Citrus Cactus and the Case of the Mysterious Atlas
So, I randomly went home last weekend (eh, not so random-- parents' birthdays, you know). OMG, I had really been missing Colorado. The dry air, the altitude... even though Saturday was a bit cold and rainy, Sunday was very much my idea of a Perfect Fall Day: warm and sunny (but not too warm), great for a grilling outdoors and taking the Samoyeds for a walk (X3). I took some dance classes, went to the ballet, made lemon merangue pie with my sister, saw the reDONKulous number of new apartment buildings that have sprung up downtown... O_o And some of the things that have been annoying me about Maryland (the roads and traffic) are, in fact, quite comparable to what I was used to in Denver, so some of my complaints were very much grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome, so it was a bit of an attitude readjustment, as well.
One thing I got pretty into was a bunch of boxes of old books my uncle had "gifted" (read: left in his old house for my dad to deal with because he didn't want them in his de-cluttered post-retirement life) us. I actually admire the heck out of my father's side of the family, and it's one of the primary reasons I didn't change my name when I got married. My uncle is a real bibliophile, and has (had) a lot of really old first editions hardcovers, dimestore sci-fi, and all sorts of things of that nature, so I went ahead and went through a couple of boxes. I ended up bringing a few things back with me (love of books runs in the family, LOL), but the most interesting find was an atlas from 1911. This is actually a bit of a family heirloom, as it has a bunch of old newspaper articles and personal effects clipped out and saved in it. I did email my uncle to ask about it, and what I gather is that the atlas belonged to my great-great aunt (my paternal grandmother's father's sister), to whom said paternal grandmother was quite close.
My Grandma was an amazing person with a passion for stories and history. My most precious posession is actually a short book of stories she wrote me about the animals my uncle and dad had kept growing up-- dogs, cats, and a parakeet named Joe. Grandma died when I was eight, but her words live on there and in the (extensive) family histories she wrote for her family name and her husband's, my Grandpa. Her side also gives great detail about her immediate family and her life growing up in mountain mining town, which I find ansolutely fascinating. So I got to solve a few mysteries, feel my roots, and see a small slice of the past based on these snippets my great-great-aunt (whose name was Grace) found important over the years.
The cover. Based on 1910 census information, I would guess.
Yup, that's old.
Geology was a lot less developed as a science, I suppose.
1.6 billion people in the world, 122 million in the United States.
This atlas is most definitely biased towards the US and European countries; it was a different time. Still, Colorado :)
"Sometimes called the Centennial State"-- yeah, that actually became the official state nickname! Big-hearted, loyal, strong men [...and women!]"-- not exactly objective, but thanks atlas, I guess.
Illinois(/Chicago) :)
Iowa, by request
BLIMPS, BALLOONS, AND AEROPLANES
Geez, atlas, why you gotta be hatin' on Greece?? :|
UM. O_o
Anyway, there you go. The newspaper articles begin in the early 1900s (with Grace's father's obituary), and end sometime in the 1960s (she died in 1979 at age 95). Note that what I found interesting was not always what she found interesting; a lot of these articles were obviously NOT the thing being saved, so these pictures reflect my own biases.
She kept an article listing of all that new-fangled twentieth century slang.
Personally, that is ALL I need to know about 1904 (...what? I just like chickens. They're cute!!)
COAT SALE AT KERR'S aw yeah
The pencil was a good idea; the kids used them to sign their names in the back of the program. But oh boy, I can tell this is not going to be very PC...
I was not wrong.
Grace's son Tom went to Amarillo to work in this plant when it opened in 1929. This is the helium plant in question, now home to the country's Federal Helium Reserve. Did you know about the recent helium shortage and that helium production is still a big deal?
Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and Goofy(??) in 1934
There was also an article about women's lasting contributions to astronomy circa 19... 14, I think, which I took pictures of but didn't include here. Very interesting read though! Women were often "calculators" and assistants to (male) astronomers, doing a lot of the "tedious" computations that confirmed the presence/led to the discovery of certain comets and other celestial bodies. I might transcribe it someday and share that with folks at work.
Jumping ahead to WWII...
Hmm, what's this little card?
O-oh. OH GEEZ.
There was a tiny envelope containing a tiny picture of a woman holding four kittens. Pretty good gift, IMO!
A scientific prediction from 1960.
I had a hard time reading the handwritten part at first, but it says "My latest photograph"/"Everyone says they know me by my hat." I don't know who or when this is from, if someone sent it to Grace or it's documentation of herself (Burkburnett is in Texas, apparently), but this is quite genuinely the sort of thing I aspire to. HATS!! <3
(OK, seriously, I don't know why I like hats so much, but my one mention in the letters included in the family history was from when I was four years old and is as follows: "We had a nice letter from [Citrus' dad]. [Citrus] liked her hat. Kids like the funniest things." so clearly, this is a lifelong fixation that no one understands XD)
Anyway, thanks for stepping through some of the mysteries of history with me! :)
One thing I got pretty into was a bunch of boxes of old books my uncle had "gifted" (read: left in his old house for my dad to deal with because he didn't want them in his de-cluttered post-retirement life) us. I actually admire the heck out of my father's side of the family, and it's one of the primary reasons I didn't change my name when I got married. My uncle is a real bibliophile, and has (had) a lot of really old first editions hardcovers, dimestore sci-fi, and all sorts of things of that nature, so I went ahead and went through a couple of boxes. I ended up bringing a few things back with me (love of books runs in the family, LOL), but the most interesting find was an atlas from 1911. This is actually a bit of a family heirloom, as it has a bunch of old newspaper articles and personal effects clipped out and saved in it. I did email my uncle to ask about it, and what I gather is that the atlas belonged to my great-great aunt (my paternal grandmother's father's sister), to whom said paternal grandmother was quite close.
My Grandma was an amazing person with a passion for stories and history. My most precious posession is actually a short book of stories she wrote me about the animals my uncle and dad had kept growing up-- dogs, cats, and a parakeet named Joe. Grandma died when I was eight, but her words live on there and in the (extensive) family histories she wrote for her family name and her husband's, my Grandpa. Her side also gives great detail about her immediate family and her life growing up in mountain mining town, which I find ansolutely fascinating. So I got to solve a few mysteries, feel my roots, and see a small slice of the past based on these snippets my great-great-aunt (whose name was Grace) found important over the years.
The cover. Based on 1910 census information, I would guess.
Yup, that's old.
Geology was a lot less developed as a science, I suppose.
1.6 billion people in the world, 122 million in the United States.
This atlas is most definitely biased towards the US and European countries; it was a different time. Still, Colorado :)
"Sometimes called the Centennial State"-- yeah, that actually became the official state nickname! Big-hearted, loyal, strong men [...and women!]"-- not exactly objective, but thanks atlas, I guess.
Illinois(/Chicago) :)
Iowa, by request
BLIMPS, BALLOONS, AND AEROPLANES
Geez, atlas, why you gotta be hatin' on Greece?? :|
UM. O_o
Anyway, there you go. The newspaper articles begin in the early 1900s (with Grace's father's obituary), and end sometime in the 1960s (she died in 1979 at age 95). Note that what I found interesting was not always what she found interesting; a lot of these articles were obviously NOT the thing being saved, so these pictures reflect my own biases.
She kept an article listing of all that new-fangled twentieth century slang.
Personally, that is ALL I need to know about 1904 (...what? I just like chickens. They're cute!!)
COAT SALE AT KERR'S aw yeah
The pencil was a good idea; the kids used them to sign their names in the back of the program. But oh boy, I can tell this is not going to be very PC...
I was not wrong.
Grace's son Tom went to Amarillo to work in this plant when it opened in 1929. This is the helium plant in question, now home to the country's Federal Helium Reserve. Did you know about the recent helium shortage and that helium production is still a big deal?
Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and Goofy(??) in 1934
There was also an article about women's lasting contributions to astronomy circa 19... 14, I think, which I took pictures of but didn't include here. Very interesting read though! Women were often "calculators" and assistants to (male) astronomers, doing a lot of the "tedious" computations that confirmed the presence/led to the discovery of certain comets and other celestial bodies. I might transcribe it someday and share that with folks at work.
Jumping ahead to WWII...
Hmm, what's this little card?
O-oh. OH GEEZ.
There was a tiny envelope containing a tiny picture of a woman holding four kittens. Pretty good gift, IMO!
A scientific prediction from 1960.
I had a hard time reading the handwritten part at first, but it says "My latest photograph"/"Everyone says they know me by my hat." I don't know who or when this is from, if someone sent it to Grace or it's documentation of herself (Burkburnett is in Texas, apparently), but this is quite genuinely the sort of thing I aspire to. HATS!! <3
(OK, seriously, I don't know why I like hats so much, but my one mention in the letters included in the family history was from when I was four years old and is as follows: "We had a nice letter from [Citrus' dad]. [Citrus] liked her hat. Kids like the funniest things." so clearly, this is a lifelong fixation that no one understands XD)
Anyway, thanks for stepping through some of the mysteries of history with me! :)