News Gitter manuscript magazines, 1913
9 items
This collection consists of four volumes of the News Gitter manuscript magazine or newsletter created by students from Wisconsin Creek, Montana, in 1913, as a part of a student literary society called the O.A.O., "Our Afternoon Off." Several additional pages of notes, poetry, and a partial address by Willis Funk, president of the O.A.O. commenting on its founding, are also present. Entries for the periodical include jokes and mock wanted advertisements, comments about school affairs and students, poetry, local news and weather, among other topics.
Content relating to the students' educational experiences include discussions of examinations, jokes about teachers and lessons, commentary about school government, notices for upcoming performances, among other topics. Several entries specifically relate to a female teacher, Miss Le Tourneau. The manuscript magazines also feature material reflecting the students' social experiences. They document student absences and disputes, classroom antics, facilities issues, humor, and the formation of the literary society O.A.O., "Our Afternoon Off." Some of the entries reference romantic interests between students, while others reflect signs of puberty, like the entry in the first volume that noted "Willis Funk is developing a fine crop of whiskers." Some content relates to race and ethnicity, such as articles in volume three titled "Miniature Mexican Insurrection," one about "Two Irish lads… quar[rel]ing on the school house steps," and one that references African Americans and uses racial epithets.