Grand International Jubilee

On Monday evening, January 12, 1874, a “Grand International Jubilee” was held at Fisher’s Hall in Sandusky, under the auspices of the Ladies’ Library Association. (The Ladies’ Library Association was later known as the Library Building Fund Association or L.B.F.A.) C. R. Hodge was the director of music, and orchestral accompaniment was provided by the Great Western Band. The first selection of the evening was “God Save the Queen,” sung by the entire chorus, the ladies being dressed in national costume. A quartet consisting of Mr. Curran, Mr. Nugent, Miss Alden, and Miss Barber sang “The Campbells are Coming.” Four gentlemen sang a selection entirely in the German language.

W. T. West, John R. Miner, H. F. Spencer, and one other man were dressed as Native Americans. They sang one song entitled “America,” and came back for two encores, providing the audience with great amusement. Other features during the Jubilee included songs representing China, Ireland, France, and Africa. The Jubilee ended with the full chorus singing “The Star Spangled Banner.” Just before the last chorus, the curtain was drawn back to present a patriotic tableau. Miss Sallie Mills was dressed as “The Goddess of Liberty.” Attendant guardians stood by her side, and kneeling at her feet were two individuals representing freed slaves.

The January 13, 1874 Sandusky Register reported that “This concert must net to the Association a very fair amount and will enable the ladies to commence the new year with bright prospects for the future.”

The Great Western Band, from the Arts Collection of the Archives Research Center:

The Grand Cosmorama of 1891

Before Mrs. Jay O. Moss was successful in her appeal to Andrew Carnegie for a donation of $50,000 for the purpose of the building a public library in Sandusky, Ohio, she belonged to a group known as the “Library Building Fund Association,” or L.B.F.A.

The Library Building Fund Association was organized in 1886 with the purpose of raising money to purchase or build a library in Sandusky. They worked diligently to secure funds by sponsoring plays, lectures, and musicals.

Pictured below is the program from the “Grand Cosmorama” held at the Opera House in Sandusky on April 3, 1891, under the auspices of the Ladies Building Fund Association.
The evening’s event opened and closed with selections from the Ladies Banjo Club. Several “living pictures” were acted out. The “Light Infantry” featured six children singing and acting. The “Wheel of Fate” number involved eight ladies in party costumes doing a drill with fans. The “Old Maids of Lee” was an amusing act in which the participants frantically tried to catch a man. Fifty Sandusky residents took part in the festivities.

Susie Selkirk (shown here in her Sandusky High School graduation photo, class of 1888) was one of the ladies who participated in the Grand Cosmorama.

See the Sandusky Daily Register of April 3, 1891 to read an account of the 1891 Grand Cosmorama, available on microfilm in the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.

Mrs. Jay O. Moss addressed the Firelands Historical Society in 1900 and spoke about the history of the “Free Library” in Sandusky. (You can read her address in the 1900 “Firelands Pioneer.”) One of Mrs. Moss’s comments was especially poignant: “The dimensions of our building almost stagger us, for our income will be small and our size great, but if our object of bringing people and library together, in unity, acting in sympathy and sentiment, each with the other, can only be accomplished, our halcyon days are indeed upon us.”

The Sandusky Library website has a brief history of the library.

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