“Biology Bud Collection”
typescript twig specimen album

Generic 1940- era scrapbook with brown embossed leatherette boards and cord tie binding, 11.5 x 8.5 inches; 6” at widest point. Typed label inside front cover with student name Robert Kelsey. 40 typed descriptions and specimens mounted to manila leaves. Very Good with chipping to many of the manila paper edges and loose tape stitches, but well-preserved for the scale—fitted with spacers between the pages to accommodate the bulk.

Wonderful and unwieldy, an exciting variation on the herbariums and botany specimen books popular in schools at the turn of the century. Though the specific school is unidentified, the item comes from northern Indiana and was likely coursework from one of the trade schools in the region (or a specialized school like Manual Arts High in Indianapolis).

The descriptions are typed in contour and provide information about the locality and physical characteristics. More unusually, each concludes with their properties for working and best practical applications in carpentry and public works: ironwood is “difficult to tool, but once in shape will last indefinitely;” poplar is good for making boxes and paper pulp, but “their roots have a tendency to clog underground pipes, and in some municipalities, planting them on streets is forbidden.”

Culinary and other common applications are also mentioned— “Chestnuts are eaten raw or boiled, baked or roasted, and sometimes are dried and ground into flour for bread and cakes. They are often used with candy, desserts, and poultry dressing…” and Sassafrass, “a tree of the Laurel family, whose aromatic bark yields an oil used in flavoring medicine. Drug and fruit stores sell the bark and roots to people who wish to make the spring tonic known as "sassafras tea." A sticky substance, obtained from the leaves and twigs, is used in the southern United States to flavor gumbo soups… Sassafras wood is strong and light, and is used for making posts and rails.”

Unusual and full of poetry, like this entry for the Chestnut tree:
...two species are native to North America — the “spreading chestnut tree" of Longfellow's well-known poem, and the smaller chinquapin, which is merely a shrub east of Appalachian Mountains. The common chestnut is a beautiful tree that sometimes grows to be one hundred feet high. It is a joy to the eye the year round.

In the spring appear the well-shaped, glossy, dark-brown leaves; then come the yellow, fragrant catkins, and in autumn, leaves of pure gold with borrowed summer sunshine. At last, we find it, “knee-deep” in its own yellow leaves, and scattered all about are the velvet-lined burs, turned brown by frost, yielding their store of smooth, brown nuts. American chestnuts have the finest flavor, but those of Spain and Italy are the largest, and in those countries they are a staple food among the peasants.