Christmas Greetings from Mildred Pietschman

Several Christmas cards sent by Miss Mildred Piestschman to the Knisely family are now in the collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. In 1951, Miss Pietschman created the holiday card pictured above, which depicted singers arranged on a mobile. The next year, she sent a card that featured ornaments on a tree.

The cards were created on one piece of paper, which was folded in fourths, to create its own envelope. So Mildred was not only artistic, but she was thrifty! In 1956, she sent a full page greeting that contained the first verse of the Christmas carol The First Noel. Angels and decorative flourishes adorned the piece of sheet music.

Mildred Pietschman was an elementary music teacher in the Sandusky City Schools for 45 years. Eventually she served as music supervisor. In 1959, she married attorney John F. McCrystal. Mrs. Mildred Pietschman McCrystal died in a tragic automobile accident while she was on vacation in Mexico on October 19, 1990. The Mildred Pietschman McCrystal Scholarship is awarded annually to Erie County students, with preference given to music majors.