Gertrude Seibert cards

Gertrude Seibert cards are quite collectable and for several decades in Watch Tower history, postcards and motto cards were regularly exchanged between Bible Students. Here are a few examples from Gertrude taken from the collection of Andrew Foti. They are reproduced here with permission and with thanks.

First, a typical motto card.                                                                            

This example is of particular interest because Gertrude wrote on the reverse side.       

Next is an early example of Gertrude’s verse. The date given for the poem, 1894, is before her verse started appearing in Zion’s Watch Tower on a regular basis (in 1899). The card on which it appears will have been printed much later.

Around 1914 a number of her poems appeared on cards that gave an IBSA address on the reverse. Here is one example.

The reverse contains the local IBSA address as the divider between address and message.

When CTR died, Gertrude immediately wrote a poem, dated November 1, 1916.

                                   

Gertrude’s husband left her well provided for, and in the last decade of her life she was a much traveled lady. Her cards and poems often carried a location as well as a date. We will end with three examples.

From Los Angeles               

 

From Miami

And finally, from Kingston, Jamaica           

For my museum project

Some of you know of this, and some will not. Be that as it may, I need to identify this coin [or perhaps a jeton]. I appreciate any help you can render. Click image to view entire.

Update: Tentatively identified as a jeton from the Spanish Netherlands dated to 1596. I cannot confirm this. Can you?

More Gertrude

Below is an interesting image sent me from the Mike Castro archive collection. It is reproduced here with permission and with thanks. It is a poem written by Gertrude W Seibert with a note in her own hand.

The note reads: Written Expressly for "The Finished Mystery," and then she signs at the bottom of the page.

The poem appears in The Finished Mystery at the end of the middle section on The Song of Solomon, and is dated June 25, 1917.

This is of interest because of Gertrude's involvement in The Finished Mystery project. The details are in an old post on this blog:

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2015/08/gertrude-antonette-woodcock-seibert-and.html

If you want to see more images from the Mike Castro collection about Gertrude and her work, see here:

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2020/05/more-gertrude-1.html

Barbour in Australia

The problem with tracking Barbour's years in Australia is that records from the 1850s seldom present us with anything but a last name. So one must proceed with caution. We're left with a last name, perhaps spelled phonetically as Barber, and an age at the time of a record's creation.

Despite this, I believe I have found two records with a Mr. Barber with the correct age - that is within reason. Ages are often misstated in similar records. So I've look for records that present me with a male born either side of 1824. There are two records that meet that requirement.

A draw back is that both men are noted as English. However, looking through the records, that appears to be the default listing, and men who have Welsh, Scottish and Irish last names are all listed as English. There is never a notation "American" or "USA."

Here is an extract of one of the records. You will note that this Mr. Barbour is described as a "dealer" which I interpret as a salesman. I suggest, with minimal proof, that he was selling minding equipment to pay his way.

This is a ship's record, required by colonial law even if the ship was only destined to another of the Australian colonies. Click on the image to see it in its entirety. You're assessment is welcome:

Some of our blog readers ...

will find this useful:

https://wtarchive.wordpress.com/english/souvenir-report/

Barbour in Australia

Barbour departed the USA for Australia in 1852. We have three or four Australian blog readers. Are you up to checking passenger lists? The slightest record would be helpful.

Recent Blog Visits

Pleasing, but it would be better if visitors said hello or left a more meaningful comment.

Barbour again ...

I don't have access to British immigration records. Barbour arrived in the UK 1859/60 and was in Europe until 1862 or 1863. If you have access to passenger lists etc. will you please help pin down any records, no matter how insignificant they may be.

He used "Barber" and "Barbour," or I should say his name is found spelled that way. He always signed papers as Barbour.

Gertrude

I have recently been sent a very nice photograph of Gertrude Seibert in her wedding dress. It illustrates the need to check information carefully, and ideally get more than one line of evidence for a conclusion.

On the rear of the photograph is the caption

There is a problem with this. Getrude’s marriage certificate survives, and shows that as Gertrude Woodcock she married Robert Seibert on September 18, 1890. Robert was a wealthy railroad man, who left her very well provided for when he died in 1913.

The photograph could of course have been taken a year after the wedding – the sort of thing a wife might just do if her husband was foolish enough to forget their anniversary, but it really doesn’t look like that sort of photograph.

The clue I believe is in the caption “Our dear Sr. GW. Seibert.” Gertrude didn’t become “our dear Sister Seibert” to anyone until a number of years after her marriage. Her first poem did not appear in Zion’s Watch Tower until 1899, and her high profile stems more from the early twentieth century, with involvement in Daily Heavenly Manna (1905), Poems of Dawn (1912) and her own Sweet Briar Rose (1909) and In the Garden of the Lord (1913).

The simplest answer is that whoever wrote the caption for the photograph got it wrong. It would be an easy mistake to make many years after the event, especially if the writer was not in direct contact with Gertrude to check. But it shows the importance of researchers today checking and double checking everything they find. If they can.

Gertrude’s special contribution to Watch Tower history is probably her involvement behind the scenes in the production of the controversial volume The Finished Mystery (1917). To read her story and the story behind The Finished Mystery, see this old article on this blog:

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2015/08/gertrude-antonette-woodcock-seibert-and.html

Alternatively there is a series of articles about her from the same writer to be found if you punch in the search term “Gertrude” on this blog:

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/

N. H. Barbour

Most of those who read this blog know that I'm revising the Nelson Barbour book. I am very interested in knowing - in some detail - your thoughts on Barbour both as a man and as a religious leader. Anyone?

Watch Tower Logos Down Through the Years

(guest post by Leroy)

The most read, translated and distributed magazine in the world has lived a long life. It was born in 1879 before the water closet toilet was generally introduced. It witnessed the invention of the radio, the telephone as we know it, the lightbulb, the airplane, cars, cinema, TV, internet, etc. It survived two world wars, countless economic recessions, and it survived pandemics like the yellow fever, cholera, the Spanish flu, Ebola, among others.

Throughout its history it has experimented with many internal changes, one of the most visible being its cover design. Today we are going to review, one by one, every cover logo the Watchtower magazine has had. We are including only magazine cover logos. There are other “institutional” logos used in letters and other documents, as well as in other publications; we are not including those in this article, only the ones that appeared in the cover of the Watchtower magazine.

NOTE: All logos included in this article had trademark registry in the past; however, we have consulted with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (uspto.gov) to confirm that none of them has a currently active trademark. We verified this because we don’t want to violate copyright laws nor the organization policies regarding the use of current logos. All the current logos that have active trademark registry can be found in the official website (jw.org)

1879
Years on the cover: 12

In July 1879 the first number of “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald or Christ’s Presence” magazine was published, and it used this logo. The design appears to be inspired by the left side of the main gate of the Allegheny Cemetery, a very familiar place for young CTR. In it you can see a tower and a wall almost identical to the ones in the drawing that decorates the cover of the first number of the magazine.

Here are two photographs of the cemetery entrance, one seen from the front, and the other from the left side for comparison purposes.

Main entrance of Allegheny cemetery showing towers and gate. The first Watch Tower logo closely resembles this. Photograph by Jenny Karlsson and used with permission. See wild life photography at the cemetery: http://www.jennykarlssonphotography.com/blog/allegheny-cemetery

Main gate of the Allegheny cemetery as seen from the left side.

1891

Years on the cover: 4

In January 1891 the previous logo was moved to the first interior page of the magazine, and they put this other logo on the cover. It includes for the first time the cross and crown symbol. This symbol was quite common among Christians since the XIX century, it was used by Baptists, Methodists, Adventists and other Christian groups and was later adopted by the masons. The meaning is simple: it makes reference to the fact that those who want to be kings with Christ (bear the crown), but must first live a life of sacrifice like his (carry the cross). In this logo they also changed the lettering for one much more adorned.

1895

Years on the cover: 14

This is one of the most identifiable logos of the Watchtower; the main letters were put on top of a cloth banner. Two symbols were added at the top, on the left the cross and crown symbol, and to the right a coat of arms symbolizing the Christian armor. Even though this exact logo was active for 14 years, this general idea remained until 1931, a total of 36 years.

1909 (January)

Years on the cover: 0 (9 months)

The main banner was redrawn and also the upper part symbols. The title “Zion’s Watch Tower” was changed for “The Watch Tower”. The slogan letters were also redrawn.

1909 (October)

Years on the cover: 9

In October 1909 they changed the lettering of the word “The” and they came back to the 1895 design of the letters, symbols and slogan style.

1911

Years on the cover: 0 (3 numbers)

Some copies of the number for August 15, 1911 featured a color cover. This same cover appeared again in the January 1^st issue of 1912, which was a special edition. For this cover all the logo was redrawn, keeping the same idea, but in full color. The same year, the April 15 issue featured the same color cover.

1918

Years on the cover: 13

In March 1918 the logo was retouched again. The most notable change was the lettering style of the slogan, this time a little more “square” like than the previous.

1931

Years on the cover: 8

The Oct 15 issue featured a substantial change in the cover logo. The cross and crown and coat of arms symbols were removed and the design of the main banner was simplified, now looking more like parchment as opposed to cloth. The words “Watch” and “Tower” were merged, changing the title to “The Watchtower” and the slogan was placed in the left side of the composition.

1939 (January)

Years on the cover: 0 (2 months)

The lettering style of the word “Watchtower” was changed and the parchment banner was redrawn. The slogan changed to “And Herald of Christ’s Kingdom” instead of “And Herald of Christ’s Presence”.

1939 (March)

Years on the cover: 11

The slogan was changed to “Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom”. By this time the magazine cover was printed in two inks.

1950

Years on the cover: 24

Another drastic change occurred in the August 15 issue of this year. The parchment was abandoned and they used letters in perspective. The slogan combined two different styles and it was moved to the right of the composition.

1974

Years on the cover: 4

In January, 1974 appeared a new logo, the only changes being the word “The”, changed to a cursive style, and the slogan typography. The slogan was also moved to the bottom of the cover.

1978

Years on the cover: 4

In this year the logo was simplified, they used capital square shaped letters for the title and they added for the first time the Watchtower shape over the letter W.

1982

Years on the cover: 2

This year the typography was changed for one in upper and lower case. The word “The” was increased in size. The left line of the Watchtower shape was shortened, and the slogan typography was changed for one with a bigger and slimmer style.

1984

Years on the cover: 2

The logo is the same as previously used but from this year onward the main title “The Watchtower” appeared in color, and the rest of the composition in black.

1986

Years on the cover: 1

This year they used the same logo but it was used all in one color rather than black.

1987

Years on the cover: 4

This year the word “The” was made smaller, the tower shape was redesigned, making the battlements shorter and it was relocated to be on top of the letters a, t and c. The slogan style was changed for a bold font.

1992

Years on the cover: 28 so far

The typography was changed for one in upper caps with serif and the base of the tower was made thinner. This is the cover logo up to this time of writing.

Because this logo has active trademark protection we cannot show it here, but you can find it on the official website jw.org

Which one is your favorite?

Note from Jerome: This material was first published in Spanish on a long-running history blog and is reprinted here in English with permission. Even if you have to use the joys of Google Translate, it is well worth checking out at:  www.tulees.blog

Addenda

It appears that the original 1879 Tower logo was used on foreign language versions of Zion's Watch Tower for some time. Below is a graphic of a Swedish language Watch Tower from 1904 which has been sent to Bruce.

New Publisher

lulu.com prints my books. They are in meltdown and some are alleging criminal intent. It is evident that I will soon need a new print on demand publisher. Can you help me find one?

Blog visits

We're visited by members of a discussion board supposedly for Jehovah's Witnesses; most of it closed to outsiders. That includes me. I have no intention of joining something like that. But I would like to know what their interest in my writing partner is. She's dead. A continuing, low-level assault on her character and personality continues. I have no clue why. But I think it is disreputable.

Sorry ...

I receive an occasional email wishing that this blog also appeared in other languages. I have no plans to do that, and Google translate seems to do a creditable job translating it.

Please Understand

I'm really ill. I have nearly 200 unanswered, unread emails. Contact me if you must, but please only do so if urgent until I post otherwise.

ALSO,

Lulu.com, my printer, has had a major, self-inflicted failure, and it appears that sometime this year I'll migrate my books to another publisher. I will need help with this. Let me know.

The Photo - UPDATED

An earlier post presents a photo with the speculation that it may be Joseph Russell. Mike C. replied in  the comments trail that it was Henry Weber. I agree with mike. Herewith is Weber's photo as it appears in Separate Identity vol. 2. Compare photos, and I think you will agree.

Henry Weber in 1885

Photo is misidentified on web page.

The original shows this to be someone else. Not Weber.

Can we establish this?

Is the man who wrote as O. F. L'Amoreaux, and who claimed to be Chair of Languages at Wheaton College really Oscar F. Lumry?

A possible new photograph of Joseph Lytle Russell?

All readers here will be familiar with the portrait of Joseph Lytle (sometimes Lytel) Russell that was taken in the 1850s. It appeared to be the only picture in existance. Because of potential copyright issues with some sources we are reproducing as our main picture below a line drawing of Joseph.

Drawing by BK and AG as found in Separate Identity volume one, 
reproduced with permission.

But now a possible second picture may have been discovered, taken much later in Joseph’s life.                                                                                                
Eagle-eyed collector, Zions Herald, noticed a portrait picture on the wall on the right in this picture of the Pittsburgh Bible House parlor. Whose picture was this?

The original glass negative of this photograph is owned by Brian. The grain as seen below was on the original 5 x 7 inch glass plate negative. Using 12,800 dpi scanning and some Photoshop manipulation, he was able to rescue the picture below.

  

How does it compare with the early known photograph of Joseph? Both Bernhard and Brian have made careful comparisons of faces. But as the original sitters are seen from different angles, along with the passage of time and the camouflage of a rather bushy beard, conclusive identification is difficult. There has been quite some discussion before posting this and the end result still has to be that we don’t really know. But here is one of the grids to attempt to line up key features.

What does seem apparent is that the picture from the parlor has someone holding a volume of Millennial Dawn. Comparing the covers of the editions of Millennial Dawn from that era, the most likely candidate in the photograph is volume 4, The Day of Vengeance. If this is so, then this book was published in 1897 (announced in September, official forward dated October) and it was on December 17 of that year that Joseph Lytle, now back in Pittsburgh, died.

Ultimately, the key question to ask is: if this is not Joseph Lytle, who else could it be? This person was important enough to CTR that he chose to have their framed photograph on his wall. None of the male members of his family supported him. Nearly all his early associates eventually chose different paths, and anyway, their pictures and identities have been well established. It is none of them. The person in the photograph is in the right age group.

Bernhard has suggested that it might be a picture of Henry Weber, the well-trusted Vice President of the Society from 1892-1904 (his death). There is only one photograph of Weber we know, which is taken from the 1900 book American Florist (Henry was a horticulturist). Although published in 1900, we don’t know when the photograph was taken.

But in 1897, the year for the Millennial Dawn volume, Weber was 62 and Joseph Lytle 84. What age best fits the picture on the parlor wall? I obviously WANT it to be JLR. What do others readers think?

In MY book we have here a new photograph of Joseph Lytle Russell.

Possibly…

(With grateful thanks to Zions Herald, Brian and Bernhard, whose discussion on what started life as just a throwaway query has been most interesting. To paraphrase a phrase from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, like Topsy it just growed.)

Useful?

Some of you will find these useful:

https://ia802809.us.archive.org/34/items/jewish-hopes-russell-1910/Jewish%20hopes%2C%20by%20C.%20T.%20Russell%2C%20edition%20of%201910.pdf

https://archive.org/details/poemshymnsofdawn00russ/page/n6/mode/2up

Hemery Archive

I received a notification that my inbox was so full it would shortly not accept new mail unless I went through it all and deleted stuff. I did a reverse order shuffle to find emails from way back that never got deleted at the time. There were even some from Bruce from 2008. But what has prompted this post now was an email from a reliable source in India (!) from 2005, about a mouth watering cache of material that had apparently been recently sold on eBay.

The story as told to me was as follows:

Apparently the library of Jesse Hemery appeared on the market only a few months back. If I have the story correctly it was bought as part of a job lot of second hand clothes etc by a lady who deals in that sort of thing. It  seems Jesse Hemery's trunk was full of most interesting items including and original Three Worlds, about 115 letters from Russell, mostly handwritten, 50 or 60 from Rutherford and a few from Knorr, various photos and numerous other books including Horae Apocalypticae etc. Had a lot of interest, and it finally went for 34,000 GBP. There cannot be many who would pay that kind of money. Do you have any ideas? Apparently included were the following:

178 letters from Pastor C T Russell mostly written in hand from about 1900 to 1916 . Some are typed, paper very aged in some, some splitting where badly opened. Some deal with Bible Students Conventions in London, Glasgow, The new London Tabernacle, The London Opera House Photo Drama show, Travel to London by steam ship. Most are of practical rather than theological content.

74 letters from J F Rutherford, mainly typed and signed from a variety of locations. In NY, California, etc. Most again are practical. Bible Student Conventions at Alexander Palace, Royal Albert Hall, travel arrangements. Radio broadcasts from London. BBC monopoly etc.

12 letters from NH Knorr typed but signed - general admin at Craven Terrace post War.

200 Miscellaneous  copies of the Outlook for the London Company,  Judge Rutherford and ‘Empire news’, His Majesties Aliens Dept letter re deportation of American A Schroeder, letters from various UK Bible Students groups non WT Society enclosures. Letters from European Offices of Society 1920 – 1950. Letters from Scottish brethren Minna and John Edgar.

Maybe 60 Photos - various of Russell at conventions around UK?  With Hemery, similar with Rutherford. Photos of Craven Terrace inside and Elders.

Books, Booklets various Old Theology, Golden Age, Towers, Convention reports – random selection about 90 items, paperback Plan of the Ages – cream cover (signed as gift by Russell).

Audio Angelophone Hymn record – broken/cracked

Non Society material - Books by various authors: Elliot (Horae Apocalypticae), Barton (God’s Covenants),  Barbour (Washed in his blood.), Henry Drummond (Dialogues on Prophecy), Morton Edgar (Prayer and the Bible, etc

Hemery books! – Revelation Unfolded, The Second coming of Jesus Christ - 1950’s. He seems to have left the Society by this time.

 (end of list)

The big question is where did it all go? Has any of it surfaced on the internet in the collecting world since then? Or has someone got this all lined up as part of their pension fund?

Photodrama memorabilia

A few items from Tom's collection.