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Content Warning: This series contains racist, sexist, and chauvinistic topics, as well as jingoist rhetoric in support of the Spanish-American War and US imperialism. Generally juvenile language also appears throughout.

The Thencanic Society was a debating society founded in October of 1882 by 18 members of the Boy’s Department of the State Model School. The purpose of the society was to “develop a correct mode of speaking, to qualify its members by practice to express their opinions in public, and to become better acquainted with the laws governing deliberative assemblies.” To this end, they held debates, mock legislatures and other activities. The records of the society include a list of officers (1882-1899), Critic’s Reports (1892-1900), records of mock legislatures (1887-1897), correspondence (1882-1900) and others as listed below. Despite its lofty goals, the Thencanic Society was made up of teenage boys, and the records of the Society sometimes reflect a tongue-in-cheek attitude, especially in the Critic’s Reports that often admonish members for their rowdy and/or eccentric behavior.

Lists of Thencanic Society Officers, 1882-1899 · Item · ca. 1898-1899
Part of TFPL New Jersey State Normal and Model Schools at Trenton and Successor Institutions Collection

This small notebook compiles the names of all of the officers of the Thencanic Society from its founding in 1882 to the end of the 19th century. Names through 1896 were recorded by William Bamford, who gifted the book to the Society around his graduation from the Normal School. Information for the last years is written in several different hands. A transcript is available below.

Bamford, William B. (William Brokaw), ca. 1878-1945
The Modellian [Model School Yearbook], 1915 · Item · 1915
Part of TFPL New Jersey State Normal and Model Schools at Trenton and Successor Institutions Collection

Content warning: This yearbook uses a swastika motif as a border for its pages. Although the book dates to the period when this symbol was in fashion in the West and before its adoption by the Nazi Party, it nevertheless appears prominently throughout the work.

This yearbook for the Model Class of 1915, one of the last before the school's closure in 1917, is one of the few known extant Model School yearbooks. Aside from the normal items in a yearbook--class photos, a list of officers, a class history--this volume includes an account of the "Class Horse" and advertisements for Trenton area businesses. A partial transcript of the annotations by the original owner is included.

Please note that one corner of page is torn, affecting Isabel Clark's photograph and part of Hortense Daily's biography.

The method by which this booklet was printed, particularly the photographs, means that scanning does not accurately capture the images. Furthermore, the size of this PDF file has been reduced for uploading. A full-sized version of the scanned booklet is available by request of Trentoniana.

Thencanic Oration on US Future Policy, 14 October 1898 · Item · 1898
Part of TFPL New Jersey State Normal and Model Schools at Trenton and Successor Institutions Collection

Content note: This document contains racist and white supremacist language.

As part of his oration at a meeting of the Thencanic Society, Joseph Bodine prepared these remarks on future U.S. foreign policy. Just months after the end of hostilities between Spain and the United States (and before a peace treaty had been signed!), Bodine takes the "anti-imperialist" tack, although he couches his position in racist and white supremacist ideas about the supposed inability for self-government of the peoples in the U.S.'s new colonies. His perspective aligned with many of the so-called anti-imperialists following the Spanish-American War, in that he opposed U.S. expansion but did so on the grounds that such conquered peoples were unfit to live under the U.S. Constitution. In all, this provides an interesting snapshot of one political stance in the immediate aftermath of the war. Transcription included.

Bodine, Joseph L. (Joseph Lamb), 1883-1950
Thencanic letter from Benjamin Messler, 25 October 1899 · Item · 1899
Part of TFPL New Jersey State Normal and Model Schools at Trenton and Successor Institutions Collection

Benjamin Messler, a recent alumnus of the Model School, extends his gratitude to the Thencanic Society for electing him an Honorary Member. He name-drops several notable military and political figures of the time who have also received this honor: the U.S. Navy commanders Charles Sigsbee, W. S. Schley, and George Dewey, all heroes of the Spanish-American War, as well as the Qing Dynasty statesman Li Hongzhang. For an unknown reason, the text of this letter is identical to the one sent by R. Earle Anderson on the same date (see related materials). Transcription included.

Messler, Benjamin E. (Benjamin Edmund), 1882-1952
Thencanic letter from Capt. Charles Sigbee, 28 April 1898 · Item · 1898
Part of TFPL New Jersey State Normal and Model Schools at Trenton and Successor Institutions Collection

Captain Charles Sigsbee, commander of the U.S.S. Maine at the time of its explosion in Havana Harbor in February 1898, thanks the Thencanic Society for electing him an honorary member. The Thencanic admitted to the membership several notable figures from the Spanish-American War. Transcription included.

Thencanic letter from Charles C. Hewitt, 27 October 1899 · Item · 1899
Part of TFPL New Jersey State Normal and Model Schools at Trenton and Successor Institutions Collection

Charles C. Hewitt, at this point a student at Lehigh University, writes the Thencanic Society thanking them for electing him an honorary member. He also discusses the "Forum," Lehigh's debating society, and how it compares to the Thencanic. Finally, he gives the current membership several items of advice, from never refusing a challenge from the Normal Debating Society to avoiding a "swelled head." Transcription included.

Hewitt, Charles C. (Charles Conrad), Sr., 1881-1976