Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Bibliographer bashing

Here is an interesting little line in Kaufmann Kohler's Personal Reminiscences of My Early Life (Cincinnati, 1918):


Here's a photo of the great man himself:


The person who sent it to me was surprised that Steinschneider was wearing a - let's call it a yarmulke - I was as well. So was everyone, probably, when the picture was making the email rounds. To give credit as far back as I can, the picture was distributed by Professor Menachem Kellner, who said that this was taken at the Royal Library in Berlin.

5 comments:

  1. James Murray also wore a "yarmulka" at work, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:James-Murray.jpg

    Maybe it was intended to keep dust out of the hair?

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  2. Several Victorian types look stereotypically rebbeish, with house caps and long, wild beards. Still, this looks more like a litvishe cap than a German smoking cap to me.

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  3. Simon, it's possible that this was Steinschneider's motivation, except that he had no hair and this looks much more like a typical "yarmulke" of the time. Murray's cap is different.

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  4. I really like this picture.

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  5. Murray's colleague, the homicidal maniac William Chester Minor, also wore a "yarmulke".

    http://www.vauxhallcivicsociety.org.uk/home/history/william-chester-minor-1

    I do

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