Books & Ephemera
For the reluctant reader, the slide show of the photos is below the prose, simply click on the first image then use your keyboard arrow keys to view images.
Happy New Year! Bon Anniversaire! Happy Birthday! Joyeux Noël! Congratulations Grad! Good Luck Couple! It's a Boy! It's a Girl! Milestones in the human experience captured in phrase. Life has its pivot points and we track them. Then there are the markers, footprints we leave. We all have them. Collected into scrapbooks, now in the cloud. Photos. Ticket stubs. Love notes. Dear John expressions. Fulfillment. Regrets. They are all here. These delectable tidbits offer a glimpse into the true you. Passions. Politics. Likes. Dislikes. Indelible reminders impossible to erase on today's social platform. Some good. Some bad. Some disappointing. Some ecstatic. All left like breadcrumbs along a trail.
Thomas & Richard Penn land deed, January 27, 1757.
Hellam Township, York County, Pennsylvania.
165 acres deeded to Peter Gardner.
Twenty-five pounds. Eleven shillings. Six pence.
The spot where our story first started.
18k gold Swiss watch. Time and tide wait for no man.
For the young, the Viet Nam War means little. For baby boomers, it shaped our world. In music, in videos, in sorrow. Our moment in time. There are many moments in time.
This week we return to the Jacksonian Period of the 1820's through to the Civil War from our York, Pennsylvania library. This, the one we touched last June. These markers are books, pamphlets, legal notices, broadsides, daily detritus limelighting. Studying this ephemera, one soon realizes how similar our ancestor's times were to our own. Though we both wear different costumes, our souls beneath are identical. They loved. We love. They fought. We fight. They existed. We exist. To celebrate the new year and our first auction in 2025, let's lighten the load. Below is an undiscovered interpretation. A story with a moral. Condolences to Aesop. Apologies to Grimm. A bow to La Fontaine. Most of all, a huge thank you to you for your weekly support here in our gallery.
A Fractured Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, there lived a little boy named Hansel who had a sister Gretel. Now, they were good children, as no surviving court records attest to truancy, delinquency, or larceny. But even if there were, who could read the Middle English dialect to know? How do you think Geoffrey Chaucer got his Canterbury Tales through the censors? Anyway, the sibling duo fell victim to the oldest plight in fairy tale history. Mother dies only to be replaced by a wicked stepmother. These seemed to be an oversupply of wicked stepmothers in those days. So, in keeping with her character, the wicked stepmother metes out severity. Work all day. Starve all night. Their father is clueless, the only believable character in the story. Definitely a case for Child Custody. The single outlet available was a walk in the woods to be forever lost and never head from again. But everyone has a savior. Problem is, Grimm selects the one who lives up to his name.
Handscripted recipes to distill whiskey, sots, & gin. Undated.
In 1791, Congress and President Washinton imposed an excise tax on whiskey. The reason was to pay off the Revolutionary
War debt. Backed by eastern distillers with the capital to pay the tax, it was resisted by farmers in western Pensylvania who could not as whiskey there was more of a barter. The resistance became bloody and troops were called to quell. A compliance was reached and the farmers retreated with their stills secreted in the mountains.
We're off to fill her Gizzard
Alone, cold, and scared, they head into the deep forest leaving a breadcrumb trail to find their way home. Well, these kids had problems, and thinking was primary. Birds ate their trail. So, on they wandered. The night closes in. Wolves howl. Owls screech. You get the Rackham snapshot. But up ahead, lit by a light, sits a bungalow in the clearing. Only this house is every child's dream. It is made of candy. Not owned by a sugar daddy, but by a scraggily old mint green witch. Go Eagles! Before they could take a second bite from the shutters, she invites them inside. As they enter, they are alarmed by the contents. Most of the furniture is fashioned from human bones. Femas and tibias decorate the mantel and shelves. A regular Parisian catacomb. Before the children can react, the witch locks Hansel in a cage and enslaves Gretel. Child Labor laws hopelessly violated.
Silence of the Lambs
Well, the witch's trick is to fatten Hansel. Each day she commands him to hold out his finger so she can feel him fattening. As her eyesight is declining, no doubt due to a deficiency in diet void of fruits and vegetables, she is surprised how skinny Hansel's finger still is. The reason? Sister Gretel has secreted her sibling a bone to hold out instead of his finger. But the kids aren't finished outsmarting the old duff. When the witch demands Gretel crawl into the wood-fired oven to measure the temperature, Gretel announces wood-fired ovens are now illegal, and any testing at all must be completed by a certified inspector, i.e., a mint green witch. Taking the bait, the old hag climbs in muttering her credentials. Gretel quickly slams the door and bakes Alaska. The witch turns to pitch.
The Spangler name plays largely in the history of Gettysburg's Civil War.
Broadside dated March 16, 1820.
It was by their spring some of the heaviest fighting occurred. Through time, a story grew claiming both Confederate and Union troops shared camaraderie while filling their canteens there. No proof exists except the front changed hands here several times, the story a hopeful reminder this war was brother against brother, a nation divided.
The Incredible Journey, aka, Laddies Come Home
The children, now free, return home, sans breadcrumbs, wolves, or owls. Upon their arrival, their father cries out in joy. He has much to be happy about. His children's return and, since their departure, the death of his wife, the wicked stepmother. Rumor is she died in a fire. To add to the jollity, the children arrive with jewels they stole from the witch, instantly turning them all into Mega Million Jackpot winners. Still surprising these children do not have a criminal record somewhere. But, as in all fractured fairy tales, we have a happy ending. There is one more reason Papa is exuburiant. He had just signed a legal document forbidding him from ever marrying a wicked stepmother again. In one stroke of the pen, the best story plot in history vanishes.
There is always a moral to a story, and this one's no slacker. Witches who live in candy houses should never stow bones.
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York, PA Constable's Sale Broadside, March 13, 1816
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York, PA Public Sale Broadside, March 16, 1820
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Delegate Election Broadside, 1828
For re-election of John Quincy Adams. 11" x 8 ½".
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Adam King Propaganda Broadside, York, PA
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1808 Apprentice Indenture, Thomas Green to James Campbell
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1808 Apprentice Indenture, Thomas Green to James Campbell
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Civil War Pass, Gettysburg, June 29th, 1863
Authorized by Confederate General Jubal Early, signed by Brigadier General William W. Kirkland.
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Railroad Ephemera
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Whiskey Stilling Recipe
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Thomas & Richard Penn Land Deed for Peter Gardner, January 27, 1757
165 acres in Hellam Township, York County.