Velum Diploma from St. John’s Military Academy. Delafield, Wisconsin: St. John’s Military Academy, 1917.
Original "13x17” velum diploma from St. John’s Military Academy 1917. The graduation diploma of one, Frank J. Geidler, from the St. John’s Military Academy in Delafield Wisconsin, a boarding school for young men founded in 1884 by the Rev. Sidney T. Smythe as a private, college preparatory and leadership development school. The diploma contains the signatures of the “faculty now resident,” and includes the signature of General Charles King (Brigadier General Wisconsin National Guard). General King’s association with St. John’s Military Academy is storied and dates back to its founding. General King’s military career spanned from the Civil War (in his teenage years) through World War One (where he trained recruits for battle). He served in five separate Army campaigns over a seventy-year period -- the first and only American soldier to do so. King’s family lineage boasts several prominent men in U.S. history including an original signee of the United States Constitution.
As an author, King penned and or edited over 62 books, published in more than 400 different editions, and it is estimated that he published in excess of 250 short stories. Nearly all of his writings used the U.S. Army as his touchstone, with particular emphasis on the American Civil War, the frontier Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War. King has the unique distinction of being the first person to author books by dictating into a sound-recording machine. Nothing is known about Frank J. Geidler, the recipient of the diploma.
Price: $350.00