Hope Street High School (c. 1902) Part 2

A typical sports pose is featured here - and in virtually all early Hope Street High School Yearbooks I've seen. Lovecraft would have been unimpressed. Perhaps fortelling the clash of RE Howard with HPL on "barbarian brutes", Lovecraft usually sided with brains over braun. Otherwise some vintage ads in the back of the eyarbook (sponsors). Lovecraft might easily have gotten a job with some of these agencies - but he didn't. He shunned "work". Lovecraft was 11, but in a few years he would stride the halls of this educational institution.

Hope Street High School (c. 1901) Part 1

Lovecraft was only 11 at the time, but Hope Street High School was in full swing. The pride of Providence's educational system, I believe the image across from "Blue and White" is the principal. More images from an Ebayeum auction tomorrow.

Rare Items (1967)

In this book offered as an Ebayeum auction, are two rare items. Samel Loveman's shaky autograph. Born in 1887, he was nearly 80 years old when this was signed. (d. 1976)
_____


_____

Below is a rare image of Hart Crane. Lovecraft knew him, visited him, wondered over his condition, and discussed many literary and poetic matters with him and in his presence. Truly a touchstone for Lovecraftians.

Lovecraft's 1910 Correspondence Course

Below are excerpts found online about Lovecraft's 1910 correpondence study in Chemistry. This is some 26 years later, but represents what he would have received and studied. It's as close as I've come to recovering what he actually held in his hands in 1910 (save I have a vitage copy of the Young Chemist he would have once had - not his of course). This was from an Ebayeum auction. As this is the 5th edition, one suspects HPL had a near 1st edition as the school may have just begun somwhat before HPL saw the ad for it.



"Inorganic Chemistry" Parts 1,2,3 #198A-1, B-2,C-3, Edition 5.Prepared Especially For Home Study-International Correspondence Schools - Scranton, Pa. by Herbert Winkel, B.S.- Copyright 1936 by International Textbook Company, Copyright in Great Britain. All rights reserved - Printed in U.S.A. All three of these booklet are in very good condition. Total of over 200 softcover pages with a foldout periodic chart.

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He even composed a chemistry textbook, "a bulky manuscript entitled A Brief Course in Inorganic Chemistry, by HP Lovecraft, 1910."

One tangible memorial of my hobby remains — a bulky manuscript entitled "A Brief Course in Inorganic Chemistry", by HP Lovecraft. 1910.

One significant work did come out of this, however: A Brief Course in Inorganic Chemistry, written in 1910 and deemed by Lovecraft a 'bulky manuscript'.11 This work, so far as I know, does not survive, and we know nothing of it.

After several years devoted to scientific writing (including a lost treatise, A Brief Course in Inorganic Chemistry [1910])

... the unpreserved Inorganic Chemistry (1910)

Yet at home I continued my chemical studies, dabbling in a correspondence course which helped me in matters of analysis ... of my hobby remains — a bulky manuscript entitled A Brief Course in Inorganic Chemistry, by HP Lovecraft, 1910

See also an ad for "International Correspondence Schools, Scranton, Pa." in the Scientific Gazette (January 1909), which is very likely the correspondence course Lovecraft himself took. ... Pennsylvania, offering a complete course for $161.00. This is no doubt the correspondence course in chemistry that Lovecraft admits to taking 'for a time'.

2500 posts ... oh my!

2500 posts now.

It's been a TRIP and a half, Lovecraftians. I do hope to keep up this pace until at least the end of the year, and I love all the emails I get from you folks. You're the best. But I have to tell you it's surreal some days. Tens of thousands and more real people have stopped by to read a few of my words. I do have a hard time fathoming that fact.

So, let's just tip our hat to Mr. Lovecraft and move on through the summer.

Thank YOU for reading.

Susan Lovecraft's Annual Income (1911)

Her personal income:
Lovecraft Sarah S // 1300 // 21 45
(page 309, Providence Tax Book)

_____
Howard Lovecraft is not listed - that I can find.

1897 class of (?) Hope High School

The Ebayeum seller states: I believe this Class of 1897 is from Providence "Hope Street High School" Providence, Rhode Island. It was with other items from that school in the same era. I can not say for 100% but perhaps someone would like to do the research. All the class members have been numbered and the names are on verso. The photo is in very good condition. The board is chipped as shown.

The images are pretty faint, but if this is Hope Street High School 1897, then it is the closest view yet of what a portion of it looked like. It would have been roughly 7 years before HPL attended.

1901 Hope Street High School Grad. Pamphlet

Of course this was years before HPl attended, but a nice image of the school. Note that the school year ends toward the end of June.

"Hope Street High School" "Commencement Exercises" Providence, Rhode Island. Wednesday Evening, June 26, 1901 at a quarter before eight o'clock. Pamphlet in very good condition with some soiling on the bottom edge. 4 pages.

Tomorrow, images of sudents...

Providence Theatre Program (circa 1900)

The seller states that it contains four beer advertisements. It's B F Keith Theater.

Notes:

OFFERED:
is a vintage and original program of B. F. Keith’s New Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island. This 12 page, 110 year old program is unusual as it has four ads for early beer breweries, two which rarely appear. The beer ads are for Burke Brothers’ Bitter Beer, brewed at Worcester, Massachusetts by Bowler Brothers, The Providence Brewing Company, What Cheer Lager Beer, brewed by Henry T. Molter, and Narragansett Lager and Ale. I’ve seen a lot of these old Rhode Island theatre programs in the past, but I believe this is the first one I’ve seen with these four breweries advertised in the same program.

CONDITION:
poor to fair at best, with tears and tattering much wear and patina

Westminster Street (circa 1900)

This is a really cool photo from about 1900.

Colour Out of ... The Washington Post?

The Washington Post of 11 May 2010 reports a meteor streak ...

Meteor spotted in Gaithersburg, MD

Early-morning commuters in Maryland - and as far away as Pittsburgh and Massachusetts - were startled by a spectacular meteor that crossed the sky in the pre-dawn darkness, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Dawn Teagle Dobbs spotted the fireball as she drove south on Interstate 270 near Gaithersburg at 4:47 a.m. "At first I thought it was a shooting star, but it was huge and bright green with a tail," she wrote in a post to The Baltimore Sun's Weather Blog.

Similar reports - - from all across Central Maryland and the Eastern Shore, and as far off as Ashburn, Va., Pittsburgh, Greencastle and Gettysburg, Pa., and New Jersey and central Massachusetts.

Angell Street !! (1900)

Finally a postcard with Angell Street on it. This was dated 1909, so probably was phorographed when HPL was a child - maybe 1900? If so, he had just gotten his bicycle for his birthday and was whelling down Angell Street past these houses.

whoosh! did you see him just then?





I don't recall who lived there, but elsewhere on the blog is a full listing of all residences in 1899. The intersection is much the same as it was 100 years ago, as can be seen in the image from Google Maps below. The image pixelated, but it had a neat look, so I kept it. :)

An Antiquarian Treasure: Read

It is now 49 minutes to midnight on a worknight on the evening of 28 April 2010. I sit an type this so you can read about a month later - typos and all.

The first page is in black print, save two red-coated devils of some sort with serrated, Robin-masks, tip-pointed head-hoods, each mirror images of one anothr, and grasping or holding a gazing ball of some sort. A few pages in, a picture of Wilfred Talman is reproduced from 1935. At the rear is a photo of Lovecraft and Long.

The first card reproduced is Roger Williams. Now you must understand, I got this sight unseen (the Ebayeum images were teasing in their paucity) and it was a bit of a gambel. The letters of Talman seem barely to be mentioned by contemporary scholars, since they are postcards, few in number, and collateral and perhaps subserviant to the letters of Kliener, Galpin, Wandrei, Derleth, and REH now coming out.

So I scanned, with now very weary eyes, the few words of the first postcard and read, "Went up to Ladd Observatory last night for the first time in 20 years." Since it was dated "Feb. 9, 1927" does this, I wondered, imply that 1907 was the last eyar of his visits to Ladd Observatory?

Since Chrispy is in the midst of hundreds of pages of notebooks trying to piece together Lovecraft's youth from Humpty-Dumpty pieces with no "paint by number" color-codes this was an amazing find on the very first page.

I shall now go to sleep with implications and probabilities on the mind.

More .. later.

Breaking News: New Life Form Created

"There was hope that this second and artificial life might be made perpetual by repetitions ..." Herbert West: Reanimator


The first living synthetic cell has been created by scientists (Craig Venter), in what some are calling "a defining moment in biology." The genome of a bacterium was built by scratch and then incorporated into a host cell. The new bacteria, with its synthetic DNA, then replicated itself over a billion times.

An Antiquarian Treasure: Opened

Plastered with colorful Japanese stamps, and taped more tha King Tut's mummy, I began to whittle away at the invulnerable plastic. Minutes passed, and finally with much wheezing, and much ripping, the envelope gave up its contents - another wrapped layer. That was a bit easier, the heavy corrugated plied away from the next obstacle, a taped plastic bag!

At last, I slid the precious cargo out, and beheld the buff colored, somewaht parchment-textured cover resembling in a small fashion a chapbook. Inside, the reduced-sized, cream-colored paper was pristine in look, but bizarrely odiferous. I sniffed, thought, sniffed again, wondered, and then it struck me.

It wasn't cigarette smoke, but more likely a cross between cigar and pipe tobacco. The pages were unharmed - in fact they looked barely used, turned, read, or otherwise examined. But they had absorbed years of smoke.

I'm sure the smell will fad with time, but as a non-smoker, I'm especially compelled by the striking smeel of tobacco.

My parents smoked, chain smoked on may occassions. My grandmother did snuff. She and her husband raised tobacco for decades. I cringed, and nearly screamed, at my first sight of a big, thick, prickly, nub-legged, green tobacco worm. But I never smoked.

Well, now that the item slid forth on the evening of 28 April 2010, what next?

More tomorrow.

An Antiquarian Treasure

On the evening on 28 April 2010, I received from far away Hirshima, Japan, my Ebayeum auction win! "Yr Obdt Srvt: Some Postcards Of Howard Phillips Lovecraft Sent To Wilfred Blanch Talman".

Over the next few days I'll type in the oddities of an antiquarian collector - me.

It started - as it always does - as a whim; an impulse click. "Hmm, that's pretty interesting." Then, click! Assuming I would lose the bid, I moved on to perusing images of the beginning of the 20th century Providence, Rhode Island. Imust be very wary, and in a perfect control of will, before I stroll through to much "antiquarian Lovecraft teritory" lest I cede the mortgage of the house in lieu of acquiring some $15,000 Lovecraftian obscurity.

I checked back at the end of the auction, and - knock me over with a feather - I won! Thus began the next journey of R. Alain Everts' quaint little book. (c) 1988 The Strange Company, this unnumbered, unsigned copy of a printing of 200.

It's journey was interupted, becuase little did we realize the package had to be signed for. I came home, signed the slip, placed it back out in a zip lock bag on a rainy night tucked into the corner of our brass mailbox for the postal person to pick up the next day. Three days later, it had arrived.

I came home, but the world trabveler had to ait a bit longer, and my 48 minute, 18 mile drive home through clogged Derby Week traffic left me fatigued. The fish pon pump had to be cleaned, and a plant righted. (We now have 5 large, and oddly after 5 years, 12 baby fish that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere last Fall.) Then off to a few other things, and as the 10 O'clock hour approached I finally opened the packet.

More tomorrow.

1932

Lovecraft at the age of 42! He had amassed a collection of almanacs, was finally settled. Working with Hazel Heald and E Hoffmann Price. Writing "Dreams in the Witch-House"...

and

H.P. Lovecraft to Robert E. Howard, 7 November 1932
"... I never employ less than four teaspoons in an average cup of coffee. Favourite dinners—Italian spaghetti, chili con carne, Hungarian goulash (save when I can get white meat of turkey with highly-seasoned dressing)."

What did Lovecraft think?

Unlikely Lovecraft would have attended this ...



... but interesting 1922 item.

Provenance:

Karen's Great Treasures

Here is a very rare Estate find for any Collector to own!
"This came out of my Father's Estate, He was a Collector of Numerous things, of which I will be listing for the next few weeks, so be sure to keep checking my Listings!"

This is an Original I guess it is a Ticket or an Invite
Reads "Grand Debate and Sacred Concert Providence Baptist Church Wednesday, March 1st 1922"
Admission 5 Cents
Measures 3-1/8" X 2"
Thick Pink Paper Card

There's Something About That Tillinghast Name ...

"Horrible beyond conception was the change which had taken place in my best friend, Crawford Tillinghast." From Beyond, HPL



(Also notice in fine print that the name "Eddy" is mentioned.)

Provenance: Ebay

This listing is for a typewritten letter from "The Tillinghast, Stiles Co., Commission Merchants. Cotton and Worsted Yarns. All Numbers and Colors", dated "Providence, R.I., April 1, 1920" To "Joseph P.Allen Co., Inc." of Pawtucket, R.I. about a shipment of yarn.

Lovecraft in Context: 1924

Lovecraft, who in his teen years was eager for new technology and scoured the newspapers and science journals, had by the mid-20's retreated into a type of antiquarian pose. The U.S. was bustling with youth, energy, and the jazz and radio age. Talkies were closing in on theaters, and even television was on the cusp. Lovecraft was about to head to New York and reach his early Weird Tales exposure to a whole new generation of fans.

When you get to the dollar equivalents, understand how much money was being thrown at Lovecraft by Henneberger - who was essentially strapped for cash - and ask ... how? Recall this tidbit, "...Frank Belknap Long believed that a $60 HPL used on a book buying spree store credit was from Henneberger..." that I posted some time back. According to 1924 dollars this was equivalent to $700 (2010)! Not bad!

Long speculated (in his biographical memoir), "I did not find out until later, - for some reason he had been reluctant to tell me - that he had a bookseller's credit slip for sixty dollars, given to him by J. C. Henneberger, the founder of Weird Tales, in lieu of cash payment just before Farnsworth Wright had assumed the editorship of the magazine and story sales on a cash basis had come to an abrupt halt. I have never had any doubt that someone had given Henneberger the credit slip and, being in Chicago, he could not have readily availed himself of a pleasure he had passed along to Howard, without giving much thought to the money he might have saved had he purchased the story for cash."

_____
1924 (from an ancestry.com article)by Juliana Smith 12 April 2010
(link attached to today's blog title)

In the U.S., Calvin Coolidge was serving as president after the death of President Warren G. Harding and was re-elected in November. Congress declared Native American Indians U.S. Citizens through the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, although Native Americans were not allowed to vote in some states until 1948.

In these early days of radio, radio stations were popping up and broadcasting across the country. Calvin Coolidge became the first President to broadcast over the radio from the White House. Further, eighteen radio stations hooked up in September with General John J. Pershing and other military officials in a demonstration of how radio can be used in the event of an emergency to communicate important information across the country in the National Defense Test Day Broadcast.

In March, people in the U.S. were flocking to the theatres to see Douglas Fairbanks’ silent picture, The Thief of Bagdad. Popular songs included, California, Here I Come (Al Jolson), Rhapsody in Blue (George Gershwin and Paul Whiteman), and It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’ (Wendell Hall).

As for economics, $100 was the equivalent of $1,160.82 in today’s dollars. What could you get for your money? A quart of milk would cost you about $0.14, a loaf of bread or a pound of sugar ran around $0.09, eggs were $0.48 per dozen, coffee about $0.43 a pound, and if you wanted a nice sirloin, it would run about $0.40 per pound.

So, how much did those new-fangled radios cost? A few years earlier, in 1921, factory-made radios could cost more than $2,000 in today’s dollars, but in 1922 the National Bureau of Standards released a circular that sold for five cents and told how to build a crystal radio set and soon newspapers picked up on the story and the information spread quickly. The circular stated that the cost of materials needed was typically under $10.

A Half-Dime Diner

Did Lovecraft drink coffee here? Unknown, but check out the filling fare. All for a nickel.



(1915 nickel pictured. Don't pinch too hard, the buffalo might squeal!)

Lovecraft: Druggist? What might have been ...

Lovecraft spent most of the years between 1903 and 1906 preparing to be an astronomer, which failed. His back up plan was to be a chemist, first begun about 1899, and resumed in 1909 and 1910, only to be abandoned.

If Lovecraft had become a chemist, he probably would have frowned upon the smelly chemical companies in East Providence. Perhaps he would have next become a high school teacher? Or if he applied himself, a phamacist? If so, he would have used and prescribed these items from a 1912 bill of goods.

Providence Tercentenary 1936

Lovecraft was proud to experience the Tercentenary of his hometown. It was not only patriotic for him, but nothing could suit his 1936 temperament better. Stand a moment with him under the arch and enjoy the festive mood.

Varied Notes on "Slater Avenue Army"

It seems to Chrispy that most of the Slater Avenue Army culminated with the 1902-1903 school year. Most likely it was a loosely associated group of those in that neighborhood, and they hung out in Blackstone Park, or at various houses.

I think it's highly probable that any military aspects were due to the future war hero Manton Mitchell, a much older boy (born 1888). Much already exists on the blog about Mitchell, but not yet when he might have moved to the neighborhood.

Of the Munroes, much has been written already - and more to come. It looks like Chester was in Lovecraft's class being about the same age, and Harold almost 2 years younger. This might explain why Harold was fond of the older HPL, if research holds up, but that Chester and Howard were the culprits of much mischief, even name-carvers, if they were classmates.

I found several items opn those HPL listed at various times, and it's interesting to see the age spread on the kids. Again, future digging may invaluidate some of these findings, but as of now it seems they spread out between ages 9 and 15, HPL being a bit toward the center being a young 12 when the 1902 schol year started.

(HPL's birthday was 20 August, and school started 2nd Monday of September).

Since I'm not yet registered for Ancestry.com, these come from older books and directories available on Google and so forth.

The core of the group had formed in 1898-1899, and carried through as Baker Street Irregular detectives (about 1900) and tune singers and a zobo band. A zobo is listed on the blog if you've never seen one. It's not precisely a kazoo, but one could see how a kazoo was derived from the zobo.

Kenneth Tanner born 1890/1891

Reginald Miller born 1890/1891
Percival Miller born 1893/1894

Tom Leeman born 1891

Leeman lived at 128 Irving Avenue, and his father was Joseph B Leeman, a salesman.

Edwin Sidney Sherman born 1889
Stuart T Coleman born 1893 - but Mr. Joshi has him listed as about 14 years old when HPL was 12. "Goo Goo" Coleman seems to fit better with a boy aged 9 when HPL was 12. However, there is also a Stuart C Coleman listed in records. I don't have access to other records yet.

Ronald Upham has been listed on the blog previously. Listed at 51 Adelphi Avenue, he lived with hsi father and grandfather, as best I can detect. They were "blue book" listed.

Harold Munro is not listed, but probably entered the picture a few years later. Munro later became an inventor and rubber chemist, according to Chrispy's research.

Daniel Fairchild is mentioned by HPL as "the teacher's pet". He is listed in the "Blue Book" circa 1905 with the rest of his family. Here is a listing. (175 Governor Street in 1905, but there is a listing of 48 South Angell in 1889). In 1911, Arthur Fairchild was one of the four 1st ward councilmen (not alderman).

Frank Frazetta.

Artist Frank Frazetta passed away today. He was 82.

Lovecraft to Loveman 12 February 1936

From L W Currey listed at $3500.00

Seller's notes:

TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS). 1 page, from "The Ancient Hillside Citadel," dated "Feby. 12, 1936, to "Endymion" [Samuel Loveman], with the salutation "Hail," signed "HPL." On recto of a single sheet of 8 1/2 x 11-inch plain paper. Accompanied by AUTOGRAPH POSTCARD SIGNED (APS) from Lovecraft to Loveman, postmarked Boston, MA 2 January 1932, and an envelope addressed to Loveman in Lovecraft's hand with Lovecraft's signature and return address on verso, postmarked Providence, RI 17 September 1930.

The postcard was sent from Cambridge, Mass. and shows the head of a Greek athlete from Harvard's Fogg Art Museum.

Oddly, Lovecraft refers to it as a "Herm," which is incorrect. (The word, with a lowercase "h," refers to a kind of statue used in Athens, with the head of a bearded Hermes mounted on a square pillar, in the middle of which, usually, was an erect phallus. They were regarded as sacred objects and used as boundary markers -- and later vandalized so often that intact examples are rare.)

Recalls an earlier visit to Cambridge that Lovecraft and Loveman made together.

Enumerates the museums seen or scheduled to be seen.

Paul Cook, who was there with HPL, has scribbled a postscript.

The letter, sent from Providence, touches on overwork, illness, amateur press matters, the latest pulp appearances ("Mountains of Madness", first installment, in February Astounding), social visits, and, in a short but striking passage, the description of his return from a visit to Paterson, NJ.

"That night I hopped the coach for ancient Providentium and ran into a snowstorm -- being held up an hour at dawn in the exquisite colonial village of Hampton, Conn. -- with houses dating back to 1712 on every hand, and an ethereal white Georgian steeple peeping over the freshly white-deck'd boughs. The delay was for the sanding of a long, sinuous hill -- and I was sorry when we got in motion again."

(If Lovecraft died and went to heaven, it might have looked something like this. Or would it be hell for an old atheist to discover that he'd been wrong? One can imagine the roman a clef Twilight Zone version: the bus swerves, HPL is knocked out, wakes up to this vision of a winter paradise, goes out in his worn suit and wanders about with rapt attention, catching a glimpse here and there of people in Colonial dress who ignore him. Looking into the firelit interior of a house, he wonders why he doesn't feel cold. "It was then that he realized he was dead.")

Earlier in the letter HPL says he is sending a copy of his CATS OF ULTHAR, the rare 1935 pamphlet handset by Barlow at his Dragon-Fly Press in Florida and printed in forty-two copies.

HPL jokes, "If it doesn't fit into your private collection, you might catalogue it at 9000 bucks or so as an early Dragon-Fly Press item."

If Loveman had lived another 60 years or so, he could have done just that. The value of this pamphlet passed the $9000 value level a while back.

See in this catalogue item LWC inventory #108200 the copy inscribed by HPL to Loveman, one of the two copies set on special paper (Red Lion Text).

See also in this catalogue item LWC inventory #109134 for the original manuscript of this short story.

Loveman, a poet and bookdealer, was definitely in the inner circle of HPL's friends. They corresponded, praised each other's work and visited when possible. When, Loveman, a Jew, later discovered from Lovecraft's ex-wife, Sonia, the extent of Lovecraft's anti-Semitism and racism, he burned most of his letters from HPL (as Sonia also did). (Joshi, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 158.)

Extant letters from HPL to Loveman are rare. This is a particularly significant one, demonstrating one of the paradoxes of Lovecraft, who talked a good game of anti- Semitism, but, when it came down to cases, had warm friendships with some of them and married another.

The failure of his marriage had more to do with Sonia being a woman than a Jew. He gave away to Loveman his own special copy of CATS, one that Barlow had intend as HPL's personal copy, one of just two Barlow kept the other one.

Unpublished. Faint mailing creases, but fine.

An "Old One" as uncovered by F Paul Wilson

From F Paul Wilson's Fcebook postings:

F Paul Wilson knows that this is not a planetary nebula, as we are told. This is one of the Old Ones.

:)

Visit him on facebok at the link above, or click here.

And check out his other images like ... this ... one !!

Lovecraft to Smith (1934)

At $1450.00, this one will pinch the wallet. But interesting. Note provenance of previous 1988 purchase, California.

Souvenir Folder of Nantucket, Mass. --- signed By H P Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith ( Postcards / Post Cards )

Sellers notes: a souvenir fold-out booklet of various views of nantucket, MA., post card size with images on both sides, a Very Good+ copy, postmark is stamped Nantucket and dated 1934, 2 original 1 cent stamps on folder, addressed in Lovecraft's hand to Clark Ashton Smith's Auburn California address, signed on the inner flap of the folder by Lovecraft, the signature reads, " Yrs for the Ebon Tide -- Ech-Pi-El --, in a plain brown envelope which was used by an earlier seller to keep the folder safe, included is an original bill of sale dated 1988 from one of the most respected SF/Fantasy booksellers in California, a very nice item, in spite of the thousands of hand written letters and such forth that HPL penned in his lifetime, signed material remains elusive, this is particularly nice as he uses his KALEM Club moniker and of course this being addressed to CAS makes this even nicer - - Bookseller: Leonard Shoup (Burlington, ON, Canada)

Minor note on L Sprague de Camp

Sen at auction, few details... TYPED POSTCARD SIGNED dated 9-11-70 stating that he is interested in locating several out-of-print books by Lovecraft and Dunsany.

This is most likely one of many letters and phone calls de Camp made to collegaues and others trying to locate all details on Lovecraft, or possibly research to make a new anthology.

This constitutes a part of the Legacy of Lovecraft of that era.

Postcards of Lovecraft Sent to Talman

YR OBT SERVT Postcards of Lovecraft Sent to Talman

This was a recent Ebay auction, and while only 200 copies of this were printed in 1988, there do seem to be several floating about. Chrispy was lucky enough to win the auction on this one (located in Japan) at slightly less than the market rate. Others seem were at:

Kathmandu Books (Winter Park, FL, U.S.A.)
THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / (ROCHESTER, MI, U.S.A.)
Leonard Shoup (Burlington, ON, Canada)
Bookworks (Evansville, WI, U.S.A.)

All this on 12 April 2009, so coincidentlly this seems to be one that can be found. They are in various conditions, and at least one had the original shipping envelope. It's printed by R Alain Everts, and includes 10 postcards on 24 pages: "Talman was an editor and genealogical researcher. Contains the text and picture of 10 postcards written to Talman between 1927 and 1933. With footnotes and photos."

Listed between $20 and $60 depending on condition and the savvy of the book seller and their need for a return on investment.

Providence Opera House Fire !!! (1900)

In the Providence Opera House Providence RI September 23 1900 one sprinkler extinguished a blaze under the stage and rang an alarm at the same time with the result that the loss was so small no insurance claim was made.
_____

"Union Railway Company of Providence RI suffered a fire on Sunday evening March 2 1902"



The Union Railway Company of Providence RI suffered a fire on Sunday evening March 2 1902 A basement and one story brick barn 100x126 feet was newly equipped with Grinnell dry system sprinklers supplied by city water at 30 pounds pressure Fire started in an ordinary 20 foot box car located in the corner of the barn and when discovered _ the whole inside of the car was afire Twenty five sprinklers opened and confined the fire to the car in which it started the blaze being finally extinguished with chemicals by the public department There were two other cars on the same track and one on the next track to the burning car which were soon pulled out of danger so that it cannot be positively stated whether they would have been saved by sprinklers or not The opinion of the report however seems to be that they would have been and the action of sprinklers in this case was a distinct success

C J Jager and Co. Windmills, etc. (prior to 1915) Plus: Cyanide!

From the Ebayeum, actual photo - seller's notes:

Antique photo measuring 3" x 5". I did a close up seen second showing building to far right background with "Windmills Fanes " Sign on lower part of building just above the peoples heads on the street. Some corner creases, slight corner loss as seen. Photo came from Providence Rhode Island Family during this era.

Chrispy thinks it says, "Windmills, tanks, pumps ...". :) That is, probably farming equipment.





More: sad news ...


Text:

Peculiar Feature of Providence Loss

Providence, R. I., September 25.—An unusual chemical feature in connection with the loss in the b uilding at 29-37 Carrol street here today will swell the loss by the fire to possibly $35,000, of which the actual fire damage was only about one-third.

The building is of old brick construction and was occupied by a pump distributing concern, a boys' club, a produce dealer and an electro plater. The fire started on the fourth floor, occupied in part by the electro plater, at 1.30 a. m.

The water used by the firemen soaked open a case containing about 250 pounds of cyanide of potassium, a deadly poisonous compound, used in the electro plating process. The solution went down through the floors, saturating thoroughly a stock of drinking water pumps, also the stock of produce, which was promptly condemned by the health authorities, and on which the companies will pay a total loss.

The pump distributing firm, C. J. Jager Co., inc., claimed, with reason, that it would not be safe to distribute the pumps without first having the valves, rubber, leather and other working parts taken down and cleansed, and claimed the expense as a legitimate consequential damage, and the adjusters will accept it as such.

The Jager stock will accordingly figure about a 75 per cent, loss on $15,000 insurance divided as follows: German American, $2,500; Continental, $2,500; Fidelity Underwriters, $2,500; Fidelity Phenix, $2,500; Agricultural, $2,000; Home $2,000; Firemen's Underwriters, $1,000; total, $15,000.

The Deming Mfg. Co. had stock on the premises insured in the North British & Mercantile and the Massachusetts F. & M. $2,000 each, on which the loss will be 75 per cent.

The building, owned by the Cheapside Land Co., is insured in the Providence Washington, $10,000; Continental, $5,000; Firemen's Und., $4,000; Agricultural, $3,000; and Equitable $3,000; total, $25,000.

The rate on the building was $2.70 for fire years; and on contents $1.50 per annum.

From: The standard, Volume 77, pp. 349, 2 October 1915

Trolley Trips in 1901

Lovecraft would have been about 10 or 11. It shows, though, how quick trips to the "suburbs" could be taken on virtually any day.

1901 Trolley Trips from Providence Out Booklet
Book measures approximate 4 1/4" x 6"
Book consists of 87 pages with black and white photographs.