(Click on images to enlarge)
The postmark is 1906.
The message has a chatty tone.
I, too, want to know why Dr. J— resigned.
This postcard, like the Pennsy bridge one, was sent by a Hobart High School teacher: Bessey K. Gish. Here is her portrait from the 1908 Aurora yearbook.
According to the caption, she taught German and Latin. Perhaps that's why she underscored "teaching music" in her postcard — it was unusual for her.
Bessey wasn't a native of Hobart nor a long-time resident. By the 1910 Census she was living and teaching in Illinois. From her 1923 passport application[1] (she was planning an overseas vacation), I gather she was born in 1881 in Ohio.
The "old pupil" who made these photo postcards probably went around selling them to Hobart teachers and classmates.
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[1] National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 2314; Volume #: Roll 2314 - Certificates: 314350-314849, 22 Jun 1923-22 Jun 1923, via Ancestry.com. U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.
8 comments:
I wonder what she meant by the Western news?
Your guess is as good as mine. I gather she and Skate had some kind of connection westward of Indiana and Ohio. Enough of a connection to know about Dr. J-- and be curious!
It could be Case Western Reserve even. That was close to where she was from.
I figured out what Western is at least! http://www.kewaneelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/Yearbooks/Kewanee/Kewanee_1909.pdf If you go to page 18 in the reader there's a description of Bessey which says she graduated from Western College in 1905. I looked around more and Western College was a women's college in Oxford,Ohio that closed in the mid 70s.
Wow, that's good detective work!
I also think I have solved the mystery of Dr J and why she resigned. I found a 1910 Western College yearbook online. I looked through it and there was a picture of Lilian Wyckoff Johnson with a paragraph explaining how the class of 1910 would be the first class to graduate without her. I then googled the name Lilian Wyckoff Johnson and she has her own Wikipedia entry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilian_Wyckoff_Johnson According to Wikipedia she resigned from Western College due to ill health and fatigue. She then went traveling around Europe in order to recover.
Mystery solved! Thank you. I was sort of hoping for something scandalous, but a progressive educator overworking herself will do.
Haha me too. But you get what you get I guess.
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