The Nankin Township Historical Society

  Listen, I'm just one Yeti doing my part in constructing the matrix. I don't know why I'm compelled to track these things down but here I am. Considering that I don't particularly like the city of Ypsilanti, the university attached to it or the fight songs of said university it makes no sense--other than the Marcello Truzzi connection--that I had to fight myself not to buy this book but I compromised and took some photos instead. The $25 price tag on the split binding of the 80+ year old Songs of the Michigan State Normal College made it easier to come to that resolution. I must stay away from John King Books. That will be much easier since I've found a copy in Florida for $12. While it's en route I'll post a few song pages: M. S. N. C. We Sing of Thee based on Maryland, Maryland and written by Austin George, 1863. M. S. N. C., we sing of thee, Mich-i-gan, my Mich-i-gan! With- in thy courts we love to be, Mich-i-gan, my Mich-i-gan! Thy tow-ers high and...

Thank you John King Books for more free books with bookplates, falling apart antique tomes which I will make my first hornbook (a page from an old book mounted on a slab of wood) with and this Crowley's Lending Library book, "My Name is Morgan" by William Woolfolk. Crowley's, like Detroit's legendary department store J. L. Hudson Co., had both a lending library as well as a modern bookstore that sold the latest books. Detroit Free Press , September 17, 1950 Crowley's Lending Library began sometime around September of 1950 and had a selection of 5,000 books which could be borrowed for a penny a day and a 2 cent charge per day after a fortnight. As the second newspaper clipping illustrates a month later they were up to 6,000 volumes.  Detroit Free Press , October 13, 1950 The stamp in this 1963 book shows that the rental prices had increased to 5 cents per day and 10 cents a day after 14 days. This book must have had some popularity as it was the 8th copy of...

Sometimes these posts write themselves. Unlike The Detroit News new carrier card , that I found last time at John King Books and returned to the owner, Fayetta Crowley Thurber won't be receiving this 1916 return notice for the Aivanti Chartres book Marie Tarnowska from the lending library at Dennen's Book Shop which she took to Gratiot Beach in Port Huron for the summer. The store was located at 19 East Grand River at the foot of Woodward and was a new and rare bookstore. Detroit Free Press , December 9, 1917 The store also sold stationary and party decorations and did engravings along with the circulating library. Detroit Free Press , May 1, 1917 Fayetta Crowley married Donald Thurber, son of the private secretary to President Grover Cleveland, and was well-connected socially being a friend of opera singer Enrico Caruso. Detroit Free Press , April 30, 1911 While the card spells it out the ne wspaper traces her stay with the Lafayette Crowley family (her parents) in Port H...

To get any sort of information out of me you have to suffer the ignominy of ME. Which means you get the process with the product. I can't help it. This is why I can never get anything done! While I was on my Halloween kick (I'm not off it yet!) I requested a copy of this book The Sin-Eater's Hallowe'en by Francis Nielson from MELCat despite the bad reviews it received as a foolhardy polemic. Which was politics, at the time (1924), just as it is now and in time immemorial. Clee-shay (That's phonetics, not some haughty word to guess at)! So I requested it to scan for posterity's sake because I feel like that's my job since universities and institutions are corrupt and tyrannical. As soon as I received the book I noticed the two ex-libris bookplates and knew there was a reason for my request. Things will pursue you when you pursue them. Just don't do it with people. Run away as fast you can and you might be saved from them and yourself. But I digress. Be...

Bear with me my excesses because at heart I am an ascetic. Just as some universities and institutions specialize in certain fields that have no pertinent connection to their curriculum at large so will I on a lesser scale of intelligence and breadth. Such is my passion for bookplates. Despite My Poor Relations having an illustrated cover and being from 1905 those are its only saving graces. The words are twaddle and its readership is even lighter in sheer mass. So I cling to the comfort of its bookplate. That being from The Tabard Inn Library which was a commercial for-profit enterprise that apparently lent out books. Ten thousand revolving bookcases were placed in various drug stores, hotels and even public libraries and rented for 5 cents each after an initial lifetime membership of $3 was purchased, though my ex-libris plate says $1.50. Which is apparently a latter day mechanism meant to stave off bankruptcy for the company. It did not succeed. After the demise of the enterprise th...

This is outside the Nankin scope but the brilliance of this antique text and the library plate and markings makes it note and blogworthy. The book, The Amateur Actor , by W. H. Venable was published by Wilson, Hinkle & Co. in 1874. I'm guessing that the checkout card at the back is not original since the book was published in 1874 and the first stamp is from 1900. Or it's merely a later edition. Since the building didn't open until 1884 it is obviously a mixture of both. The illustrations, despite being limited to a dozen or so, are quite excellent as well: The fact that this building still exists and is operating makes me want to drive it up to their steps, walk in and place it in some sort of glass casing and just walk out, never to return. But I still much prefer the postcard contemporary to the book and the lost era: I've located another plate here .