Universal York

When I was researching York author Katharine Haviland-Taylor for my York Sunday News column last month, I found that she was an artist as well as a writer. One article mentioned that she had illustrated a book with cut silhouettes. She may have done more than one, but the one I found in the collection of her books at York County Heritage Trust was Happy Birthday to You: Complete Party Programs for Every Age by Horace J. Gardner. Silhouette illustrations and poems in the book are by Katharine Haviland-Taylor. It was published in 1939 by Lippincott.
It was a book with party plans for parties for birthdays and other occasions for all ages. The introduction reads: “The plans are complete for various ages, from four to eighty-four, each chapter outlining the designing of decorations, description of games to be played and suggested refreshment, some of them appropriate for cold weather months, others for late spring, summer and early autumn.” The book itself was suggested as an inexpensive birthday gift.
Haviland-Taylor’s lively silhouettes reflected the subject of each occasion.
See below for a sample party plan:

Activities: Word jumble of farm things, such as horse, silo, turnip, cabbage
Cucumber roll: Cucumbers are raced by being pushed with players’ chins.
Old Gray mare: Participants walk on all fours with paper bags over hands and feet. The object is to see who can keep from laughing.
Barnyard medley: One person is tricked into oinking by him/herself.
Suggested decorations are hay, cornstalks, branches, pumpkins and large cutouts of animals.
Refreshments, served on a table of saw horses with red and white checked tablecloths include roasted corn and hotdogs, served with sauerkraut. Sweet cider can be dispensed from a keg into tin cups. Cake, donuts and coffee complete the food offerings.