Search

Walter Willisson Stephen kept this notebook in 1903 as a 12-year-old boy. The bulk of the volume consists of seventeen chapters relating to the Moberly, Missouri, Fire Department, its infrastructure, equipment, and activities, with particular focus on the rescue efforts of Company 7 that was led by three teenage boys. It is unclear whether these fires were entirely imagined or based on real events, but the tales include heavily dramatized elements, flourishes, and dialogue while reflecting early-twentieth century firefighting practices and boyhood fascination with them. Stephen kept tables of data relating to baseball players' statistics in the back of the volume, seemingly for games held in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The volume includes pencil drawings relating to firefighting, baseball, guns, and animals.

Walter Willisson Stephen kept this notebook in 1903 as a 12-year-old boy. The bulk of the volume consists of seventeen chapters relating to the Moberly, Missouri, Fire Department, its infrastructure, equipment, and activities, with particular focus on the rescue efforts of Company 7 that was led by three teenage boys. They extinguished fires in various buildings, like a mattress factory, the cotton exchange building, stores, saloons, and houses. At least two chapters refer to African American residents of Moberly, with one fire breaking out in a family's kitchen (p. 17) and another in a "small shanty" (p. 52). It is unclear whether these fires were entirely imagined or based on real events, but the tales include heavily dramatized elements, flourishes, and dialogue while reflecting early-twentieth-century firefighting practices and boyhood fascination with them. The first chapter opens with pencil illustrations of fire extinguishers, axes, and water hose nozzles. The inside front cover includes pencil drawings of three horse-drawn fire trucks, an American crest, and an airship.

Stephen kept tables of data relating to baseball players' statistics in the back of the volume, seemingly for games held in the following cities in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee: Vicksburg, Mobile, Jackson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Little Rock, and Memphis. He made two pencil drawings of men playing baseball, and he included pencil sketches and doodles on the back inside cover of men, guns, animals, and geometric shapes.

Walter Willisson Stephen kept this notebook in 1903 as a 12-year-old boy. The bulk of the volume consists of seventeen chapters relating to the Moberly, Missouri, Fire Department, its infrastructure, equipment, and activities, with particular focus on the rescue efforts of Company 7 that was led by three teenage boys. It is unclear whether these fires were entirely imagined or based on real events, but the tales include heavily dramatized elements, flourishes, and dialogue while reflecting early-twentieth century firefighting practices and boyhood fascination with them. Stephen kept tables of data relating to baseball players' statistics in the back of the volume, seemingly for games held in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The volume includes pencil drawings relating to firefighting, baseball, guns, and animals.

Walter Willisson Stephen kept this notebook in 1903 as a 12-year-old boy. The bulk of the volume consists of seventeen chapters relating to the Moberly, Missouri, Fire Department, its infrastructure, equipment, and activities, with particular focus on the rescue efforts of Company 7 that was led by three teenage boys. They extinguished fires in various buildings, like a mattress factory, the cotton exchange building, stores, saloons, and houses. At least two chapters refer to African American residents of Moberly, with one fire breaking out in a family's kitchen (p. 17) and another in a "small shanty" (p. 52). It is unclear whether these fires were entirely imagined or based on real events, but the tales include heavily dramatized elements, flourishes, and dialogue while reflecting early-twentieth-century firefighting practices and boyhood fascination with them. The first chapter opens with pencil illustrations of fire extinguishers, axes, and water hose nozzles. The inside front cover includes pencil drawings of three horse-drawn fire trucks, an American crest, and an airship.

Stephen kept tables of data relating to baseball players' statistics in the back of the volume, seemingly for games held in the following cities in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee: Vicksburg, Mobile, Jackson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Little Rock, and Memphis. He made two pencil drawings of men playing baseball, and he included pencil sketches and doodles on the back inside cover of men, guns, animals, and geometric shapes.