New Year

"A Happy New Year 1879 from H. A and S. S. Brickenstein." The Rev. Hermann A. Brickenstein and his wife, Susan Shultz Brickenstein, were listed in the 1890 edition of the American College and Public School Directory , p. 96, as principal and vice-principal of the Linden Hall Seminary, a "Moravian school for young ladies," in Lititz, Pa. Linden Hall continues its educational mission today as "the oldest girls' school in the United States."

Probably Oscar Carl Schloerb (1858-1897), of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

"A Happy New Year, 1879, Lawrence C. Hankey."

"A Happy New Year. Will D. Reiber." Initials on mailbag and wagon: "U.S.M. [United States Mail]." William D. Reiber (1860-1933) served as a letter carrier in Brooklyn, New York, from 1882 until his retirement in 1924 (as mentioned in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle , Aug. 7, 1924, p. 18).

"A Happy New Year, 1876. Mary A. Bacon. New Year's cards. 2 styles. Same price as emblematic. No. 2. Plaisted-Farwell."

"A Happy New Year. New Year card no. 12. 12 for 10c."

"A Happy New Year. Assorted New Year, 12 for 12 cts."

"A Happy New Year, 1879. Lee Halliburton, H. B. Smith, P. S. Dinsmore, M. H. Beebe, O. J. Hill."

Ena L. Metcalf. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind.

A Victorian-era New Year greeting card.

"Happy New Year, John Wanamaker. Welcome at all times. Grand Depot, Philadelphia, Pa. Loag, pr."

A strange and inexplicable New Year greeting! An old woman is tossing a young boy, identified as "1889" across his back, into a steaming kettle of soup that she's cooking over a hot fire. The legs of her previous victim are barely visible at the edge of the kettle. Am I missing something here? Is there a literary allusion or proverb or something else that might explain this? Otherwise, it seems a rather cruel and violent way to greet the New Year. In any case, after initially believing this to be a calling card, I finally discovered that it's number 5 ("Old woman holding boy 1889 over soup tureen") in a series of 50 "New Years 1890" cigarette cards issued by Kinney Tobacco Co. See Kinney New Years 1890 Cards - N227 for additonal information about the card series. By the way, some of the other cards in this series also show strange and unsettling scenes: No. 19 - Boy pushing huge snowball over figure of 1889. No. 20 - Duelist 1890 standing over fallen 1889. No. 36 - Boy 1890 skates round 1889 falling through ice. No. 38 - Whale swallowing 1889, 1890 steps on to floating globe. No. 49 - Sun as spider devouring insect 1889, insect 1890 flies away. A checklist for the card series and illustrations of each card are available at Kinney New Years 1890 Cards - N227 .