In addition to finding a 1932 coin commemorating the end of the Depression and an 1887 coin commemorating Chicago’s Haymarket Massacre among my mother-in-law‘s possessions, we also came across an intriguing engraved key ring.

As you can see below, the words, “Andrew Russell for State Auditor” were inscribed on it.

But who is Andrew Russell? And when was it made?

(more…)

Yesterday was quite busy. Irene and I headed into D.C. for a matinee of Henry VIII at the Folger Theatre, taking off early enough to first visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum for an exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings owned by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. (And leaving time for lunch in Chinatown, too, of course.)

In the evening, we swooped down on Rockville and had dinner with our son, after which we hung around in Maryland poring over family memorabilia. One particularly fascinating item was a coin which we assumed had belonged to my late mother-in-law’s father, John Aloysius Brown. The coin, celebrating the end of the depression, had been produced in 1932 by Stewart-Warner, a company that in its earliest incarnation had produced the speedometers that were used in the Ford Model T.

On one side, we’re exhorted to “Stop Crying, Start Buying,” a sentiment I could imagine our government urging us to embrace today.

So far, that makes this an interesting curiosity, but nothing that verges on OMG or WTF territory. No, for that, you’d have to turn the coin over. (more…)

I’ve been somewhat silent on social media this week, because my mother-in-law of 36 years, Margaret E. Vartanoff, passed away Saturday morning, the day before her 96th birthday. So my mood has been glum, and there hasn’t been much I’ve felt like sharing. But I thought I should pop up to share this.

Here’s how she appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post, with information on Saturday’s Requiem Mass, should any care to attend.

Here’s the full photo from which that image was cropped. It’s her formal portrait taken at Christmas in 1931. (more…)

Here are three further first day covers from my mother-in-law’s collection, grouped together not merely because each one intrigues me, but rather because, warped soul that I am, each reminds me of a tragedy of some kind.

The first celebrates the marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Ranier on April 19, 1956. But when I first came across it in the lock box, I thought not of that wedding, but of Kelly’s fatal 1982 automobile accident.

Hey, I never said I wasn’t morbid.

Next up is a May 31, 1936 envelope which is marked as having been flown “via FIRST FLIGHT of ZEPPELIN HINDENBURG.” (more…)