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December 09, 2006 |
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Dog on Dock
FOUND by Theresa Milanowski
in Grand Rapids, Michigan
I found this in my garden. There was a school on Palmer Avenue about five blocks from my house, circa 1900s.
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Ahhh... That's AWESOME! Old school.
This is lovely! I've been practicing my cursive lately. It's good to see she had trouble with her cursive 100 years ago.
As I had nothing to do this morning, I googled "Lir Landseer", got nothing, then "Landseer dog" and I got this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edwin_Landseer .So apparently a SIR, not LIR, Landseer was a popular painter back then, and often painted dogs.
Up at the top Gertrude wrote that she was in grade 8-1. Her writing style and spelling seem a bit young for her to be in eighth grade... what kind of grade levels did they have back in 1905? Could "8-1" mean a classroom instead-- or her age?
Is that Lir Landseer? Sir Sandseer? Gertrude's in grade 8 but the content sounds like it's coming from somebody much younger.
This is the coolest find I have seen (and I've seen most, if not all, of them here). It is so cool, in fact, that it has prompted me to make my first comment!
Congrats on such a great discovery!
The find is fascinating, the report is unbelievably boring. I think the handwriting is the most interesting part, isn't it strange?
This is a jaw clencher, a real nail-biter. The suspense is too much. I bet the dog was considering jumping in the water for a swim.
Wow that is fascinating. Its over 100 years old, how did it not deteriorate. You should try looking up the writer Gertrude Harroun or Hanoun? Great find!!!
This has nothing to do with the find, but I LOVE that "magnify" thingy up there. I could click that all day.
Take a look at this link. This might be the painting the writer of this bland homework assignment is referring to!
http://en.easyart.com/art-prints/Sir-Edwin-Henry-La
OMG this find is AMAZING!!! GREAT JOB! i love old stuff :)
I think it's Grade 3-1. That seems to match the writing level a little better. What an amazing find!
this is so neat. i love it.
http://www.onlinekunst.de/tierbilder/rettungshunde/
I'm pretty sure this is the picture Gertrude was describing.
A quick search on FamilySearch reveals that a Gertrude Harroun was born in Grand Rapids in 1895, the daughter of Cristina and Pearl (the father). That would make her ten here, and that seems about right.
The writer Gertrude might also have been an immigrant, or child of immigrants, for whom English was a second language. I have a wonderful diary written by my great grandfather chronicling his trip from Germany, landing in Newfoundland, and ultimately settling in Indiana. Among his goals, written in German, was to learn English as quickly as possible. Over little more than a year, the diary shifts from German to faltering and immature English to fairly good mastery of the language. Gertrude's writing reminds me of my grandfather's newer attempts at writing in English.
If you magnify it, you can clearly see that is grade 3-1. also, you can see the teacher addinging in 'the' between on and dock. great find!
What a great find! Truly an antique.
It's grade 3, not 8. That explains the writing a lot.
I definitely think that http://www.onlinekunst.de/tierbilder/rettungshunde/ is the picture that Gertrude was referring to-- if it was http://en.easyart.com/art-prints/Sir-Edwin-Henry-La I'm sure she would have mentioned the rescued little girl right away instead of focusing only on the dog's tongue, the water and the dock.
Thank you, Tristan, for pointing out the 3-1 on the magnifier-- that makes much more sense than 8-1.
What an amazing thing to find.
Thank you for sending that in, it must have been hard to part with.
I wonder how it came to be in your garden ? And in good condition too ! And thanks people for pointing out the magnifier ... I'd never noticed it , I'm pretty low-tech , but I like that !
Reminds me of a little diddy I have heard in the past that I used to sing to my dear old doggie friend "Harley"(RIP):
Sittin on the dock of the bay, watchin the tide roll away!
Great find, about brought tears to my eyes!
I wonder what Gertrude would think about all this?
This is my first comment as well. This piece is so fascinating and beautiful in so many ways. It is the ultimate find but I would never be able to part with it but I'm glad that you did. This made my day complete. I love that so many people did research on which painting it was and the background on Gertrude. I'm feeling inspired.
In current terms a "Landseer" is what the dog breed Newfoundland is called when it is in the black and white color. So there is a regular solid black Newf, the solid brown colored Newf, and the Landseer Newfs. A result of Sir Landseer's well-known paintings of the black/white Newfs, such as the one at http://www.onlinekunst.de/tierbilder/rettungshunde/ shared above. And I agree this is the painting the writer is probably referring to.
Also possible that this is a report on a speech or a talk given by someone else, and Gertrude never actually saw "Sir" spelled out, and kept hearing it as "Lir". "This is a painting by Lir Landseer. His last name is spelled..." and so on. Just an out of the blue possibility.
Another possibility for the "Lir v. Sir" thing is that old cursive S's used to be written differently. I tried to look up 1900 American cursive, but couldn't find any examples. I do remember much older examples from college, however, in which the capital S looked very much like an L.
Amazing find! And in such relatively good condition!
wow, okay, everybody is like "that material seems too young for an 8th grade girl", because the girl wasn't in 8th grade, if you magnify the imagy you can clearly see it says grade 3-1..not 8-1.
WOW, thanks for all of the wonderful comments!
Bluebird- thank you for the name look-up on Gertrude.
I can only guess that someone in the area had perhaps cleaned out an attic, remodeled a house, etc... and somehow that small piece of paper made its way into my yard. Oddly there aren't too many houses on my block that date back to 1905... Makes me want to head down to the local library and see if I can find an address for Gertrude from 1905.
Cheers,
Theresa
I like this one a lot too, something poignant about the inchoate writings of a turn of the century young girl showing up 100+ years later to intrique us all. This is speculation but the tilt of the writing suggests to me she was left handed, school desks of that day were tough on left handers which may explain some of the drifting around as she gets further down the page. My grandfather was a few years older than her and a lefty as well. The teachers, believing this a curse or weakness, bound his left forcing him to learn with the "right" hand. His writing was indecipherable as a result ...
This looks like writing excercise to me. Along the same lines as "the quick brown fox...".
I see bluebird beat me to it, but interestingly, ancestry.com shows that Gertrude Harroun lived at 884 Coit Avenue, Grand Rapids, MI in 1910. She was 14 in 1910, which would have made her 9 in 1905. I think the 8 is a 3 for her grade level.
She lived with her father and mother, Paul and Christina, and her 2 brothers Henry and Johnie. Google maps shows the house still standing.
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