As promised, here are more pictures of the Whitcraft family scrapbook. Although I am not as fast as I would like to be, check back often. I will try to occassionally post pictures from the interior. Best, Pat

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? email me at pcsuter@hotmail.com

A homemade book cover, encases the cover of the Whitcraft scrapbook. It was once a cheery blue, but now is faded, torn, and stained. 

An index card found loose in the scrapbook. Was the scrapbook a gift from the family? Or was this card from something else, cherished by George Eli Whitcraft or another family member?

This is the first page of the Whitcraft scrapbook, filled primarily with poems of interest to the creator of the scrapbook (I know, I know--master of the obvious).* Two articles on this page are copyrighted, "1893" and "1894," yet, the next page has a handwritten note of "1892." Overall, the items in the book appear to be fairly chronological, but this might signify small breaks in chronology.  I will try to post pictures from the scrabook, occasionally. Keep checking back. Best, Pat

* I would credit the source of these publications, but that is unknown for the moment. 

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email: pcsuter@hotmail.com

Hidden writing found in a Bible printed in 1535 is proving to be quite valuable in providing a more complete picture of the English Reformation. View Video Here

Family discovers seven rare Ty Cobb cards possibly worth $1M

Mark Townsend,Big League Stew

In a reminder that it's always worth double-checking every old paper bag or shoebox we find around the house before discarding it, a family believed to be from South Carolina recently came upon a baseball card goldmine while doing just that.

According to the Associated Press, this family, which prefers to remain anonymous, pulled not one, but seven identical Ty Cobb cards from an old, beat up paper bag. The print period, according to baseball card experts, was sometime between 1909 and 1911. And before this discovery, only 15 copies of this specific card were known to still exist. Read More

"Her heart was huge," Elizabeth Taylor's granddaughter Laela Wilding, pictured here with the actress as an infant (she's now 45), tells PEOPLE. "She had such a huge impact with her activism and she was so full of life and love. She made a big impact on us." Photos such as this are featured in the new book My Elizabeth, created by the screen legend's friend Firooz Zahedi. In this week's PEOPLE, the photographer gives a first look at the intimate shots, and Wilding reflects on her grandmother's legacy. Read More

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A wooden mallet inlaid with the initials "A.L" was made by Abraham Lincoln, who used it during his Indiana youth to make furniture, Indiana State Museum officials said Tuesday in unveiling the artifact that had been a family's secret heirloom for five generations.

It's a rare relic that can be directly tied to the 14 years that Lincoln and his family lived in Indiana, said Dale Ogden, the museum's chief curator of cultural history.

The tool, called a bench mallet, is inlaid with square-edged nails that form Lincoln's initials — "A.L" — with a period separating them, while a series of other nails were driven into the tool to form the year "1829." Read More

     This photograph is from the same box from which the Morrow Family photographs were found. Unfortunately, like many of the photographs in the box, it is not identified. Well, I supposed it is slightly identified, because we at least know their first names.....It was found in Dover, Delaware, but otherwise there are no further clues as to the identify of these folks. If a reader finds out, please let us know. Best, Pat. pcsuter@hotmail.com

--Copyright © 2016 Passed Time. All Rights Reserved.--

By Sarah Begley for Time

The sinking of the Titanic may be the most infamous naval disaster in history, and the torpedoing of the Lusitania the most infamous in wartime. But with death counts of about 1,500 and 1,200 respectively, both are dwarfed by what befell the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German ocean liner that was taken down by a Soviet sub on Jan. 30, 1945, killing 9,343 people—most of them war refugees, about 5,000 of them children.

The victims of the worst maritime tragedy in history were not only Germans, but also Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians and Croatians. World War II was drawing to an end, and the Soviet army was advancing. Though it would be months before the final fall of the Nazi regime, it was clear the end was coming—and they were desperate to escape before things came to a head. Read More

Ruth B. Waters

      I recently purchased Poets and Poetry of Chester County, Pennsylvania, edited by George Johnston, for some information contained in it. After looking through the book more closely, I found some laid in papers--specifically two pages of poems. The poems were written by and signed by Ruth B. Waters on January 3rd and January 4, 1971 (timely, right?).

      The poems are not yet in the public domain and as Ruth B. Waters may still be living, as such I do not want to violate her privacy. Having said that however, maybe someone in the Waters family, or Ruth, is interested in knowing these poems have survived. Best, Pat pcsuter@passedtime.com                           

---Copyright ©  2016 Passed Time.  All Rights Reserved.---

  Earlier, in the year 2015, a friend shared fascinating bits of Conard Family genealogy with Passed Time's readers.* I happened to come across this passage today in The Poets and Poetry of Chester County, Pennsylvania, edited by George Johnston.** Enjoy! Pat Earnest, Delaware, pcsuter@passedtime.com --Copyright © 2016 Passed Time. All Rights Reserved.--

Rebecca Conard

    Rebecca Conard, a member of the Conard family of West Grove and vicinity, and the daughter of Paul and Sarah (Roberts) Conard, was born January 27, 1800, and died in West Chester, January 5, 1875. Most of her life was spent in Chester County, and part of it in teaching in Westtown School. She spent much of her time and means in ministering to the comforts of the poor and distressed. Her poems were collected after her death by her friends, and published in a small volune entitled "Poems by a Friend." Her poems are chaste and beautiful, and mostly of a religious character. 

The King's Daughters

The King's daughter is all glorious within.--PSalm xiv. 13

No outward plumes or paltry show

Adorn Jerusalem's fair;

Nor yet with mincing steps they go,

Or braiding of the hair.

Their ornaments are all within;

All glorious are they, too;

Untarnished by polluting sin,

Unsaddened by its woe. 

Their hearts, the temples of their God,

made clean and purified

By the stoning, precious blood

Of Jesus crucified.

'Tis here His holiness and grace,

His honor loves to come;

To enter, yea, and sup with such,

And claim them as his own.

The sheep of his peculiar care,

The lambs of Zion's fold;

No prowling wolves can enter there,

For Jesus guards the hold,

And carries them as in his arms,

And leads them by the hand,

Protecting from inclement storms

The weak ones of his band.

*A featured article on PT as of January 2, 2016. Originally published July 2015.

**Johnston, George. The Poets and Poetry of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Collected and Edited by George Johnston. J.H. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 1890 p. 47

--Copyright © 2016, Passed Time. All Rights Reserved.--

From: A Business Insider Article by Jeremy Bender

From the summer of 1944 until the end of the World War II in Europe, the US fielded a unique 'Ghost Army' throughout France and the Rhine Valley in order to deceive the Third Reich into over estimating the strength of the Allied forces.

 The Ghost Army, which consisted of 1,100 handpicked men and a number of phony inflatable tanks and weapons, was part of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.

The unit's sole responsibility was to create illusions and spread disinformation about the strength and location of Allied forces. Read More 

If the web were a person, it wouldn't have trouble renting a car from now on: the world'sfirst website, Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web, went online 25 years ago today. The inaugural page wasn't truly public when it went live at CERN on December 20th, 1990 (that wouldn't happen until August 1991), and it wasn't much more than an explanation of how the hypertext-based project worked. However, it's safe to say that this plain page laid the groundwork for much of the internet as you know it -- even now, you probably know one or two people who still think the web is the internet.

Where are the creators in 2015? Read More

No. 3 Winter Soup

    Take a large shin of beef, saw it through in several places, and score or notch the meat quite to the bone. Put the beef into a soup-pot, adding one quart of water to each pound of beef. Add a red pepper-pod and let the whole boil six hours; then strain it and place it away to cool. This soup, thus made, will keep good for several days. Whenever you wish to use it, remove all the fat and put the soup into the pot again, adding two large turnips, one carrot, two onions, and three potatoes finely cut into fanciful shapes. Let the whole boil for two hours, then add salt, and if you like, a little mace, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and a sprig of celeery, which gives it a lively flavour. The soup is then ready for the table. It is sometimes called Shin Soup. *

The Practical Cook Book; Containing Upwards of One Thousand Receipts: Consisting of Directions for Selecting, Preparing and Cooking all Kinds of Meats, Fish, Poultry, and Game, Soups, Breads, Vegetables and Salads. Also for the Making of all Kinds of Plain and Fancy Breads, Pastries, Puddings, Cakes, Creams, Ices, Jellies, Preserves, Marmalades, etc. etc. etc. Together with Various Miscellaneous Receipts, and Numerous Preparations for Invalids. By Mrs. Bliss, Philadephia, E. Claxton and Company, 920 Market Street, 1882. page 12

*If you like the free information found here on Passed Time, please give us a nod to your friends and family--word of mouth is a wonderful thing and helps us remain free. 

Cairo (AFP) - An archaeologist said Sunday that Maia, Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun's wet nurse, may have actually been his sister Meritaten, reviving speculation about the identity of the mother of the boy king.

DNA tests have proved that the pharaoh Akhenaten was the father of Tutankhamun, but the identity of his mother has long been a mystery.

On Sunday, Egyptian officials and French archaeologist Alain Zivie unveiled Maia's tomb to journalists ahead of its opening to the public next month. Read More

A fun link for folks with a few minutes to spare, comparing modern celebrities like Alec Baldwin, Rupert Grint, Jennifer Lawrence, Adrien Brody etc. to their historical doppelgangers. FYI: The article provides scarce information on the historical figures. Read More Here

King Tut's tomb may conceal Egypt's lost Queen

 Nefertiti by Reuters Videos 0:56 mins

      Experts say they are optimistic that King Tutankhamun's tomb has

passages to a hidden chamber, which may be the last resting

 place of the lost Queen Nefertiti. Jillian Kitchener reports. Link to

Reuter's Video Here

Here is another update by Newsweek Author Paula Mejia

King Tutankhamun’s final resting place has been known for almost 100 years, since Howard Carter’s landmark discovery of the tomb in the Valley of Kings in Luxor, Egypt in 1922.

Now, researchers say they’re convinced the Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb bears a hidden chamber that has yet to be explored. The size of the chamber is unknown, but researchers are confident the radar imaging scans indicate that it does, in fact, exist.

So what’s in the hidden chamber? Some researchers are confident that the long-lost remains of Queen Nefertiti, thought to be Tutankhamun’s stepmother (she died in 14th century B.C.), may be among the treasures lying behind a partition wall in the tomb. Read More Newsweek by Paula Mejia

20 Style Mistakes We All Made in the 80's

   I actually have to disagree with the author on this one. These were just 80's styles, not "mistakes." And for the most part, we all looked a little different too, unlike bland look-alikes in recent years. But hey, I'm biased. And where are the designer jeans, particularly Jordache, and Aziza's "three shades of blue" eyeshadow? HUGE at my school. (Seneca Valley High School, Germantown, Maryland)

   Author Samantha Escobar begins her Good Housekeeping slideshow with ...Shoulder pads! Read More Here. 

Galileo's World

 The University of Oklahoma is presenting the exhibit "Galileo's World." Click here for the link to the virtual exhibit. 

Military Identifies Remains of 7 Pearl Harbor "Unknowns" AP article by Audrey McAVOY

HONOLULU — The remains of seven crew members missing since the USS Oklahoma capsized in the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor have been identified, the military said Monday.

 The names of the servicemen identified using dental records will be released after their families have been notified.

In June, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began digging up the remains of nearly 400 USS Oklahoma sailors and Marines from a veterans cemetery in Honolulu where they were buried as "unknowns."

Within five years, officials expect to identify about 80 percent of the Oklahoma crew members still considered missing.   Read More

The 51 Coolest Trucks of All Time. Ben Stewart for Popular Mechanics

1963-1987 JEEP GLADIATOR AND J-SERIES TRUCK Jeep’s replacement for both its Willys pickup and the FC (Forward Control) truck was the Gladiator pickup. The Gladiator was a much more modern full-size pickup than Jeep’s earlier workhorses. This Jeep was contemporary enough that, with a few updates and styling changes, it stayed in production without a ground-up redesign for 24 years.

                                                                                            To read more and see photos, click here. 

Originally, when I posted The Salute: Bloomfield High School 1932: The Crush, I stated that I did not find Jimmie Wheelan or the object of his crush, Eleanor Menne. It was a mistake, for Jimmie Wheelan was just a couple of pages further along, but I had by-passed his entry. This rectifies that oversight and it supplies a bit more information about Jimmie, including his track records. Enjoy! Pat Earnest Delaware November 4, 2015

   I was recently contacted by a contributor who wanted to run a segment on Passed Time involving The Illustrated London News. Considering the Great War was ongoing 100 years ago today, his idea was to match the corresponding TILN with its modern date to illustrate global events.

  The folks here at Passed Time thought this was a great idea and nearly ran with it, thinking The Illustrated London News was out of copyright. Whoa. It is not. It ceased publication in 2003 (after beginning in 1842), but it is still owned by Illustrated London News, LTD. Furthermore, someone else already had this idea. 

   Although it is never the intent here at Passed Time to take other's ideas, we do want to recognize those who have the ideas. Furthermore, it seems many are not aware of the existence of The Illustrated London News. I showed the copy I had been sent to a group of computer operators and everyone thought it was an impressive piece of work. So check it out, at The Illustrated First World War

   The entire run of The Illustrated London News is available through subscription at Gale Digital Collections