Written entirely in Latin, this diploma (close-up) from Collegii Manhattanensis was awarded to Joannem Josephum Fitzgerald in MDCCCLXLI. I don't know why it was sitting here beside a Sanitation Department garage; perhaps it was rescued from the trash by a garbage collector.
UPDATE: Ben has discovered that the mysterious Mr. Fitzgerald was in all likelihood Congressman John Joseph Fitzgerald from Brooklyn!
Day 823
1891 Manhattan College diploma
April 1st, 2014
That is so entirely weird and random. Another reason to check Matt’s pictures!
I think you are right … just too good to throw away so time to try a little informal freecycling. Hell, I would have picked it up. Well, not if I was Matt … it would get mighty heavy through the day. Maybe if it was the last street of the day. :-)
With the popularity of this website I hope that the person or a relative sees this and will go and pick it up.
MDCCCLXLI ??? Don’t you mean MDCCLXII ?
Oooops. Sorry. I don’t think you can have Roman numeral MDCCCLXLI. Don’t you mean MDCCCLXII . . . or LX something-other-than LI.
No, it says MDCCCLXLI. Check the link above to see a close-up of the diploma. A more conventional way to write 1891 would have been MDCCCXCI, but MDCCCLXLI works too.
Look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Fitzgerald
Nifty, eh?
Wow — nice find! That’s a sweet picture of him too.