Eye - 13 January 2023
From Unearthing stories to Rhyming in the New Year
Unearthing stories
A visually-arresting snippet of an advert from 1898 was printed in these pages on 16 December (see above for the full ad).
Eye was delighted to find out more about the story behind the elegant typography, when a missive from a Friend with family connections to the company shed light on its Quakerly connections.
The cameras being advertised were made by Thornton-Pickard. David Bower, of Wooldale Meeting, tells Eye: ‘The Pickard family were Quakers (my great-grandmother was Annie Pickard). The company was established in 1888 by Edgar Pickard and John Edward Thornton and based in Altrincham, pioneers in the development of cameras including the patenting of the “Time and Instantaneous Shutter”.
‘The “Amber” and “Ruby” were early popular camera ranges which required the following parts: 116 of wood, 163 of metal, fifteen sizes of bellow and six different types of screw. The “Imperial Triple Extension” model introduced in 1913 was particularly successful. The company finally closed in 1939 being unable to compete with cheaper imports.’
It goes to show that every page has a story!
Guiding principles
Quakers put in an appearance on the quiz show Jeopardy in the USA on New Year’s Eve. Eye suspects Friends who tuned in would have been shouting the answer at the TV when presented with: ‘Promoting peace and human rights since 1917, the American Friends Service Committee is guided by the religious principles of this religious group.’
The AFSC was founded in the first world war to provide a way for conscientious objectors to serve without joining the military. They, together with the British Friends Service Council (which is now known as Quaker Peace & Social Witness), accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Quakers worldwide in 1947.
Friendly podcasts
Here at the Friend we’re excited to have launched our new podcast, which you can find by typing ‘The Friend Live’ into any podcast app or listen here: https://bit.ly/TheFriendLivePodcast
But we aren’t the only Quakers venturing into the world of podcasting. You can also hear the dulcet tones of Carolyn Baynes, from Farnham Meeting, exploring centring down.
Carolyn introduces herself as ‘a Quaker and a mindfulness meditation teacher interested in ways to grow inner qualities like peace, joy and compassion’.
She told Eye: ‘Farnham Meeting offer a monthly “Centring Down with Compassion” Zoom session which is open to anyone and there is a podcast of the same name available on all major podcast platforms.’
If you’re new to podcasts, you can also listen online here: https://bit.ly/CentringDown
The meditative episodes range from five to thirty minutes and share the recordings of the sessions, themed around Advices & queries and aspects of self care.
Rhyming in the New Year
The year 2-0-2-2 has passed.
It’s passing has seemed very fast.
For as we grow older,
Our brains start to moulder,
And we dwell far too much on the past.
Roy Payne
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