"Aegis Fortissima Virtus" prosequitur

The Kensington High School Yearbook of 1942 included a page featuring students who sold wartime "savings stamps," by means of which school-age kids could lend money at interest to the US Treasury for the war effort.

 "The entire student body has co-operated in making the campaign a success.  A real incentive in this work was the visit in January of the lovely Hollywood star, Miss Dorothy Lamour, who inspired the students to buy still more bonds and stamps.  Said Miss Lamour: 'If other schools respond with the same fine spirit of patriotism, I know that our boys are going to have all the material they need to win this war.'  Purchases rose rapidly as a result of the star's visit."

Dorothy Lamour was one of a number of Hollywood stars who supported the war effort in this way.  She also starred in the "Road" movies with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

A teacher was called up from Reserves to Actives; students donated to the Red Cross; "seventy-five Seniors willingly gave their services during the days of sugar rationing"; students volunteered to work on farms in the summer; students collected books to send to USO libraries.  Click to enlarge into Preview.  Check out the totals for stamp sales: $8,550; war bonds  $19,575.

The theme of concord among allied nationalities applied pressingly, one can imagine, to the internal management of a Buffalo high school, which had, as a glance at the class list shows, lots of ethnic German students and lots ethnic Polish students. National survival was going to require youth dropping the domestic rivalries of past years.

"Your teachers . . . have spent four years with you in an effort to strengthen your character and to prepare you, as strong Americans, to meet the totalitarian challenge to democracy."

As an elementary school student in the 1960s, I, too, heard about values from my teachers.  One stood in front of the class and finished off a conversation by saying loud and clear, "I wouldn't want to make a value judgment."

What an idiot.  It is impossible not to make a value judgment, as long as one is alive.

"Amid incessant and fiery debates, the members of the International Relations Club periodically endeavored to create a concordant ending of world combats.  Labor-Capital disputes; England's admirable conduct during air raids; American-Chinese policies; and Russian benevolence to the Allies were merely a few of the fascinating discussions which made this club singular."

Check out some demented faculty member's conception of "Cooperation."

Fortunately, this guy skipped Assembly that day, dressed and combed his hair the way he wanted, and produced art from his own particular head - art of the style used, in cooperation with other individuals, in the cooperative war effort.

"If you delight in solving brain-tickling mathematical problems or in measuring landmarks, the stars, moon, and other planets, we sincerely urge you to join the Slide Rule Club . . .

"At first, the members used improvised slide rules made from lined paper and later bought more accurate implements for themselves.  In due course, the problems increased in difficulty, but were met with proportionate ease as the training progressed . . . 

"Next the boys and girls were familiarized with the sextant, a remarkable instrument used in determining angles and ascertaining heights and distances.  Each member had the opportunity of measuring our renowned school chimney and other prominent landmarks in the distance . . .

"Many students have the false impression that this interesting organization is reserved exclusively for that small body of mathematical wizards which attends the school, but it is open to any student who is inclined to use mathematics either for enjoyment or as an occupation.'

John Napier, 8th Laird of Merchistoun (1550-1617) kept his shoulder off the wheel - thank God - and instead followed his own path to discover logarithms and invent the proto-slide rule. 

Trinity College, Cambridge, possesses a surviving set of "Napier's Bones."

This is the "geometry room" in the basement of Collegium Maius of Jagellonian University, in Kraków.

The Museum of Collegium Maius possesses a set "of Napier's bones" (London, late seventeenth century) a calculating instrument publicized in 1617 by Lord John Napier, the author of algorithms.  It was used until the late eighteenth century, and at the Cracow Academy it was exercised by Professor Jan Brozek."
(Podlecki and Waltos, Collegium Maius, p.46)

This and all the other treasures of Jagellonian University were in the hands of the Nazis in 1942.  The faculty had been summoned to the campus by the Gestapo, arrested, and murdered.

American kids were learning to understand slide rules by making their own with lined paper, so that they could progress to real, manufactured ones.

". . . for whatsoever from one place do fall . . . is with the tide unto an other brought . . ."

Julie

"Aegis Fortissima Virtus"

"The strongest shield is virtue" was the school motto at Kensington High School in Buffalo.  Clara Matynka, our CMZ, saved a big carton of memorabilia related to the school from which she graduated in 1947.

In 1942, sister Gertrude was a freshman at Ken; Clara was still in middle school.  The yearbook cover art is startling.

 The back cover has the US flag surrounded by flags of various Latin American countries, over the Kensington arms and motto.  Remember, you can click on the image to enlarge it into Preview.

The endpapers, front and back, are of a theme as alien to snowy Buffalo as is imaginable.  The surface of the Moon is closer to the Buffalo climate than the Sonora Desert.  Furthermore, all cheerful colors are surreal in 1942.

Here is a clue: a map of German-occupied Europe in that year.

Here's a link to another one, with numbers as links to entries in a chronology of devastation. 

Below, a further clue: a map of the Japanese advance through mid-1942, from the Wikipedia article "Pacific War."

The British Commonwealth and the Americas were at bay.  Even with the Soviets battling the Wehrmacht on the second front, not only Europe but most of the Old World and most of the oceans were battlegrounds in 1942, with the attackers still having the advantage.

So the theme for the graduating class that year was solidarity with nearby allies. (For some reason, Canada was not mentioned or pictured.)

"The Compass of 1942 records Kensington's part in the struggle for victory and the furthering of Latin American friendships . . ."

The photo and name list for senior boys was half that of the photo and name list for senior girls.  It looks like half the upperclassman boys had signed up.  Their names are listed on a special page to the front of the volume.  Note the asterisk next to "Raymond Pawlowski."

Next up: the 1942 Compass continues, featuring war bonds, slide rules, and the antithetical forces of anonymous clones versus Dorothy Lamour.