This month’s Artifact of the Month is a penmanship copybook from the 19th century (#1993.006.50). The covers are a single sheet of paste paper with a pattern of men in boats in the background, while in the bottom third of the sheet there are soldiers with rifles and a cannon. This whole scene, however, is dominated by the hooves and body of a saddled horse in profile along with the leg of its rider. The owner of the copybook, Emanuel Fiddler, wrote his name on both covers.

This month’s Artifact of the Month is a Christmas card from Twinrocker to the Paper Museum in 1974. The single folded sheet of handmade paper contains the printed words “Christmas 1974” and the Twinrocker logo as well as a handwritten note in blue ink: “Warm wishes in 1975 Kathryn and Howard and everyone at Twinrocker.” The central figure of the paper is a blue five-pointed star made of paper pulp.  

This month’s Artifact of the Month is an edition of the Port Hole newspaper from November 1, 1944. This semi-monthly journal was published by the American Red Cross Service Club and printed by Sands & McDougall Pty. Ltd. in Australia for the sailors stationed in the Pacific Theater of World War II. There are numerous articles including two opinion pieces on Navy Day, reports on sports and local events, and notices and schedules of social events.

This month’s Artifact of the Month is an artist book from 1985 made by Ruth Laxson (2021.10.010). Laxson’s book is folded like an accordion and is comprised of six panels on an off-white paper with a neatly torn edge. The subject of these panels is a landscape of yellow, blue, purple, pink, and green scribbles and torn, adhered paper from which red strings sprout. In the upper third of the middle panels, flying blue and red hummingbirds have been stamped.

This month’s featured Artifact of the Month is a letter written by Henry Sandwith Drinker to Jason Torrey, Esq. (1988.394). This letter, dated January 18, 1819, concerns the sale, taxes, and levies on properties in Bethany, Pennsylvania. Drinker was replying to a previous letter from his friend, Torrey, in which he had asked about the properties that had been confiscated by the courts and were to be sold shortly. Drinker was a lawyer and merchant in Philadelphia born into a prominent Quaker family to Henry Drinker and Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker.

This month’s Artifact of the Month is a mid-20th-century booklet advertising different typographical ornamentations for the holiday season (#2021.05.027). Ludlow Typograph Company of Chicago, Illinois printed this catalog full of wintry decorations intended to be used as illustrations or borders on ads and posters as shown in the photographs. Six pages are dedicated to jolly images like Christmas trees, holly, Santa Claus, and reindeer. The assortment, printed in bright red or green, could be ordered in a variety of sizes.

This month’s Artifact of the Month is a Mexican road and railway map made in 1945. The Mapa de Carreteras y Ferrocarriles (Map of Highways and Railroads) is a tall, brown folded booklet with black text on the cover that unfolds into a blue map. The cover and the map itself are in Spanish with English translations. While road and town names are printed in white, the color coding of roads was done by hand, so the brushstrokes of red, yellow, green, and white paint are visible.