to have been clipped from European Magazine as well as R. S. Kirby’s Wonderful and Eccentric Museum; Or, Magazine of Remarkable Characters. Many undated engravings of pre-18th century historic figures were likely produced prior to 1767.
- Pressed plant life remnants of a “Willow from the grave of Buonaparte at St. Helena. 1838” (pg. 1)
- Engraved portraits of King George III, Aleksandr Suvorov, and the Duke of Wellington (pgs. 2-4)
- Handwritten list of debts held by Prince Regent George IV coupled with a newspaper clipping expressing caution about how to deal with being in debt (pg. 7)
- Engraved portrait of Prince Regent George IV with handwritten notes summarizing "Debts of this King paid by Parliament"; includes juxtaposed clipped engraving of a man with hand-drawn sight lines drawing attention to the total debt amount of £3,113,061 (pg. 8)
- Handwritten list of expenses for the coronation of King George IV, July 19, 1821 (pg. 9)
- Invitation to the coronation of King George IV (pg. 10)
- Printed poem about death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, November 6, 1817 (pg. 13)
- Handwritten list detailing pensions paid to certain dukes, duchesses, princes, and princesses (pg. 15)
- Two engravings showing portraits of Queen Victoria (ca. 1837) and the 1st Earl of Munster (ca. 1834) encircled by statistical references regarding “The Population of the British Empire according to the last census” (pgs. 16 & 48)
- Handwritten list showing stats related to the “Total personal charge of a King of England, on the scale of the reign of George the Third” (pg. 17)
- Engraved portrait of surgeon Charles Aldis (pg. 19)
- Engraved view of the comet of 1811 (between pgs. 19 and 20)
- Clipped handwritten cookery list dated December 29, 1767 (pg. 20)
- Engraved portrait of “Her late Most Excellent Majesty Sophia Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain,” dated December 1818 (pg. 23)
- Engraved view of “Frogmore, the favorite residence of Her late Majesty” coupled with smaller engraving of people ice skating (pg. 24)
- Handwritten notes detailing the history and operations of the Bank of England (pgs. 25, 27, 29, & 31)
- Three Bank of England checks dated February 14, 1826, Dec 10, 1818, and March 6, 1818, all marked with “Forged” stamps, accompanied by handwritten notes (pgs. 26, 28, & 30)
- Two unfilled stock certificates for £1 and £10 from the Hibernian Bank, Dublin, illustrated with vignettes (pg. 32)
- Handwritten statement detailing the Bank of England’s net profits from 1797 to 1816; includes tipped-in engraved portrait from 1803 of Abraham Newland, Chief Cashier for the Bank of England (pgs. 33-35)
- Handwritten note about scented “love letter paper” made in New Jersey alongside an engraved portrait of Raphael (pg. 37)
- Engravings including depictions of four honorary medals and views of “The Car on which the Remains of Lord Nelson were conveyed to St. Paul’s Jany. 9, 1806,” the "Palaquin presented by the Marquis Cornwall to Prince Abdul Calic, Eldest Son of Tippoo Sultaun…Sepr. 1796," and "A West View of the Iron Bridge over the Wear near Sunderland" (pgs. 39-41)
- Handwritten notes detailing the history of the Rothschild Family (pgs. 43 & 44)
- Engravings of Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital as well as a funding solicitation notice seeking contributions for the Foundling Hospital (pgs. 45 & 46)
- Tickets and other ephemera related to various lotteries (pgs. 49, 50, 52, 54, 55, 56, & 58)
- Engraved view of the Globe Theater (pg. 53)
- Clipping regarding election anecdote related to Lord Chief Justice John Holt accompanied by a tipped-in engraved portrait of Holt (pg. 62)
- Handwritten notes on the "Character of a Good Woman" (pg. 63)
- Handwritten notes on Freemasonry (pg. 64)
- Hand-drawn view of the comet of 1811 (pg. 65)
- Engraved portraits of Benjamin Thompson, the Count Rumford; John Elwes; Joanna Southcott; Thomas Paine; Rev. Thomas Raffles; Richard Carlile; Sir Richard "Dick" Wittington and his cat; Joseph Priestley; Prince Albert; engraver John Rowe; and London eccentric Ann Siggs (pgs. 74-85)
- Engraved depiction of a sleeping woman named Elizabeth Perkins of Morley, Norfolk, accompanied by handwritten notes detailing her sudden and mysterious entrance into a coma in 1788 (pg. 86)
- Ca. 1839 advertisement for a showing of Brother Jonathan, the mammoth ox from America (pg. 87)
- Engraved portraits of boxer James Belcher, eccentric dentist Martin van Butchell, and Madame de Staël Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker (pgs. 88-90)
- Plan of the King’s Theatre (pg. 94)
- Engraving showing the three defendants in the 1823 Radlett Murder: John Thurtell, Joseph Hunt, and William Probert (pg. 101)
- Handwritten copy of a letter sent from Rotterdam, Netherlands, dated August 18, 1817, instructing Stephenson’s firm to pay £100 to someone who was purpsoefully injured by one of their clients (pg. 103)
- Engraved portraits of Thomas Hobson accompanied by a printed poem, Henry Jenkins of Ellerton in Yorkshire “who lived to the Surpizing Age of 169,” and Thomas “Old Tom” Parr (pgs. 110-112)
- Engraved view of London and the observatory erected over the cross of St. Paul's Cathedral that was used by Thomas Hornor to create his panoramic view of London accompanied by a handwritten note about an individual nearly falling to their death after slipping on top of the cathedral's dome (pgs. 115 & 116)
- Engraved portraits of Lady Morgan Sydney Owenson and Charlemagne (pg. 117)
- Ca. 1840 advertisement for London-based rubbish collector John Allford attached to French cologne advertisement (between pgs. 117 & 118)
- Clipping regarding Edmund Burke's description of the Bible, an engraved portrait of Burke and an engraving of two Biblical-era priests preparing sacrifices (pgs. 123 & 124)
- Engraved portraits of Rev. Rowland Hill and George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (pgs. 125 & 128)
- Cut and pasted signatures of various individuals (pgs. 129-168)
- Engraved portraits of Governor Joseph Wall, Sir Francis Burdett, Lord Brougham and Vaux, Lord Durham, John Bellingham, T. S. Duncombe, Colonel George De Lacy Evans, Lord Thomas Erskine, George Canning, Granville Sharp, Henry Hunt, Richard Watson, Joseph Hume, William Cobbett, Daniel O'Connell, Charles Lennox the Duke of Richmond, Lord Palmerston, Thomas Spring-Rice, William Henry the Duke of Portland, Sir James Shaw, Lord Bexley Nicholas Vansittart, Sir Matthew Wood, Robert Waithman, W. T. Raynal, Sir Richard Birnie, Joliot de Crebillon, John Gully, Sir John Oglander, John Soane, Sir Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, Hippocrates, Josiah Ricraft, Dr. Herman Boerhaave, Henry Hastings, Marie and Catherine de Médicis, James Cook, Rev. Obadiah Sedgwick, Lord Burghley, King William IV, and Queen Victoria (pgs. 133-183)
- Hand-colored engraved portrait of Stephenson accompanied by his own clipped signature as well as a newspaper clipping of a reward notice offering £1000 pounds for Stephenson's apprehension following his alleged embezzlement and flight from London (pg. 171)
- Four tipped-in manuscript items including an undated note from Stephenson quoting "Lev: 12: Blair" about choosing one's path in life; a letter dated January 9, 1804, from B. Pratt to Stephenson regarding the importance of being careful with money; a letter dated August 29, 1827, from “Rody Moroney” to Stephenson thanking the latter for favors; and a letter dated March 23, 1822, from "the Independent Inhabitation of West Looe" to innkeeper Robert Reath inquiring about the whereabouts of Stephenson's friends and remarking on business matters impacted in the wake of a contested election (between pgs. 171 & 172)
- Clipping of a poem dated January 10, 1829, regarding Stephenson's alleged embezzlement and lamenting the volume of negative newspaper coverage devoted to Stephenson as well as to the Duke of Wellington (pg. 173)
- Loose letter dated March 19, 1828, from Michael Meredith to Stephenson expressing the former's willingness to work for Stephenson again in Leominster "if it should happen that your Honour should call on me again at any future Election" (between pgs. 173 & 174)
- Handwritten notes regarding the "Expenses of the Coronation of Queen Victoria" accompanied by a clipping that details the approximate value of the jewels found in Her Majesty's Crown (pg. 184)
- Engraved view of the passenger steamboat SS British Queen (pasted inside back cover)
Rufus Degranza Pease papers, 1844-1890
0.5 linear feet
The papers of phrenologist and physiognomist Rufus Degranza Pease are made up of 219 letters, documents, drafts, a diary, speeches, notes, broadsides, a printed journal, and ephemeral items dating between 1844 and 1890.
The Correspondence and Documents series contains 195 incoming letters and drafts of outgoing letters focusing heavily on four main areas:
- Itinerant teaching and lecturing on scientific and pseudoscientific subjects in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and other areas between the 1840s and 1860s;
- Dr. Pease's imprisonment at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in October-November 1863;
- Dr. Pease's work for and later litigation against the National Christian Association Opposed to Secret Societies in the late 1860s and early 1870s; and
- His work as phrenologist and physiognomist in Philadelphia in the 1870s and 1880s (including several drafts pertinent to Dr. Pease's analysis of Charles Guiteau's "psycho-physiology," dated 1881 and 1882)
The collection also includes Dr. Pease's preprinted Pocket Diary for 1855. For Registering Events of Past or Present Occurrence ... Boston: Wm. J. Reynolds & Co., [1855]. Dr. Pease used this daily diary to document activities, notes, costs and purchases, medicinal recipes and more. It is unclear whether or not many of the entries correspond to the pre-printed dates on which they were written. He spent much of 1855 in Indiana (particularly Wayne County). Examples of his brief entries include: "Completed my large portfolio" (March 3); a recipe for broth taken from the Tribune (March 10). "Went to Indianapolis on cars . . . got cards printed . . . guitar strings. & saw Risher Linder in bookstore" (April 2); a rough pencil sketch of a "Puzzle box"; card printing and costs, and Silas Galespy's printer in Iowa (April 4-6); section headed "The Italian Lost Girl" with brief biographical notes about Amelia [Ettensberger?] (April 7-9); instructions for making "Webber's Plates" (for portrait painting) (April 22-23); reference to "Lectures to Ladies on Anatomy..." followed by a note "Mrs Lukens is said to be in sympathy with H.C. Wright." (April 24-25); an entry stating "a want of sensibility in the skin has been found in a vast number of cases of insanity" (June 18); a treatment for "Frozen flesh" (July 15-16 and November 27). Throughout are very brief notes or lists pertinent to articles and books, art, geographical locations, body measurements, names of people, professions, where they were from or where he met them, and places.
The papers include a single Photograph, a 3.5" x 2.5" tintype group portrait of three unidentified women, one standing behind two seated.
The collection's Printed Items include:
- R. D. Pease, The Journal of Man. Philadelphia: Wm. S. Rentoul, January 1872.
- Two business cards for "R. D. Pease, M. D., Editor of the Journal of Man," one with manuscript revisions.
- One trade card for R. D. Pease's services in Philadelphia.
- Eleven different handbills, broadsides, programs, and prospectuses for lectures and courses by Dr. Pease and others, plus fragments.
- Four tickets to lectures and courses by Dr. Pease (including one complimentary ticket for the Wagner Institute of Science).