Jim Nolan's Blog

Scrapbooking, 1929

My grandmother, Isabel Curry Nolan, lost her father to lightning, her brother to a sniper, and kept the rest of her life safely tucked away in scrapbooks.

Christmas Seal, 1924

From my grandmother's scrapbook: "Designed by George V. Curtis. $4,500,00 realized." A sheet of 100 of these sells for fifty bucks today. 

Part of a page from the scrapbook. The years 1907-1913 are left blank. You can see 1912 and 1913 at the top left. Click to enlarge.

Christmas Seal, 1947

From my grandmother's scrapbook.

Christmas Seals, 1914 & 1915

"The Executive Committee of the American Red Cross has just officially approved the design for the 1914 Red Cross Christmas Seal, shown in the accompanying picture. Here you see the reproduction of the little stamp, which will be sold throughout the United States during the coming Christmas season to help in the unrelenting campaign which is being waged in this country against the white plague [tuberculosis]… The 1914 stamp is brightly colored with red and green predominating. It is taken up almost entirely by the laughing, ruddy, applecheeked face of Santa Claus. The background in vivid green represents part of a Christmas tree. Instead of the oblong design as used during the 1913 Christmas season, the 1914 stamp is square-practically the size of an ordinary postage stamp."

From The American Red Cross Magazine, July 1914

"It was interesting to note that the purity of the conventional design appealed more to the artist than to the popular fancy. The public likes better the seal which arouses its imagination by the face of the merry Santa Claus, or the laden boughs of a Christmas tree. The earlier stamp designs were composed of a red cross surrounded by holly in conventional form. But the seals of the last few years have depended upon the benevolent face or form of Santa Claus to enhance their popularity."

Mabel Boardman, Secretary of the American Red Cross, from her book Under the Red Cross Flag, 1915. Both quotes found at: http://www.redcross.org/museum/tour/page_8.html

1923 Christmas Seal

From a page collecting Christmas Seals in my grandmother's scrapbook. It is captioned: "Designed by Rudolph Ruzicka NY, $4,258,000 realized." For more info on Christmas Seals, see this article in Wednesday's NY Times.

Christmas Seal, 1933

From my grandmother's scrapbook.

Scrapbooking Cartoon by Isabella Bannerman

 I'm not sure this is the technique my grandmother used for her scrapbook. Check out and "Like" Isy's new Facebook Page, "Isabella Bannerman Cartoons."

Here's a video essay about the scrapbook. Thanks to Richard Reiss for the directorial assistance.

 

Plot A, Row 26, Grave 6

Sara Curry's son's headstone in the Somme American Cemetery in France. Lt. Curry was originally buried in the American Military Cemetery in Cantigny, then disinterred and reburied here near Bony. From Gold Star Mother's Pilgrimage of Remembrance by John W. Graham: "Each woman visited the grave over three or four successive days. The Army provided each woman a wreath of flowers, a photograph of the mother at the grave, and plenty of time alone. Cemetery visits were viewed as a time for private mourning and reflection, not for ceremonies and empty speeches."