Thoughtful musings on various topics by interesting people at Blithewold
My Three Blind Men by Marjorie Lyon
They are quite varied – not at all like the three blind mice of the rhyme who always did everything in unison. One is independent and likes to go as much alone as possible. He … Read more.
Red Cross Dividends
By Marjorie Lyon April 23, 1952 Dividends are hard to explain. Sometimes you earn them and sometimes they are just thrust upon you. It seems to me that the dividends that come from Red Cross … Read more.
A Shared Sense of Humor
In February, 1949 Marjorie Lyon wrote an amusing short essay on ‘Confusing Traffic Signs.’ She said: As a small schoolgirl, I was taught to read either from left to right or from top to bottom. … Read more.
A New Portrait of Augustine
When visitors take the special tour of our extensive Archives and Collections department on the third floor, they invariably comment that we must know everything there is to know about the Pardee/Van Wickle family. But … Read more.
Captain George A. Lyon
George Lyon was a captain in World War I. In July 1918, as he waited for orders to Europe, he wrote a touching letter to his wife, Marjorie, “…a farewell note to tell you how … Read more.
Shared History
At the end of August 2018, on a beautiful sunny day, two Pardee cousins got together at Blithewold to reminisce about ninety years of shared history. Marjorie Jeffries is the granddaughter of Bessie Pardee Van … Read more.
The First Pardee Family Reunion
Bessie Pardee Van Wickle McKee was the twelfth of Ario Pardee’s 15 children. She was raised in a large mansion in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, as a strict Presbyterian with strong family values. The Pardee children remained … Read more.
Le Bosquet by Samuel Dean
Upon a gentle upland Bordering on a sunlit bay There lies a sylvan glade; Its length o’ertopped By waving branches Of lofty trees That offer cooling haven To those who seek their shade. When beams … Read more.
The Missing Portrait
In 1912 the French portrait painter Henry Caro-Delvaille sailed from Cherbourg to New York on the S.S. France. Among his fellow passengers was Walter Kilham, an old friend of Bessie and William McKee and the … Read more.
A Trip on the Marjorie: Cuba and Jamaica, 1900
In March 1900, Bessie Van Wickle took possession of the new 174-foot yacht that her husband Augustus had commissioned two years earlier. It was built by the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works in … Read more.