TONGUE-IN-CHEEK BOOK OF PHOTOS AND POEMS OF TYNG SCHOOL FACULTY, PEORIA, IL

Item #807

This 26-page, 7 1/2” x 5 3/4” photo album has 32 photos, 16 of which are tiny, and 16 which black and white photos and handwritten cursive poems in blue ink. The photos and writing represent the faculty at the “Tyng” School. The location is not noted, though I believe that it is probably the Tyng school located in Peoria, Illinois.

The first page of this album greets the onlooker with stanza as follows: “These friends from far away/ Have come to you today/ To help you cheerful be./ If you’re too busy now to see/ Them, they’ll stay within the book/ Until upon them you care to look.”

So, look inside and you will find the page that follows does artfully display the Tyng faculty encompassed on a single page. In the center is the photo of a man (perhaps the headmaster) surrounded by cutout headshots of the rest of the faculty.

Each page that follows crafts a vignette of individual teachers. A few choice excerpts follow.

“Mary Kelly is short, Mary Kelley is sweet./ I know that you would , her, like to greet./ Mrs. Butterick, too, is staunch and firm/ As the Rock of Gibraltar, that is the term.

Mrs. Hill is still the captain of her fate./ She is getting her house fixed so up to date/ That I think she has stopped hunting/ for a mate.”

And in tongue-in-cheek fashion a curiosity is spelled out of Sybil: “Sybil is still keeping us guessing/ Whether at Thanksgiving time/ She overstepped the rules of the school board/ And made Bryan happy and sublime.”

A photo on the last page is of woman (presumably the author) on a fire escape. Adjacent to the photo is a poem that reads: “The author of this nonsense/ Greets you with a smile/ And wishes time and time again/ She could be with you a while.”

This album and the photographs within are in excellent condition.

Price: $100.00