Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Book, Ciphering |
Object ID # |
1999.11.9 |
Title |
John Landes ciphering book, 1829 |
Place of Origin |
Upper Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania |
Date |
1829 |
Year Range from |
1829 |
Year Range to |
1863 |
Material |
Paper |
Dimensions |
H-12.5 W-8 inches |
Description |
Student's (or possibly a young teacher's) ciphering book, with a full-size, colorful fraktur-decorated title page, hand-drawn, written and signed by one John Landes. The inscription is written in a kind of phonetic Pennsylvania Dutch English: "This Book is mine if you will know, by letters Tow [two] I will you Show, the first is, J, a latter bride [bright], the next is, L, in all mans side [sight]. and if you Chance to spell a miss, look under knees [underneath] and ther it is. John Landes." "This Book is the Proberty to John Landes in Opersolfert [Upper Salford] Tounship, Montgomry County & state of Pannsylvania. I Rott [wrote] that in the year of our Lort, one thousend, eight hundret and twenty nine, the 1 of April." |
Provenance |
Ciphering and copy book (assembled from three separate ciphering books), dated 1829, 1847, and 1863, apparently compiled mostly by eighteen year old student John M. Landes (1811-1852) of Upper Salford Township, who moved to Hatfield Township in 1835 (buried in Franconia Mennonite Cemetery). One part of the book was written and signed by his son Garret C. Landes (1844-1918) in 1863. Contains a glued-in, full-size, colorful, fraktur-style bookplate in the front, dated April 1, 1829, in Upper Salford Township. At this point, it's not known how or if the ciphering book descended in the family, but it eventually ended up in the possession of one Elizabeth K. Reiser (1899-1973), wife of Harry O. Reiser, of Lansdale, PA. It was sold on her estate auction by Sanford A. Alderfer in February 1974, and purchased by the donors, Hiram & Mary Jane Hershey. |
Source |
Gift of Hiram & Mary Jane Lederach Hershey |
People |
Landes, John M., 1811-1852 (Upper Salford & Hatfield) Landes, Garret C., 1844-1918 |
Collection |
Fraktur |