Message from our hostess, Terri.....I must admit that the National Day Calendar, at times, leaves me wondering whatever am I going to do with the choices given to us. When I saw that it is National Paperclip Day tomorrow.... well, here we go!! Please, please read all about this day before you skip to the questions. It really is quite inspiring!! Seriously!
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Everything below this line is from the National Day Calendar website.
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NATIONAL PAPERCLIP DAY
National Paperclip Day is observed each year on May 29. Yes, even the paperclip has its own day of honor. It is about that well-known piece of curved wire that keeps our papers together and helps keep us organized.
While there are much earlier claims to the invention of the paperclip, according to the Early Office Museum, the first patent for a “bent wire paper clip” was presented to Samuel B. Fay in the United States in 1867. The original intention of Fay’s clip was to attach tickets to fabric. However, U.S. patent 64,088 recognized that it could also be used to attach papers together.
There were as many as 50 others that received patents for similar designs prior to 1899. One other notable name receiving a patent for his paperclip design in the United States was Erlman J. Wright in 1877. At that time, his clip was advertised for use in fastening newspapers.
The Gem paperclip, which was most likely in production in Britain in the early 1870s by The Gem Manufacturing Company, was never patented. It is the most common type of wire paper clip and is still in use today. It was introduced to the United States around 1892 and in 1904, Cushman & Denison registered a trademark for the “Gem” name in connection with paper clips. Paperclips are still sometimes called “Gem clips.”
Today, paperclips come in various sizes, shapes, and colors and can make your paperwork look more fun and lively.
Paperclips are not just for holding papers together. There are many other things that you can do with them!
- Replace a zipper tab
- Unclog a spray bottle
- Unclog a single serve coffee maker
- Hem holder
- Emergency hooks for broken necklaces
The Paper Clip Project
During World War II this small, universal office supply provided a visual method of protest at a time when any outward signs of objection could be dangerous, even in familiar company.
Early in the war, Norwegians were particularly persistent in their development of symbols. The paper clip represented “sticking together” for a time until the Nazis caught on and banned the wearing of paper clips.
According to a March 5, 1941, Provo, Utah newspaper article (The Daily Herald), the Norwegians switched to new symbols as quickly as the bans could be issued.
In 1998, a group of middle school students led by language arts teacher Sandra Roberts and associate principal David Smith began a project through a Holocaust education class. The voluntary after-school class, Whitwell Middle School principal Linda Hooper’s idea, would be the foundation for developing tolerance and diversity.
Inspired by the story of the protesting Norwegians and their paper clips, the students began to collect six million paper clips – one paper clip representing one Jew who perished during the Holocaust. Adults today still wrestle with how the Holocaust could occur. Imagine middle school students trying to understand the magnitude of such an event on humanity.
The Paper Clip Project gained international attention and by 2001 the students collected more than 30 million paper clips. The school dedicated a Children’s Holocaust Memorial which displays an authentic German railcar filled with a portion of the paper clips.
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Everything above this line is from the National Day Calendar website.
1. Wow! Had you ever heard of the Holocaust project involving paperclips? It is a great teaching project, for sure! No I've never heard of that. But it is such an interesting story. What a horrible time in History.
2. Have you ever created a paperclip chain? How long did it get? Oh I know I have, but it's been a long time and I don't believe it was especially long.
3. I use paperclips as hooks at Christmas time to put ornaments on the tree. Works like a charm!! What is something you used a paperclip for, other than holding papers together? I've used it for ornament hooks also and I've unbent them some and used them with a cloth to clean between my keyboard keys.
4. I am amazed at the shapes and colors of paperclips available. I found my favorite... share your favorite with us here! I found these on the internet and think they are cute.
5. Say goodbye to May on this last Wednesday of May. Be poetic if you will, or simply bid it adieu. May you've been a really good month, but I suppose it is time for you to go. See you next year.
6. Tell us something about your week so far, please! It's been a good week so far and I'm enjoying it. Monday we went to Plain City and had lunch at an Amish Restaurant and then came back and decorated my parents' grave. I've also had time to do some loomknitting and binging on NCIS in the evenings. I think we're maybe in the about the 6th or 7th season now. We also paid off our van, which is always a good think. So yes, I think it's a pretty good week.
Hope you are having a good week too. Thanks for visiting.
Cathy
