Letter, Theodore G. Barker to his niece Ellen Barker, Charleston, May 30, 1900 — opening (right leaf) and close (left leaf, page 4 of the same bifolium)
Book 1, Page 181 ·1900
Transcription
An open-book scan showing two panels of a single folded bifolium of writing paper. Read in the letter’s natural order, this is page 1 (right leaf) and page 4 (left leaf, rotated 90°) of one four-page letter from Theodore Gaillard Barker to his niece Ellen Barker. Pages 2 and 3 appear on the facing scan, page 182.
Right leaf — page 1: dateline and opening
Charleston SC
May 30. 1900.
Dear Ellen — This is to notify you, that you must not Engage yourself to do any work during your vacation this summer — but must hold yourself free to come to Brookland, when your Aunt Louisa opens her house there — (Don’t you like ^(the way) people say “Must” ^(to you?)) Of course, if you are offered a trip to Europe or
[Letter continues on page 182.]
Left leaf — page 4: continuation from p182 (left), close, and address panel
This panel is rotated 90° from the right leaf — the writer, having reached page 4, turned the bifolium so that the close runs sideways up the outer fold, with the mailing address tucked at the lower-left corner. Read sideways:
wish & Best Expectation to have you spend your vacation with us — Write & tell me, that you will come to us & also when your School ^(will) break up.
Yours affectionately
Theodore G. Barker
Address panel, written at the lower-left of the same sideways panel (where it would have been visible on the outside of the folded letter):
Miss Ellen M. Barker
Asheville N.C.
AI Notes
An open-book scan of the FRONT and BACK panels of a single folded bifolium — one four-page letter from Theodore Gaillard Barker (Charleston) to his niece Ellen Barker (Asheville), dated May 30, 1900. The right leaf is the FIRST page of the letter (‘Charleston SC May 30. 1900. Dear Ellen — This is to notify you…’); the left leaf is the FOURTH and LAST page (running sideways up the panel, with the close ‘Yours affectionately Theodore G. Barker’ followed by the outer-fold address ‘Miss Ellen M. Barker / Asheville N.C.’). The middle pages 2 and 3 appear on the facing scan, page 182. The letter is a half-comic, half-serious harangue insisting that Ellen spend her summer vacation at Brookland with her aunt and uncle rather than taking on tutoring work. Two interlinear additions appear in the parenthetical aside on page 1 — ‘^(the way)’ inserted above ‘like people say’ and ‘^(to you?)’ inserted below ‘Must’, so that the line reads ‘(Don’t you like the way people say “Must” to you?)’.