Thread by @lisafdavis

Spending the afternoon @BeineckeLibrary photographing Wilfrid #Voynich 's scrapbook of press clippings heralding the "news" of the manuscript's decoding and attribution to Roger Bacon, and found this marvelous bit of editorial snark from the Providence Tribune, April 22, 1921:

Am now looking for an excuse to use the expression "I don't give two whoops in a rain barrel!"

Here's another good one, from the New York Evening Post, May 3, 1921. Apparently it is bad form to snort with laughter in the Beinecke Library reading room.

OK, OK, last one, I swear.* Commercial Tribune (Cincinnati), April 27, 1921:

* it will probably not be the last one

Here's a twofer:

All of this publicity led to Newbold getting an honorary degree from Penn in 1921, partly in recognition of his work deciphering the #Voynich manuscript. Oops.