Spelling Match!

Did you know that two former Dover City Halls used to include Opera Houses? They were Dover's 2nd & 3rd City Halls, and were really entertainment centers for the city. We have a binder of historic programs for concerts, plays, humorists, spelling matches, and more that played at the City Hall & Opera House. One such program (pictured at left) took place on this day in 1875. The event was a Spelling Match between the Dover Library Association and the Portsmouth Mercantile Library Association. Perusing the papers from that time period made me realize that spelling matches were a pretty common occurence. Each church seemed to have evenings for spelling matches. What do you think they would make of our current trend towards abbreviated text--np, tbh, imo, ttyl, etc.? I think they would be lol.