The book "Secrets of the Turf, Etc." with a secret of its own...

When I go to estate sales, visit used bookstores, and stop by my local Little Free Library, I am always on the lookout for old horse books. They underscore the importance of the horse in years past, and sometimes they give us clues about the people who used to own the books themselves.

Such is the case of a very old horse book I found at an estate sale in Monrovia a couple of weekends ago. The house had been owned by Steve Baker, who had been the city's historian for many years before. The book was published in England, but it has a specific Southern California connection that is a bit of a mystery.

The book is called Secrets of the Turf, Etc. It is a hardbound copy of four separate books, three written by Bracebridge Hemyng and one by an author with the pen name "Hawks-Eye." The Northern Illinois University Libraries website tells me that Samuel Bracebridge Hemyng was best known as an author of "bloods," also known as "dime novels," during the late Victorian era.  Obviously, he also wrote horse stories. I haven't been able to find the true identity of the other author who called themselves "Hawks-Eye."

The first book inside the bound volume is called Secrets of the Turf.

The second is Out of the Ring, or Scenes of Sporting Life.

The third, Turf Notes.

And the fourth is The Favorite Scratched; or The Spider and the Fly. The three short books written by Hemyng were part of the "Clarke's Popular Railway Reading" series. My guess is that these smaller, easy-to-carry volumes were marketed to people who could read them while riding the train, much as we look at our cell phones to kill time while riding on mass transit.

In tiny letters on the upper left side of the inside cover the words "BOUND BY POTTER & SONS, YORK" are printed. That company compiled the four publications under one cover.

All of this is interesting, but it's a printed label in the inside front cover of the book that really piqued my curiosity. This bookplate identifies this copy of Secrets of the Turf, Etc. as being part of the Kent Cochran Collection, purchased by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association and presented to the California Thoroughbred Breeders Foundation on October 5, 1959. Cochran's collection of more than 4,000 titles was a bedrock of the CTBA's Carleton F. Burke Library, housed for decades in a building near Santa Anita racetrack.  Burke was the first chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, director of racing at Santa Anita, and a secretary-treasurer of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association. He died in 1962, and the following year the library was named for him in recognition of his contributions to racing.

Cochran wrote for the Racing Form for several decades. His October 1980 obituary in the Sacramento Bee newspaper called him a "turf historian and bon vivant" who had passed away in San Mateo one day ahead of his 92nd birthday. 

I found this article in the Monrovia News-Post, dated 18 February 1965, about the 4,000 volume-Kent Cochran Library being part of the CTBA collection.

It reads, in part: A magnificent library, perhaps one of the most complete, on the Thoroughbred, is the heart of the building.... The Kent Cochran Library of 4,000 volumes was acquired by the CTBA Foundation and was the basis for the collection. 

Finding this little volume with a bookplate identifying it as part of the Cochran collection was particularly interesting to me, because earlier this year it was announced that the Burke Library would be donated to nearby Cal Poly Pomona, home of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library. The news release from Cal Poly Pomona rightly called the Burke Library a "treasure trove:"

University officials said they were delighted that Cal Poly Pomona would serve as the collection’s new home. The extensive materials will broaden the scope of the library’s existing Arabian horse collections to cover more equine history about the region and California.

“Cal Poly Pomona’s legacy in agricultural and equine education and scholarship represents a core component of who we are as an institution,” said Cal Poly Pomona President Soraya M. Coley. “Without a doubt, this unique collection will add immensely to the already tremendous research and scholarly resources available at the University Library.”

The California Thoroughbred Foundation news release summarized the reason this is such good news to equine history researchers and the general public, and provides some background information:

This will benefit anyone interested in publications about horses, whether for serious study or just pleasure reading.

Yet this small book somehow escaped the CTBA collection years ago, and found its way to me. Its handsome binding is in relatively good condition, considering its age.

In years past, someone taped a call number to the lower part of the book's spine. 

How Secrets of the Turf, Etc. made it to an estate sale in Monrovia, may always be a secret -- we'll probably never know. Perhaps many years ago someone borrowed it and never returned it; perhaps it was deaccessioned by the Burke Library for some reason, and was sold to a member of the public.

Beyond the obvious connections of equine history research and the organizations' proximity, the CTBA and Cal Poly Pomona have several other "dotted line" connections. I can think of three, offhand:

1) Carleton F. Burke served as a member of the Arabian Horse Advisory Committee at Cal Poly Pomona during the 1950s.

2) During and shortly after World War II, Colonel F. W. Koester served as the commanding officer of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps (Remount) Depot in Pomona, located on the property that had been the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Ranch and is now Cal Poly Pomona. After the war, Col. Koester served as the general manager and field representative of the CTBA and editor of its The Thoroughbred of California magazine.

3) In the mid-1960s, The Thoroughbred of California published a series of articles on horse conformation and history by Gladys Brown Edwards, whose papers are held by the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library. The articles are illustrated with photographs and GBE's drawings.

And I'm sure there are more connections between the two institutions. The transfer of the Burke Library to CPP really is a match made in heaven, for so many reasons; it will indeed be a "treasure trove" once researchers and other members of the public are able to explore it.

_______

Here's a press release on the acquisition of the CTBA collection, which includes the Cochran Collection: https://polycentric.cpp.edu/2022/06/cal-poly-pomona-acquires-significant-equine-collection-from-california-thoroughbred-foundation/

California Thoroughbred magazine just issued a story on the history of the Burke Library:  https://issuu.com/californiathoroughbred/docs/califthor-2022-08

Here's a link to more information on Bracebridge Hemyng: 

https://www.ulib.niu.edu/badndp/hemyng_bracebridge.html

Portraits of Lippitt Morman, by Williamson and Chase

The estate of Monrovia/Duarte horseman Merle Little included hundreds of photographs of his Pinto and Morgan horses, burros, hinnies, and other animals that lived at El Rancho Poco over the decades. The pictures help illustrate, and connect us more intimately to, the much larger world that was the Southern California horse community in the twentieth century.

The Little estate collection includes many pictures of the one horse that Little's daughters told me held a special place in Merle's heart: the chestnut Morgan stallion Lippitt Morman. Merle saved this print in a frame with a cutout from a flyer he had printed about his stallions. 

Merle used a cropped version of the same head study of Lippitt Morman in some of his ads in Western Livestock Journal in the mid-1950s.

I think the negative may have been "flopped" to show the horse looking to the right, since we know from other images that Lippitt Morman seems to have worn his mane on the right side of his neck. Another copy of the picture shows the horse looking left.

Whichever side the mane was on, the image of Lippitt Morman was taken by John H. Williamson (1916-2009), whose work I often encounter in my equine history research.  

Many of Williamson's horse show photographs have the logo "WmSon" on the front; several in the Little estate collection have his name and address rubber-stamped on the back. This photo, of the whole Little family on horseback, has both the logo on the lower left front and the name and address stamp on the reverse, so we know that "WmSon" was indeed John H. Williamson's mark. 

Left to right: Merle Little on Senor Morgan, Marlene Little on Anita Belle Gift,
Donnette Little on Santa Ynez, and Edna May Little on Lippitt Morman. 

This picture dates to late 1948; the family was getting ready to participate in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena on New Year's Day 1949. 

Many of the history research trails I follow lead me back to cereal magnate W. K. Kellogg's Arabian Horse Ranch in Pomona, one of Southern California's major hubs of equine activity during the twentieth century. This story is no different: photographer John H. Williamson was one of Kellogg's grandchildren. Williamson graduated from Pomona High School while living at the Kellogg Ranch, attended UC Davis, and worked as a draftsman for Lockheed Aircraft during World War II. 

Williamson's skill as a photographer landed him a job taking still photos and Technicolor films during ranch manager Preston Dyer's 1947 expedition to the Middle East to bring back Arabians for newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst. Williamson traveled with Dyer and veterinarian Fred Pulling.  Mark Potts wrote about the journey in an Arabian Horse World article, archived here:  

https://issuu.com/arabianhorseworld/docs/0416_the_1947_hearst_expedition_sq

We can see Williamson's horse photographs in post-war issues of the Western Livestock Journal, in the Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast book series, and in newspapers. Williamson also served as a judge at an Arabian horse show at the Los Angeles County Spring Fair in June 1947, where artist and author Gladys Brown Edwards (also closely associated with the Kellogg Ranch) served as ring steward. 

At some point, an artist who signed their work only "Chase" used Williamson's head study photograph as inspiration for a large portrait in oils of Lippitt Morman. It is faithful to the photograph, down to the silver-mounted Western bridle.

Portrait of Lippitt Morman, by Chase. Approximately 18x24".
Date unknown.

Based on many local newspaper articles from that era, I believe the artist was Barbara "Chase" Beekman (1923-2002) of Duarte. She was well-known locally for her portraits of horses (including Thoroughbreds Man O' War and Silky Sullivan) and other animals. She gave "Lippitt" (as the Little family called him) a twinkle in his eye, underscoring his sparkling personality.

____

Many thanks to Kimberley Erickson, Library Services Specialist at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona; to Tobi Lopez Taylor; and to Dolores "Dee" Adkins, for their research that helped inform this article.

____

Here's my earlier blog post about Lippitt Morman, which tells more of his story including the ceramic portrait model designed by Maureen Love for the California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc.. The post also contains a link to Dawn Sinkovich's blog post that shows many examples of Maureen Love's drawings of "Lippitt":  

http://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2018/05/happy-birthday-lippitt-morman.html

From the Merle Little Archive: Smaller Southern California Horse Shows in the 1930s and 1940s

Perusing the scrapbook and photographs compiled by Monrovia/Duarte (San Gabriel Valley) horse rancher Merle H. Little during the 1930s and '40s, I see examples of how horses and horse shows were used to build community connectedness in Southern California during the Great Depression. 

I can also trace the evolution of horse show class lists during that period of time, by comparing what I find in the scrapbook and photo albums with my other equine history sources for the period. It goes without saying that the kinds of classes offered at horse shows were connected to the organizers and participants. During the Great Depression, as always, one had to have a certain amount of disposable income to keep a horse, and the ability to transport it to shows. There were many riding clubs, but their events may have skewed more towards youth gymkhanas, trail rides, and rodeos.  And during that era the various horse breed registries were either not yet formed or not active in sponsoring shows for their members in California, as they were in the decades following World War II.

Merle saved programs from horse shows, rodeos, and other equine events in which he participated with his Pinto and Morgan horses. They provide insight into smaller horse shows, the details of which may not have made it into the local newspapers.

Based on the horse shows that got detailed newspaper coverage back in that day, it seems a lot of them focused primarily on classes I associate with the Eastern and Midwest US, rather than the West: classes for Three- and Five-Gaited saddle horses, fine harness horses and ponies and roadsters, and classes for Hunters and Jumpers. The saddles for these horses can generally be classified as "English" saddles, and the harnesses "fine" as opposed to the heavier "draft horse" harnesses. 

This may be because large horse shows often appeared in the "society" pages of newspapers. Many wealthier people in Southern California rode American Saddlebreds and Thoroughbreds, and drove Saddlebreds, Hackneys, and Hackney and high-stepping Shetland Ponies.

The Los Angeles Times' coverage of the 1930 Los Angeles National Horse Show provides us with an overview of the class list, heavily weighted towards horses wearing English saddles and fine harness; only one class was held for stock horses in Western saddles:

(It's interesting to note that all the photos in the LA Times society section coverage are of young women riders. And despite the fact that most of the under saddle classes are for horses wearing English saddles, three of the photos in the full-page image above show young women next to horses wearing Western tack.)

Long Beach Sun, 21 March 1930

A Long Beach Sun story, also from 1930, describes a horse show with mostly English and fine harness classes, with one stock horse class at the end. Specialty acts in between classes included an exhibit of Arabians from W. K. Kellogg's stables, some gymkhana-type activities, and an exhibition of "bucking" featuring two boys, ages 5 and 6.  

But you can't take the west out of California, and many people -- including children -- learned to ride using Western tack. Newspaper accounts of gymkhanas, even from the 1920s, were illustrated with photos of horses and riders in Western gear; the lists of events included "riding, hurdling, tying, and roping" as well as balloon jousting and egg-and-spoon races. A 1925 benefit gymkhana also featured a polo match.

And there certainly were smaller horse shows being held in the 1930s and '40s that had diverse class offerings of English, Western, and even bareback classes. 

From the Merle H. Little archive

Looking at Merle Little's scrapbook, I see programs from smaller horse shows from the early 1930s in Southern California. These shows featured a wide variety of classes -- almost like a gymkhana combined with hunter/jumper and Saddlebred classes -- at a couple of horse shows that were held for charity or were aimed more at the "average rider" and/or specifically included children. 

From the Merle H. Little archive

One horse show, held in October 1932, was held to benefit the San Gabriel Valley's Unemployed Milk Fund. ("Milk Funds" were operated in the area as far back as 1919, to help undernourished children.)  The class list was quite diverse:

1) Jumpers -- bareback, children 10 years or under. Horsemanship to count 75 percent, performance 25 percent. 

2) Jumpers --to be ridden bareback over three jumps about 3 feet 3 inches by amateurs over 10 years of age. Horsemanship to count 75 percent, performance 25 percent.  

3) Three-Gaited Saddle Horses -- 14.2 hands and over, to be ridden by an amateur 17 years or over. Style, action, and manners to count. 

4) Horsemanship -- children 9 years and under. 

5) Three-Gaited Saddle Ponies -- 14.2 or under. To be shown by children 13 years or under. Style, action, manners, and horsemanship to count. 

6) Jumpers -- open to all

7) Horsemanship -- amateurs, 17 years or over

8) Saddle Ponies -- 44 inches and under, to be shown by child 13 years and under. Style, action, and manners to count.

9) Trail Horses -- to be shown at walk, trot, canter and gallop on a loose rein, by an amateur of any age. General suitability for use on trails only to count.

10) Jumpers -- 14.2 and over. To be shown by amateur, any age, over jumps about 4 feet high.

11) Pony Jumpers -- 14.2 and under. To be shown by child of 13 years of age or under. Jumps about 2 feet 6 inches.

12) Park Hacks -- To be shown by amateur, any age.

Another show, also from October 1932, was sponsored by a group called the "Breakfast Club Rangers" and offered classes that sound more like a gymkhana mixed with a traditional horse show.  (The Breakfast Club and its equestrian members are worthy of a separate blog post.)

From the Merle H. Little archive

The cover of the program says there was no entry fee; ribbons to 4th place; if you don't own a horse, borrow one from a local riding academy.  Some classes were "open" and did not specify what kind of saddle was to be used. To compete in some of the classes, the rider had to be a member of the Breakfast Club. 

The classes were as follows:

1) Parade of Entrants

2) Ham and Egg Race 

3) Children's Event (with a trophy for 1st place)

4) Amateur Five-Gaited Saddle Horse Event

5) Professional Jumping Event

6) Tilting at Rings (amateur, open, at a gallop)

7) Tug of War -- California Riding Stable Team vs. The Breakfast Club Team

8) Professional Five-Gaited Event (trophy donated by Pickwick Riding Academy, Burbank -- "Where Folks Enjoy Riding")

9) Amateur Jumping Event -- no jump over 3' 6"

10) Amateur Stock Horse Event

From the Merle H. Little archive

Another example of  an "English" predominant show comes from Little's scrapbook: the 1933 Pickwick Riding Academy, assisted by Cavalry of California, Horse Show, in Burbank:

Children's Event

Jumping (military academy boys only)

Jumping (amateur only)

Special Event: Display of stock horse with $30,000 saddle (I assume laden with silver)

Three-Gaited (amateur)

Polo Ponies (open)

Five-Gaited (amateur)

Fine Harness

Stock Horse Event ("riders to use only one hand on reins")

Three-Gaited (open)

Five-Gaited (open)

Jumping (open)

His hand-written notes show that Little's tall Pinto horse Thunder placed second in the stock horse event.

From the Merle H. Little archive

It's important to note that a stock horse was not a particular breed back then. Merle also saved a copy of an article from the 4 February 1934 edition of  the Los Angeles Times, written by L. C. Deming. 

Merle Little saved a copy of this 1934 article
from the Los Angeles Times

Deming describes a variety of horses popular in California, including the "cowboy stock horse" -- not a Quarter Horse, but a horse he describes as weighing 750 to 1100 pounds, "short-legged, short-necked, close-coupled with a big barrel, approximating closely the Morgan horse of years ago." Deming also discusses American Saddle Horses (Saddlebreds), Standardbreds, Hackneys, and draft horses including Percherons and Belgians, which Deming says seem to be the most popular in California. 

By the 1940s, however, class lists seemed to be evolving in Southern California horse shows, to include more classes for horses in Western tack, breed-specific halter classes, and even shows just for Arabians, Quarter Horses, Morgans, and Palominos. 

For example, when I look at the edition of Joe Droeger's Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast reporting on shows held in 1944, I see the American Legion Burbank Post 150 Horse Show class list, with more than just one event for horses with Western saddles:

3-Gaited

5-Gaited

Fine Harness

Ponies (harness)

Roadsters

Hunters

Jumpers

Walking Horses

Then we have some events for horses wearing Western Saddles:

Stock Horses

Parade Horses

Trail Horses

Children's Horsemanship (English and Western, separate classes)

And some "Model, In-Hand" classes:

Stallions, American Saddlebred

Stallions, Palomino

Stallions, Pinto

Mares, American Saddlebred

Mares, Palomino

Mares, Pinto 

American Saddlebred colts

American Saddlebred fillies

Other Los Angeles area shows later in 1944 offered similar lineups -- heavy on the English saddle classes with some Western, some children's, and some breed-specific halter classes. Southern California was home to many Palomino and Pinto horses back then, so perhaps they were included because that's what a lot of people rode. Other 1944 shows added purebred Arabian and Quarter Horse halter classes. 

 

"Who sponsored the show?" is also important in reviewing the classes offered. In Droeger's book, we also have the 1944 Long Beach Mounted Patrol Fourth Annual Horse show, with this class list that skews Western in performance:

3-Gaited

5-Gaited

Fine Harness

Polo Ponies

Jumpers

Pinto Stallions

Morgan Stallions

Palomino Stallions

Quarter Horse Stallions

Mares -- all breeds

"Plain" Western

Trail Class

Children's Pleasure

Silver Mounted (western, divided by "men" and "ladies")

Open Parade

Hackamore

Stock Horses

Stake Race

Barrel Race (men and women participating) 

Why the Western focus? I'm guessing it's because the sponsoring Long Beach Mounted Patrol rode Western in parades, and the people they hoped to attract as participants and spectators also rode Western.

Merle Little's Pinto stallion Tesoro 

Merle Little's horses did well at this 1944 show. His Tesoro won the Pinto Stallions class; Sun Down Morgan won the Morgan Stallions class, while Senor Morgan placed fourth.

Merle Little's Morgan stallion Sun Down Morgan

Merle Little's Morgan stallion Senor Morgan

We'll look at more examples of horse shows and other events that Merle and his horses took part in, in future stories in this blog. 

Sun Down's Morgan Horse Club of the West Trophy

Sun Down Morgan in the pasture at El Rancho Poco,
Monrovia/Duarte, California, in the 1940s.

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post about the "Parade Morgan" bookend by Dodge, Inc., designed in 1946 by Gladys Brown Edwards.

The W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona holds the papers of Cecil and Gladys Brown Edwards. 

In a January 1949 letter to The Morgan Horse magazine, Cecil (Gladys' husband at the time) stated that the Morgan Horse Association (he used the word "Club") of the West used this design as its official trophy. 

GBE's design was based on the Morgan stallion Abbott.

This letter from Cecil Edwards to The Morgan Horse magazine
is part of the collection at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona.

Western Livestock Journal had run a photograph of the trophy version of the bookend design in 1947.

The caption notes that it was one of the trophies sponsored by the Morgan Horse Association of the West, presented to winners in Morgan breeding classes at the Los Angeles County Spring Fair in Bellflower, California.

The Spring Fair must have been an impressive event. The Los Angeles Times reported that it featured a parade of more than a thousand horses of many breeds moving through the streets of the city, before the horse show began.

Los Angeles Times, 15 June 1947

The champion Morgan stallion at the show was Merle Little's Sun Down Morgan (dark brown horse, foaled April 8, 1933, Raven Chief x Texsky). 

The Morgan Horse magazine's August 1947 issue carried the results of the show; the classes were quite large.

The Morgan Horse magazine, August 1947.

The Morgan Horse magazine, 1947

The 1947 edition of the book Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast, published by Joe Droeger, also recorded a summary of the results:

And because members of the Little family saved it for all these years, we know what one of the actual trophies looked like.  I'd never seen one before in person. The base makes it taller than the bookend.

Here's the inscription on the front:

Merle made notes on the back of the wooden base in pencil. (He noted there were 19 horses in Sun Down's class; the magazine said there were 17, but either way there was a lot of competition!)

They also saved a copy of the photo of Sun Down's win.

Sun Down Morgan's name is often spelled Sundown Morgan; if we zoom in on his Morgan Horse Club registration papers, we see that his name was indeed three words:

I'll add more to the story of Sun Down Morgan in a future blog post. 

Here's a link to my earlier post on the origin of the GBE "Parade Morgan" bookend design:

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2021/04/all-together-now-parade-morgan-bookends.html

Images from El Rancho Poco

El Rancho Poco sign

When the Monrovia-Duarte, California Community Book was published in 1957, the portraits of the featured, notable local citizens were taken in professional portrait studios. Head shots of humans.

All except for one: horse rancher Merle H. Little (1906-1975) had posed in front of  a hay barn with his chestnut Morgan stallion, Lippitt Morman.  Merle autographed his own copy of the book for both of them.

Lippitt Morman and Merle Little

Merle Little passed away far too early, in 1975, leaving behind a treasure trove of photographs and memorabilia of a horseman's life in Southern California between World War I and the end of the Vietnam War.  His wife, Edna May, died in 2004.  I never had the chance to meet either of them.

But during the course of my equine history and model horse history research over the past few years, I have had the honor of meeting, and becoming friends with, Merle's children. And when his older daughter died earlier this year, she left me "Daddy's horse stuff" with the understanding that she wanted it to have a permanent home at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library's Special Collections unit, which includes the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library. WKKAHL already holds some of Merle's other papers, given (through me) by his younger daughter. 

I am grateful to the Little family for the opportunity to be the temporary custodian of this treasure trove of local and equine history. It's an honor to have the opportunity to organize the photographs, correspondence, and ephemera, making it easier for other researchers to use the archive once it's in a public collection. And I can write about what's in the collection as I work my way through it.

Merle Little on his Morgan stallion Kandy King

To summarize: Horses were an integral part of Merle Little's life. His papers include materials dating back to the 1920s from a wide variety of regional equestrian activities: the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. The Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. 1930s Rancheros Visitadores trail rides in Santa Barbara County. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Posse activities over several decades, including horseback search and rescue. The Monrovia Mounted Police. The post-World War II activities of the Morgan Horse Association of the West, of which Merle was a co-founder. The Kellogg Ranch property in Pomona. Horse shows for children and adults. Duarte 4-H club activities. The Monrovia Day parade. 

Merle Little's Pinto stallion Tesoro (right)

And there are photographs of Merle and his family and their horses at home: El Rancho Poco, which used to occupy several acres near what is now the busy intersection of the 210 freeway and Mountain Avenue -- retail stores, car dealerships, restaurants.  Their horses were well-known participants at horse shows and parades: Pintos like Thunder and Lightning, Apatche, and Tesoro. Morgans like Sun Down Morgan, Senor Morgan, Senorita Morgan, Betty Joaquin, Lippitt Morman, and Kandy King. And so many more. Merle's donkeys and hinnies (a cross between a male horse and a female donkey) afforded his family and the neighborhood much joy. El Rancho Poco itself was a gathering place for family, friends, and community groups. My model horse collector readers know that some of Merle's horses inspired ceramic horse figurines designed by artist Maureen Love and produced by the legendary California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc.

Hagen-Renaker "Lippet" designed by Maureen Love,
inspired by Lippitt Morman

These days of the horse may be in the past, but because Merle took so many pictures and saved so much paper ephemera, we can revisit them, appreciate them, and learn from them. I hope you'll have a chance to follow along with this blog over the next many weeks, as I share highlights from the collection.