Microscopes, Magnifying Glasses, and Chemistry on Valentine’s Day Cards

John Gustav Delly

Dedication: This article is dedicated to My Valentine: Heidi Peterson. Heidi and I were in the same Third Grade (3b) class at the Blaine Elementary School, Chicago, in the year 1942. Heidi was a blue-eyed Scandinavian blond with her hair tied in two pigtails so long that she wore them turned up into two large loops.

Shortly after the class picture from which Heidi’s photo, above, has been extracted, she was gone. She was not in earlier class photos, nor in later class photos. This was the period in our country’s history when we were already in the second year of World War II, and I have always assumed that Heidi’s father had been called into military service, and the family was obliged to move to be near his service assignment.

At this same time, I had already received in the previous year my Gilbert Microscope Set with its microscope, magnifying glass, with the wonderful manual written by Oscar Richards, and was close to having received a Gilbert Chemistry set. These instruments would eventually lead to my becoming a teacher of General Science, Biology, and Chemistry in the Chicago Public Schools system before transitioning into industry as a Chemical Microscopist. Thus, it should not be surprising that at some point the confluence of my academic interests and the memory of Heidi would lead to the start of my collection of Valentine cards with themes of microscopes, magnifying glasses, and chemistry.

(Throughout the remainder of this article, click on any image to enlarge.)