Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Halloween 1916

Last year my mother had a question for me. She had some costumes that my grandma had made when she was a school teacher, for her to dress up in to entertain her students. She asked me if I would be interested in taking them. One of the costumes was for Halloween.

My grandma was a schoolteacher in rural Kansas, who began teaching, as far as we can tell, as early as 1916. Below are two of the "school souvenirs" from 1916 and 1917, listing her as the teacher and the list of students in each grade.

1916 School Souvenir, Meter School, Republic Co., Kansas

1917 School Souvenir, Dry Lake School, Republic Co., Kansas

Here is the costume she made for Halloween. It has a lot of raw edges, but even so, it must have taken a lot of effort to make. It also has a black "Little Miss Muffet" type hat to go with it.



We think this may be a photo of one of her class of students:


I'm also lucky to have my Grandma's postcard album. The postcards are all from the early 1900's. One of my favorites, is a Halloween postcard featuring a witch, a black cat, and a pumpkin boy. I scanned the postcard, printed the scan onto cardstock, and decoupaged the print onto a black box, so that I can enjoy the image without light damaging the original postcard.



As you can see below, my cupboard is filled with all kinds of vintage inspired Halloween fun stuff! My friend, Ingrid, had a party for friends one year, where she planned crafts for us to make. It was so much fun! She had all of the supplies all ready to go for us.  The "Boo" banner, the little candy baskets and the pipe cleaner figures were all made that evening.




My "Boo" banner made its way into my "Party Girl" punchneedle, too.


When my youngest son was in first grade, I threw a Halloween party for him, with a variety of games for he and his friends to play, one of which was Bunco. For this Bunco game, I made Halloween themed dice, using purchased stickers with vintage Halloween images, and wooden blocks, which I painted in orange and black to contrast with the stickers.  The box was purchased years before at a gift shop and I love it!


Halloween Bunco

Like they said in 1916, Happy Hallowe'en!

Martha