I have found newspapers to be an excellent way of examining a particular area during a particular time. There are several websites with a limited range of old Daily Banner newspapers, 1907 to 1922. To see more, I’d have to trek to the library and look at the sizable digital collection, but this column is called “Cambridge From the Couch,” which requires that everything I cover here can be done from home.
Despite the few years of Cambridge periodicals available online, I’ve found them pretty useful for my Instagram account, Cambridge_MD, and even for some features on The Spy. One of the topics I’ve come back to several times in my work is Christmas in Cambridge, and that holds true for the column you’re reading now. I’ve chosen for today’s history lesson the date December 24, 1917.
The Banner’s editorial was titled “To Our Absent Ones,” and it began, “Never before have so many of our Cambridge boys been away during the Yuletide season, and never have there been as many sad hearts and homes as there are this year.” This was because 1917 was the year President Woodrow Wilson paused our isolationist policy and called on America’s young adults to join the fighting in Europe that had continued for several years.
“Luckily,” the editorial went on, “some of those who have heard the call of America and Freedom have been permitted to come home.“ According to the “Local News” section (Page 3 of the paper), those personnel who made it for the holiday included Corporal Edward Robbins of Quantico, Sergeant Birdsell Andrews and Sergeant Harold Rook of Camp Meade, John F. Willis, Jr. and Briley Wright of the Navy, and Howard B. Matthews of the Second Officers Training Camp at Fortress Monroe.
In fact, many out-of-towners visited family and friends in Cambridge that week, and some of them may have even attended the local schools’ Christmas exercises on the 21st. There were “beautifully trimmed trees, Christmas carols, and programs” at The Academy, East Cambridge, and Cambridge High. Peachblossom School presented a whole to-do of recitations, songs, and plays including “Santas’s Court,” “Santa’s Visit,” and “Sandman.”
On the 23rd, all of the Cambridge churches had large congregations for the special sermons and choir performances. Church celebrations on Christmas Day would begin at 6 a.m., to be followed by the singing of carols in the streets.
The Salvation Army celebrated on the 24th by distributing to the poor of Cambridge Christmas baskets “filled brimful of good things to make a very appetizing dinner.” That day was also the last for the Red Cross Society drive to gain ten million new members nationwide, and Cambridge had not yet attained its quota. They were hopeful that would be accomplished by evening, when the town choirs would meet at the court house for songs.
Since the city’s businesses would be closed on Christmas Day, there is no doubt many citizens were out for last-minute gift shopping. Cornwell, Bowdle & Co. offered “sensible” gifts like table linens, umbrellas, suits, coats, writing paper, and kimonos. Meanwhile, Edgar Harrington & Co. had a full line of toys, including blackboards, pool tables, water towers, fire engines, Noah’s Ark, and cash registers. Nathan’s Furniture Store was helpful enough to offer home delivery until midnight Christmas Eve.
These old newspapers make it clear that Cambridge was once a bustling city that drew in many residents and visitors. Personally, I would like to see it one day get some of that magic back. Let’s see if we all can make it happen. Merry Christmas.
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