Author: Copelan, William (Chief of Police)
Title: Robert and Urban Nichols, Missing from Cincinnati, Ohio. Thought to Have Been Kidnapped [Antiziganism]
Description: Cincinnati, By the Author, 1912. First Edition. Poster; 12 x 8; beige stock, printed in black and illustrated with a photograph; paper fragile and age-toned; upper two corners clipped; old, horizontal fold line with two thin, closed cuts to edges; residue from a brown paper strip to upper margin of verso; in good to very good condition. A missing poster for two small children from Cincinnati, it gave a detailed description of the two brothers, the time they were last seen (April 29, 1912), and the speculation that "Hungarians" might have picked them up. Hungarian-Slovak gypsies emigrated to the US in the late-19th century, primarily to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and New York. They would become well-known for making a living by playing music at cafes and restaurants and for being semi-permanently settled, unlike the other nomadic Romani groups in the country, including the Ludar, the Romanichal, the Black Dutch, etc. Despite that, the general perception of the gypsies' roaming lifestyle and strange and secretive culture gave way to widely-spreading antiziganism. An article in the Greenfield Republican from May 23, 1912, stated that, indeed, Hungarian gypsies had been suspected of kidnapping the boys, as the former had hurriedly left Cincinnati around the time of the disappearances, but ultimately, the children had been found by their father, drowned in a feed-box in a stable. Good .

Keywords: Police, Missing Poster, Gypsies


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