1. "FR Library photo"
Posted by harry on Aug-27th-02 at 12:48 PM

This postcard on auction shows the inside of the Fall River library in 1908. Pretty fancy.

The item itself is at:

Victorian Vistas Vol. II, pg. 686+

March 23, 1899

"The new Public Library was opened for inspection by members of the city government last night....there was no stint of praise...No one who went into the building for the first time last night failed to express himself in surprised tones at the elegance and roominess of the interior...The architect, Mr. Cram, of Boston, was present...The most frequented room...was that in which the art exhibition is made....some [pictures] have an interest because they are the work of local artists.  Bryant Chapin has two fruit pictures. Mr. [O.E. ?]  Dubois has a charming picture of a little girl who 'does not want to pose.'  David Beattie's beautiful pictures, 'The Jewel Case', A Portrait', and 'The Williamsburg Coach' were freely praised and enjoyed.  The fine pictures owned by J.W. Cummings, Esq.*, 'A Madonna and Child', and 'Going to the Sheepfold', merit attention.  Frank Miller* has some pictures that are of a very fine order.  Mrs. Abbott Slade has two or three that are pretty enough to cause envy.  Dr. Davis owns an excellent picture....J.E. Osborn shows some of the best paintings there...

...The building ...so far as the exterior is concerned, is built entirely of dressed Fall River granite.  The interior partitions are built of brick throughout, while the floors are of concrete in the Ransome system of construction.  The stairways are of iron, concrete or stone.  The roof is of steel, filled in with terra cotta blocks and covered with copper over a layer of concrete.  No woodwork enters into the construction of the building beyond the doors and window frames...In design, the building is Italian Renaissance, treated in a formal and simple manner...

There are seven or eight different kinds of marble used.  Some good specimens of the rose Italian marble and the Irish Connemara marble are in the vestbule.  The pink Tennessee marble is also very pretty and delicate looking.  There are some novelties in the book stack...a series of iron and glass floors with steel shelves....a little elevator[for] Librarians...an opening in a flue leading to an air shaft...'to take up the dust from the books'. "

--[*Franklin Miller was the son of Southard Miller, the Borden's neighbor across the street.
*J.W.Cummings, Esq. was a former Mayor, and future Judge, who was the brother of Bridget Sullivan's lawyer]

Thanks for the pic and info, Kat!  Beautiful library!  I can just see that open hall hung with works of art, I wonder why there are none in the postcard? 

Oh, was this the library where Lizzie had a library card at??? 

I think they were hung in a seperate room.
Even after THAT, a picture was stolen after it opened to the public in the next couple of days...

Was Lizzie there the day the picture was stolen?  Maybe Maplecroft had a couple of bare walls that needed a painting or two.

Lizzie & her Library card...hmmm I haven't pictured her going to the Library at all, and I guess I should. As someone asked me recently:  Where's Emma's Library card?

I think the library card I have on the site is the Library's card, not Lizzie's. It is her signup for library services. That means maybe they still have Emma's but nobody asked them for that one!

Where is Terence when you need him? H would be just the guy to drive over to Fall River and check this one out!

What strikes me about Lizzie's signature is the slant from left to right. That's very noticeable.

I also noticed the fancy "A" as her middle initial and the normal way of writing the A in Andrew.

She also dots her "i"'s way to the right.

I wonder if that handwriting place ever finished their analysis of her writing.  I never did get an answer from them about the funeral instructions despite several promises from them they would try to find the source of that document.

Kat noticed that she misspelled "French Street"---FERNCH ST.

So does this mean our Lizzie is dyslexic?

There is NO misspelling. It is only your interpretation.
Note the difference in the written small 'e' between her signature, and the street name. Could it be another forgery? Or just filled in by someone else.
E Radin's book explains the famous typewritten forged confession.

I do now see that "e'" in French looks like that "e" in River.


The way she crosses her "T" in "Lizbeth" seems to show a gap or a distancing.  She renamed herself, but maybe didn't think she earned that name.

The way she crosses her "T" in (French) "Street" looks to me as if it is a very bold stroke directly THROUGH the heart of that "T".
That Street was EARNED and OWNED by Lizzie...if not by "Lizbeth".

(Message last edited Aug-29th-02  6:39 PM.)

When I see Lizzie's signature, I get a slighly creepy feeling.  That's because, when I was a teenager, I decided to deliberately change my handwriting to make it look more "dramatic."  The main changes I made were to begin making my small "e" like Lizzie's in "French," and to make my capital "A" like Lizzie's in her signature (middle initial).  At the time, I barely knew who Lizzie Borden was and had never seen her handwriting.  I indoctrinated myself so thoroughly that I still write that way, but sometimes I forget and use the other type of small "e."  I hardly ever use the normal type of capital "A" however.  (My handwriting is much sloppier than Lizzie's.)