Grandma’s Physics Notebook

Blanche in Wedding Dress 1903

Blanche Wilhelmina Henrietta Bucher Thompson

Grandma Blanche did not graduate high school with her class, as she had to stay home and help her mother raise her adopted brother, Earl. She returned the following year and signed up for the  Scientific curriculum, something unheard of for a girl to do at the dawning of the twentieth century.  But Grandma diligently pursued a scientific diploma, taking Algebra, Chemistry, Physics, along with Geography, German and English. She graduated with honors.

Below I have published the most graphically interesting of her notebooks, her Physics Notebook.  If you click on any of the thumbnail images below, you will increase the size of the page so that you can easily read the beautiful manuscript that Grandma Blanche produced.  Her handwriting is something to behold, and her line drawings are quite good as well.  Now well over 100 years have passes since this notebook was created.  Grandma took care of it as well as the rest of her notebooks and passed them on to her daughter, Hazel, for safe keeping.  Now I have the honor to preserve them for another generation and share them with all of you.  At the bottom of the page is a red script that reads: Grandma’s Physics Notebook.  If you click this it will take you to the entire manuscript.

I am happy to publish this manuscript of my Grandma’s Physics Notebook.  Please enjoy it’s beauty as well as any information that you care to delve into. I hope to have the other notebooks up before to much time.

Enjoy!

Grandma’s Physics Notebook

In her own words: A poem by Hazel B. Thompson

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

TOGETHER – THE FAMILY CAN

I Know – It Happened To Me

Hazel B. Thompson, March 31, 1956

 

Hazel at one year with her dog Nero

Hazel at one year with her dog Nero

On a recent trip home to Detroit, my cousin, Arthur, presented me with a trove of photos of the Thompson’s from around 1906 until the middle 1950’s. He also gave me some of the manuscripts that Aunt Hazel had written during the time she was a graduate student at Wayne State University.  One of the manuscripts stood out to me, and it is this manuscript which I present to you today. It is a long, free verse poem, chronicling the Thompson’s life together, from the earliest part of the Twentieth Century until 1956. It is titled: TOGETHER – THE FAMILY CAN. with a subtitle: I Know – It Happened To Me.     I have used her poem as a structuring device that allows photographs taken of the Thompson family to have some chronology and context. After reading this poem, I understand better why the Walter Thompson’s left Manistee when they did.  I know a bit more about how the depression affected Hazel and how much the Second World War affected the entire Thompson clan.

Remember, you can click on any of the photos and they will become larger. You will find “galleries” of photos on most of the pages.  Although these photos are not captioned, if you click on an individual photo it will become larger.  In the upper left hand of each larger photo there appears a caption.

Some of the lead photos are taken from historical collections that are now in the public domain. Most of the photos are “snapshots.” Some are damaged, and others are showing their age by becoming faded.  This is a long blog with several pages.  At the bottom of each page is a small section with page numbers.  Select the page you want to look at and it will appear. Also, please let me know if there are any mistakes or discrepencies. This was a complicated blog to compile and took several weeks of editing to arrive at the stage that you are now experiencing.  What started as a sack full of old photos now has some meaning and coherance. Please read the poem.  It gives insight into Aunt Hazel’s feelings and passions. Enjoy! [Continue Reading…]

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