Edward Salley Baby Book - Part Four

The text says:

Born - Tuesday - March ?? - 1916 at twelve forty-five

Baby’s Name - Edward Michael Salley Junior

Baby’s Parents - Mother - Grace Podesta Salley - Father - Edward Michael Salley

Mother's Parents Mr. & Mrs. Anglo Podesta

Father’s Parents Jane Tierney Salley/Edward Salley

Inscription: We’ve found a blessed Baby,/ That in the night-fall came/ All unannounced from Heaven,/Without a card or name;/The angles must have brought it here/For us to love - Our Baby Dear!

I have a few thoughts about this entry. I assume that it was Grace Salley filling out this book, so why doesn’t she write her mother’s name down? Instead she refers to her parents as Mr. and Mrs. Podesta. The poem at the bottom goes along with the stork theme of the cover. It implies that babies just appear, cleaned and wrapped in a blanket. It erases the messy pain of childbirth and the effort of the mother in a way that I find somewhat offensive.

Edward Salley Baby Book - Part Three

Baby’s Weight. Seven and a half pounds at birth. No weight recorded at one or two months. Fourteen and a quarter pounds at three months. Fifteen pounds at four months. Sixteen and three quarters pounds at five months. There was an intention to record the weight at six months, but she didn’t get around to it. Inscription: “Every grain of gain is noted,/ Every scratch of the scale so fine-/What’s the use when the precious bundle/Far outweighs a rare gold mine!”

I found a similar recording of a baby book here: https://hughjyeman.wordpress.com/2015/11/

Edward Salley Baby Book - Part Two

The second page of the baby book has a few of the gerber-esque illustrations of babies, as well as the strange lettering style that will continue throughout the book. The font is supposed to look like it’s made of branches and flowers, but it mostly looks like ghost-writing.

Edward Salley Baby Book - Part One

This is the cover of Edward Salley’s baby book. The book seems to be a mass-produced item, but I did a reverse Google search of the image and I couldn’t find any other examples of a similar book. The books has lasted over 100 years, but not without some staining.