‘Romeo Observer Christmas’

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Moaning’s for December 4, 2023

This is a repeat of a blog from Christmas of 2020. I felt it was well worth posting the information yet again for any newer blog readers who might not have seen this article from that point in time.

With this being the Christmas season, my thoughts turned to a wonderful and surprising find from when I first started researching the many historical homes in the Village of Romeo. While looking through the Romeo Observer newspapers once again for an obituary or article I was needing, I was handling an unbound set of these fragile and delicate papers, when on this particular search, I saw a touch of bright color coming from down deep in the archival box that was holding these papers.

My curiosity was peaked, and when removing the top papers, this wonderful unfaded image was looking back at me, with a printing date of December 20, 1916! Color was extremely rare throughout these papers, so the beauty of this artwork was just remarkable. Edwin King seems to have been the artist, it is not known to me if he was a local artist in the Romeo area or not. But he did some lovely work, and it’s nice to know it will be preserved. These copies are so fragile even using gloves, lifting them up is a very delicate process when using them. The image below shows them sitting in the tissue padded archival box that is used to protect the unbound copies.

I have a copy of the image now in a frame, where it sits under a Christmas tree, filled with the Romeo Historic Homes ornaments that the Romeo Historical Society puts out each year since 1997. The tree sits in the den where I work on my books and is a constant reminder of the fortunate situation and opportunity I had with being able to research these lovely historic homes and these historic newspapers from the past.

Much to my disappointment I was never able to come across another image such as this one, and it was not from a lack of trying. Although there are many bound editions of the Observers held by the archives, there are many that are individual paper sections that have not been bound because of the quality of the paper used at the time years ago and are in a very precarious state, but being kept safe in the hands of the archivists at the library.

Courtesy of the Melvin E and Joan D Bleich Collection of the Romeo Observer Newspapers at the Romeo Community Archives, Romeo District Library.

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