The Vault

The Ottley R. Coulter Clippings, H.J. Lutcher Stark Center E-Archive.

These “Antics of Arabella” comic strips combine fitness instruction, humor, and eroticism in a bizarre 1920s cocktail. The Antics ran in a short-lived New York City tabloid, the New York Evening Graphic (1924-1932), one of the many brainchildren of the entrepreneur Bernar Macfadden.

Image courtesy of The Newberry.

This teeny-tiny title page belongs to a diminutive calligraphic manuscript created by Esther Inglis in 1606, and now held by the Newberry Library's John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing and the Book Arts. Titled A New Yeeres Gvift, the book was a present for a noblewoman, the Lady Erskine of Dirleton.

Carrier's Greetings, 1870. Brown University Library.

For almost two hundred years, the delivery of a carrier's address was a familiar feature of New Year's Day in the United States. These “addresses” were greetings that newspaper delivery boys handed their customers on the first of the year; in return, subscribers would give the deliverers a New Year's tip.

The New-York Historical Society.

This illustrated holiday letter from Salvatore Cillis, held at the New-York Historical Society, is one of many that the soldier-artist wrote to friends, co-workers, and family during World War I.

Brown University Library.

In Brown University's digital collection of temperance pamphlets and broadsides, this parody of Clement Moore's “A Visit from St. Nicholas” stands out for its relatively late publication date (circa 1941) and use of humor. Where many earlier temperance pamphlets leveraged the pathos of abandoned families to plead with drinkers to put a stop to their tippling, this poem reminded readers just how awful it could feel to overindulge.

From the collections of The Henry Ford. Copy and reuse restrictions apply.

In 1901, eight-year-old Edsel Ford—son of Henry, future head of the Ford Motor Company, and heir to the Ford fortune—was feeling forlorn. “Dear Santa Claus,” he wrote in a letter preserved at The Henry Ford's archives, “I Haven't Had Any Christmas Tree in 4 years And I Have Broken All My Trimmings And I Want Some More.”

Page 1 of Benjamin the Anti Christ’s apocalyptic prophecy. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA), Washington, D.C. Citation: RU 7508, Box 17 (National Institute, 1839-1863 and undated), Folder: Miscellany; SIA. Image negative reference number: SIA2012-9666.

Today is Dec. 21, 2012—the day that the Maya long-count calendar turns over. Just in case you’re stockpiling food, we thought we’d share an apocalyptic prophecy from almost a century and a half ago that thankfully didn’t come true.

Telegram from General William T. Sherman to President Abraham Lincoln announcing the surrender of Savannah, Georgia, as a Christmas present to the President, 12/22/1864. National Archives Identifier: 301637. National Archives Record Group 107: Records of the Office of the Secretary of War, 1791 - 1948.

This short telegram, from William Tecumseh Sherman to Abraham Lincoln, is dated December 22, 1864. “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition and also about 25,000 bales of cotton,” Sherman wrote. The brief message came as a huge relief to Lincoln, who had been out of touch with Sherman for several weeks, since the major general had embarked from Atlanta on his March to the Sea.

Google Patents

This 1947 patent for a “Christmas Tree Vibrator” turns out to be more confusing than risqué.

The inventor, Leo R. Smith, argued that a vibrating tree was a way to make ornaments look prettier. The vibratory unit “for attachment to decorated trees” would “transmit a highly pleasing two-dimensional vibration thereto without interference with the decorations.”

New York Public Library

Taxidermy was all the rage in the Victorian era, when Charles Dickens penned some of the literature’s finest novels. While Dickens was in high demand around the world for his dramatic public readings, he loved to be at home in England with his cats, one of whom was rumored to snuff out his master’s candle for a little attention.