One Of Those Days

[Thomas Kearney]

(11-10-2016 12:57 PM)Roberta Wrote:  

(06-26-2014 03:19 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I have a friend who always is saying, "It's been one of those days/weeks/years." Usually, however, it means it has been hectic, disappointing, the pits, etc. Today has been one of those postive days for me!

In the course of twenty minutes, I had a visitor in my office who showed me Col. John S. Mosby's "housewife" (soldier's sewing kit) which was made for him by Mrs. Robert E. Lee. It is fashioned like Lee's regimental flag with the face in needlepoint and signed on the inside by Mosby. The gentleman also showed me what is likely the only known dag of Col. Mosby as a teenager. Comparing it to a known photo of Mosby in the possession of the Virginia Historical Society, it leaves very little doubt that it is the Colonel about two years earlier (about 14).

No sooner had my heart palpitations stopped than a Surratt Society member from California came in to show me her latest purchase (on eBay). She had not brought the real things with her because of her fear of something happening on the flight or at the airport, but the next best thing was viewing the items on her SmartPhone.

She clicks on her phone, and I am looking at Edwina Booth Grossman's locket with the photo of her father, Edwin Booth, and a lock of his hair. In addition, she also acquired a stickpin with a painting of Edwin on the oval. I tried not to drool too much... I did, however, encourage her to join this forum and post the photo.

Tom Bogar - she loves your book and is now preparing to read My Thoughts Be Bloody. She teaches theater out West, and her husband is a history teacher. Don't ask their thoughts on the state of education today... Standardized tests seem to be the bane of all teachers' existences no matter where one goes.

I have never posted to a blog before, so I hope I am doing this right.
I am the member from California who spoke to you all that time ago. I started my school year as soon as I returned home and then was beset by a number of concerns, including cancer (free now!), and so forgot all about your suggestion to join the symposium and share my wonderful find.
Now that I am well and retired, I have the time to resume research and was googling, "Edwin Booth, Locket" when I stumbled upon this post.

Okay, so here it is. I collect antique stickpins and I research Edwin Booth. One evening I went searching on E-bay for "antique stick pin, buy-it-now." I had sworn off E-bay at the time, so my husband says it was providence. Two minutes before I began my search, a woman from Ohio listed: "Hand painted stick pin of old man with mourning locket for same." I started screaming as soon as I saw it: EDWIN BOOTH!

The photograph is the same one they have in the frame at the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library. The hair is the same salt-and-pepper gray. The miniature was based off of the photograph, but was painted in 1909. I have a suspicion that it may have been painted by Sydney Booth's (Edwin's nephew) wife, since, according to the Boothie Barn website, she was a well-regarded miniaturist. I am still looking for evidence of her signature.

Edwin's granddaughter died in Pasadena while she was apparently estranged from her own children. She left many family papers and photographs to California State University at Northridge. Apparently, she bequeathed at least part of her estate to her late husband's family, the Waterburys, in Ohio. The woman I purchased these from said she had bought them at an estate sale, but could not remember the family name.

That is what I know so far, except that every time I hold this locket, it is magical.

Please note: I am including a photo of the mourning frames Edwina kept by her bed that are now the property of NYPL. The second frame contains flowers from Booth's coffin.

Welcome Roberta! Excellent find