ephemera assemblyman

Qué caso tiene

2010-05-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

Another big thanks to for Borr who identified Rogelio Naranjo as the artist of much of the work in the last post on Nexos magazine. I went searching for more of Rogelio Naranjo's work and found scans of his 1982 book Qué caso tiene at La Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo's site, where Naranjo studied. Here are some favorites:

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Many more (including some great caricatures) at la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo [link]
Rogelio Naranjo at Wikipedia (en español) [link]
Qué caso tiene at WorldCat [link] at OpenLibrary [link]

La revista Nexos

2010-05-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Nexos is a monthly cultural magazine published in Mexico City. The magazine was started in 1978, and is not related to the South American Nexos Magazine published by American Airlines. Following are some visual works from the first several issues that I found. Unfortunately, I have no information on the artists. (And once again, thank you to my beautiful graduating gf for the below translations.)

EDIT: huge thanks to Borr for identifying Rogelio Naranjo as the artist of many of the below illustrations.

"It was founded in 1978 by historian Enrique Florescano, with the idea of presenting segments of society, science, and literature in a publication that would think about and consider public life, and criticize the society and politics of Mexico. Since then, Nexus has followed the fundamental transformation of the country. During thirty years, its pages have fostered intellectual and academic debate, documenting the precariousness of the state of the Right, economic stagnation, and poverty and inequities, among other obstacles of change. As a magazine that advocates ideological diversity, Nexos has encouraged and stimulated democratic reform which makes us think that the Mexico of 1978 may have occurred in another country." -translated from the Nexos Group Facebook page

No. 1, Jan 1978 Detail, possibly by George Grosz (?) (thanks to P-E Fronning)

No. 1, Jan 1978

"Nexus desires to be what its name announces: a place of intersection and connections, a point of links for experiences and disciplines that specialization tends to segregate, and even oppose. It aspires to be a forum where problems of science and technology, economic and social research, literary essays, and historical and contemporary politics are expressed." -from Issue number 1, January 1978.

No. 2, Feb 1978 Detail

No. 2, Feb 1978, by Rogelio Naranjo

No. 4, April 1978

No. 6, June 1978

by Rogelio Naranjo

by Rogelio Naranjo

by Rogelio Naranjo

"I will only judge on personality and talent," by Rogelio Naranjo

by Rogelio Naranjo

Nexos website [link]
Image gallery of recent issues on their website [link]
Nexos Facebook group page [link]
more works are posted on my flickr page [link]

Selections from the Intl. Exhibition of Calligraphy

2010-04-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

There are already a few posts about from this incredible exhibition, including one by the great BibliOdyssey, but I couldn't help but post a few more.

Ruslan Naiden - Signs list #1 (Paper, ink, pen, 46x46 cm, 1994)

Georgy Kozubov - Expromt (Paper, ink, worn brush, pointed pen, 1989)

Georgy Kozubov - Schriftomahia (Digital copy. Original- blotting paper for lithography, watercolor, Сhinese ink, brush, metal pen, 56x46 cm, 1986)

Karin Bauer - We will find us (Wir werden uns finden) (Ink on handmade paper, 29x21 cm, 2008)

Olga Varlamova - From the choir of the Borovichsky Saint-Spirit cloister (Book sign. Color paper, ink, pointed nib, 8.9x9.05 cm, 2009)

Abdul Baki Abu Bakar - The powerful (Paper & Holbein ink, Bamboo, 92x60 cm, 2008)

Claudio Gil - et&et (Sketchbook spread. Felt marker, 33x23cm, 2006)

Zarkh Ekaterina - Beyond the circle bounds II (Poem "My city strewed with gold in autumn") (Paper, ink, pen, 42x60 cm, 2003)

Vera Evstafieva - Literature map of the St. Petersburg (for the Russia! journal) (Lettering, Adobe Photoshop, 43х28 cm, 2008)

Yury Toreev - "The snow is falling, thus drawing veil up to horizon..." (Arttext after the verse by Nakhakara Tuya) (Paper, pen, ink, 84x84 cm, 2008)

Yury Toreev - Coming (Writing on glass with a rubber brush upon wet gouache, photoprint from glass by a contact method, scanning, printer, 84x68 cm, 2003)

Pavel Semchenko - Sacred melody (Graphic, 61x61 cm)
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All images from the International Exhibition of Calligraphy's website [link]
Russia's National Union of Calligraphers [link]
BibliOdyssey's post from the same exhibition [link]
More calligraphy at BibliOdyssey [link]
A post on the exhibition at 79 Ideas [link]
The Blog Notes: A Calligraphic Journal [link]
Many great calligraphy links at Omniglot [link]

Shahnawaz Alam Ahmed - Poetry by Meer Taqi Meer, a renown poet of India (Paper, self made ink and bamboo pen, 21х29.7 cm, 2009)

Alvin Lustig miscellany

2010-04-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

Beverly Hills High School Commencement, 1942

Philately in Europe brochure, 1939

Incantation, Textile Design, 1947 [via] (see it in fabric form at Alki1's flickr ---> [link])

Christmas card, 1940

Typography Manual, Art Teacher's Association of LA, 1941 [via]

Self-Promotion broadside, 1941

Twenty-Third Commencement - Beverly Hills High School, 1940

Twenty-Fifth Commencement - Beverly Hills High School, 1942

Sheet with typographic shapes, 1939

Ninth Graphic Arts Production Yearbook, 1950

Joints for special install, at the Alvin Lustig exhibition at the A-D Gallery, 1949

Alvin Lustig's Office(?), 1951

Alvin Lustig, 1945
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The fantastic Alvin Lustig website [link]
The Alvin & Elaine Lustig Design flickr pool [link]
Articles & Texticles has a great entry on Mr. Lustig, from which several of the above images are from [link]
More of Lustig's works at the Smithsonian's collection [link]
Great bio and more works at AIGA [link]
More works at Dr. Leslie's project [link]
Books on/of Alvin Lustig's works at worldcat [link]

Chinese Book Covers

2010-03-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

While checking out my town's new rare/used book store, Logos Books, I found this book of a collection of works from China's 'Central Academy of Arts & Design'. The full (and awkwardly translated) titled is "Selections of Designing Work the Central Academy of Arts & Design, 1956-1986" by Zhong Yang, Gong Yi Mei Shu Xue Yuan and She Ji Pin Xuan. I can find no information about the book online. Here are a few of my favorite book covers from the book. I'll post some posters and record designs from the book sometime soon.

Design, Wang Xiaofei

The Selected Works of the Film songs, Chen Shaohua

Clown Hans, Yu Bingnan

Contemporaries, He Yanming

Motherland in My Heart, Wu Guanying

Time and Life, Chen Yadan

Eagle, Ci Xiangqun

Aesop's Fables, Li Meng

Wall, Yue Xin

The Timber Processing and its Utility, Kang Renping

Frontier Town, Kang Renping

Frontier Town, Ren Jianmin

The Selected Works of Zhang Henshui, Yu Bingnan

Gas Press-Container, Kang Renping

The Great Wall, He Yanming

The Spring of the Beauties, Chen Xiaohong

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Found this at my newly reopened local independent bookstore, Logos Books [link]
a few more covers are posted over at my flickr [link]
The Central Academy of Arts & Design (who put out this book) seems to be now known as "China Central Academy Of Fine Arts" [link]

From the Netherlands Architecture Institute

2010-02-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

From various collections at the Netherlands Architecture Institute's website.

City on Pampus, Megastructure, by H. Klopma and J.B. Bakema, from the architectural firm Van den Broek and Bakema, drawing, 1964 [link]

Eindhoven city expansion - an expansion model based on a regional concept, J.M. de Casseres, 1930 [link]

Utrecht Music Society, Jupiter Amans, Schipbreuk, PJ C Klaarhamer, 1924 [link]

Expansion plan for the Left Bank of the Maas - Rotterdam map, Granpré Molière, Verhagen and Kok, 1921 [link]

Spring Clothing from Schocken Store, Johan Niegeman, 1926 [link]

Cover of the magazine De 8 and Opbouw, W. la Croix, 1937 [link]

Holland America Line, W. la Croix, no date [link]

Poster for the seventh CIAM congress, Max Huber, 1949 [link]

De Stijl magazine, Theo van Doesburg, 1917 [link]

Contra-construction - Maison Particulière, Theo van Doesburg and architect Cornelis Van Eesteren, 1923 [link]

Van stoel tot stad, book, J.B. Bakema, 1964 [link]

Architecture Exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright,H. Th. Wijdeveld, 1931 [link]

City Hall on the Amstel, Wim Brusse, 1958 [link]

Rietveld, Jan Bons, 1959 [link]

Metal Workers’ Union, W. la Croix, 1927 [link]

Dwelling as an urban roof, collage, Piet Blom, 1965 [link]

Design drawing for name stamp, G.F. la Croix and J.M. van der Mey, 1906 [link]

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all images come from the Netherlands Architecture Institute's website [link]

Nikolay Pavlovich Akimov Theatre Posters

2010-02-10T20:40:00.000-08:00

I came across a worn Russian book of Nikolay Pavlovich Akimov’s theatre posters, called Teatralʹnyĭ plakat N. Akimova. The book was published in Moscow in 1963 and is now out-of-print, but can be found at a few libraries in the US, UK, and Japan. Below are some of my favorites. EDIT - Huge thanks to Ingvar for providing the below translations.

The Labyrinth

Nikolay Pavlovich Akimov (1901 – 1968) was a "Russian stage designer, director, painter and graphic artist of Ukranian birth. He studied in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) from 1915 to 1919 in an artists' workshop under Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Aleksandr Yakovlev and Vasily Shukhayev. From 1920 to 1922 he worked as a stage designer in Khar'kov (now Kharkiv). In 1923 he returned to Petrograd, where he worked as a book illustrator and stage designer at the Theatre of Musical Comedy, the Theatre of Drama and the Gor'ky Bol'shoy Theatre of Drama; he also worked in Moscow, at the Theatre of the Revolution, the Vakhtangov Theatre and the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). From 1929 he worked as a director, designing his own productions. He was the Art Director of the Leningrad Theatre of Comedy (1935-49), where the most notable productions he directed and designed were Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1938), Lope de Vega's Dog in the Manger and Widow of Valencia (1939) and Yevgeny Shvarts's The Shadow (1946), among others. From 1951 to 1955 Akimov was the artistic director of the Leningrad Soviet Theatre; Shadows (by Saltykov-Shchedrin) and The Case (by Sukhovo-Kobylin) stand out among the productions he directed and designed there. From 1955 to the end of his life he was at the Leningrad Theatre of Comedy as Artistic Director; among his best productions there were Shvarts's An Ordinary Miracle (1956) and The Dragon (1962), and Motley Stories (1960) after Chekhov."-answers.com

The Hunter, 1956

1905

Dictatorship

3 Minute Talk

The Profiteer

Night Shindy

Trees Die Upright

The Suitcase

Seat Nr. 16

The Salesmen of Glory

The Tragic Story of Hamlet the Danish Prince

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brief biography at answers.com [link]
@ worldcat [link]
more posters at Museum of Russian Poster [link]
more of his work at Russian Art & Books [link]
see more from the book at my flickr page [link]

Women, Snakes and Stalkers: South Asian book covers

2010-01-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

This is a dual post with Will, from the great A Journey Around My Skull. All of these magnificent covers come courtesy of Quinn Dombrowski's impressive South Asian books project, in which she photographs book covers from the "PK" section (Indo-Iranian languages and literatures) of the University of Chicago's Regenstein library. See more covers at her blog, Women, Snakes and Stalkers, and at her flickr. And be sure to view Will's picks here.

Thank you to @weetstraw, @Coudal, @posteroffensive who first linked me to Women, Snakes and Stalkers.

(click photos to visit the corresponding post at her blog)

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visit her blog, Women, Snakes and Stalkers [link]
also check out her flickr [link]
and her website [link]
more at A Journey Around My Skull [link]

Zenit - Зенит (1921 - 1926)

2010-01-25T14:14:00.000-08:00

"In February 1921, in Zagreb, the poet Ljubomir Micić launched Zenit, an international magazine for art and culture, as it said in the subtitle; around its zenitist poetics and aesthetics, the magazine gathered representatives of all branches of art, both in the narrow and a broader meaning of the term – of poetry, literature, fine arts, theatre, film, architecture, music – from Yugoslavia, Russia and the West. A total of 43 issues were published, containing contributions in various languages (Ivan Goll’s “The Zenitist Manifesto” was printed in German). After being published regularly for over two years, and after switching the editorial office from Zagreb to Belgrade (the last Zagreb issue, no. 24, was published in May 1923), Zenit was published irregularly, occasionally coming out in the form of a multiple issue (Zenit no. 26-33 was published as an eightfold issue). Apart from the irregularity of its publication, it was characterised by changes of format and changes in outlook in terms of pictural-graphic design.

Zenit was launched at a watershed cultural, political and historical moment: it was preceded by events such as the First World War and all its consequences, the October Revolution (its echo is felt in Branko Ve Poljanski’s “October Manifesto”, published in his authorial periodical Svetokret [Worldturn] in 1921, wherein the author draws a line from the Universe – the turning of the Earth around its axis in cosmos – to the inner, subjective revolution of the spirit), the establishment of a common state, made up of three peoples, separated until then by their immanent processes of national development, and the post-war Europe as a scene where various avant-garde groups and movements pursued their activities. Apart from this, Zenit may be viewed as a dialectical moment of provocation and a turning point in connection with the aesthetisation of the Balkans and its culture, which, until then, had not participated in the artistic and historical events of Europe on an equal footing. These external factors left their mark on the initial programme concept of the periodical, mediated through the most general of slogans about the negation of the war and the building of an international brotherhood of artists, along with a radical calling into question of the “sentry/border guard-like” and the “soldier-like” destiny of the Yugoslav people and arguing in favour of creating a new man and a new art." -Irina Subotić, from the National Library of Serbia

No. 4 - May 1921

No. 8 - October 1921

No. 10 - December 1921

No. 13 - April 1922

No. 15 - June 1922

No. 17-18. - September-October 1922

No. 19-20. - November-December 1922

No. 25 - February 1924

No. 36 - October 1925

No. 41 - May 1926

Jo Klek, advertising, ink, watercolor, 1923.

Jo Klek - collage, Zenit no. 26-33, 1924. 26-33, 1924.

Michael S. Petrov, Poster for the first Zenitovu international exhibitions, kolađ, 1924.

August Černigoj, come attraverso La Strada, collage, 1925.

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everything above comes from the National Serbian Library's Digital Collection [link]

Simplicissimus

2010-01-22T11:45:00.000-08:00

There are already a lot of illustrations from this famous German political-satire magazine floating around the blogosphere, but a few more wont hurt. Here are some of my favorites:

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see most of the issues at their amazing archive [link]
Simplicissimus at wikipedia [link]

Swiss Museum Posters

2010-01-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

All posters are from the Swiss Posters Collection (note the watermark in the bottom-right).

by Claude Kuhn; Natural History Museum of Bern, 1985 (see more by the amazing Claude Kuhn ---> [link] ---> [link])

Reopening Geology, by Claude Kuhn; Planet and Space, Natural History Museum of the Civic Community of Berne, 1991

A Voyage of Discovery, by Claudia Schmauder; Johann Jacobs Museum, 1996

Natural Garden; Natural History Museum of Lucerne, 1990

Taxidermy and other methods of animal conservation; Natural History Museum, Freiburg, 1982

Museum of Geneva, 1975(?) (more Museum of Geneva posters ---> [link])

by Ralph Schraivoge; Museum of Design Zurich, 1991

Archigram 1961-74, by Ralph Schraivogel; Museum of Design Zurich, 1995

1930-1970 Fashion; Museum Bellerive Zurich, 1982

by Ernst Keller; Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1952

Everything in motion, advancement in nature and technology; Nature Museum Lucerne, 2001

Beetles, their colors and shapes; Zoological Museum, University of Zurich, Natural History Museum of the civic community of Berne, 1996

Zaire, masks, figurines; Museum of Ethnology, Basel, 1986

Bees, Museum of Natural History, 1982

Wildlife Photography, Wildlife Biology; Natural History Museum of Lucerne, 1982

by C. Cebreros; Museum d'histoire, ville de Genève, 1998

Eskimo Archeology of Alaska; Historical Museum of Bern, 1977

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all posters from the Swiss Posters Collection [link]

Lumpenball Flyers by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert

2009-12-29T16:10:00.000-08:00

'Lumpenball' is a popular(?) type of ball in Germany where guests come dressed in ragged and tattered clothes.

2. Lumpenball am Fastnachtssonntag im Industriehof (Second Ragged Clothes Ball on Carnival Sunday at the Industriehof), c. 1925

An die Freunde des Lumpenballs!! Das Sommerfest der progressiven Künstler ist am Samstag den 14. Juli (To the Friends of the Ragged Clothes Ball!! The Progressive Artists Summer Party Is on Saturday, July 14), 1928

Da ist er wieder Hurra der Lumpenball No 1 im Dekke Tommes am Samstag, den 19. Januar (There It Is Again The Ragged Clothes Ball No. 1 at the Dekke Tommes on Saturday, January 19), 1929

Wo verbringen Sie die kurzen Tage? Der Lumpenball ist Fastnachtssamstag Fastnachtsmontag Fastnachtsdienstag am Dekke Tommes (Where Do You Spend the Short Days? The Ragged Clothes Ball is on Carnival Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday at the Dekke Tommes), 1930

Der erste Lumpenball ist am Samstag den 17. Januar (The First Ragged Clothes Ball Is on Saturday January 17), 1931

Der 2te Lumpenball ist am Samstag den 31. Januar (The Second Ragged Clothes Ball Is on Saturday, January 31), 1931

3x Lumpenball (Three Times Ragged Clothes Ball), 1931

Der Lumpenball das Fest der progressiven Künstler ist am Samstag den 16. Januar, No 20 (The Ragged Clothes Ball, Party of the Progressive Artists, is on Saturday, January 16, No. 20), 1932

Lumpenball No 22, 23, 24- Die Fester der Progressiven Künstler (Ragged Clothes Ball Nos. 22, 23, 24- A Party for Progressive Artists), c. 1932

Der Lumpenball in Silber, der 25. Lumpenball am 28. Januar (The Ragged Clothes Ball in Silver, The Twenty-fifth Ball on January 28), 1933

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More of Franz Wilhelm Seiwert's works at the MOMA's website [link]

Elaine Lustig Cohen

2009-12-28T19:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday TheSilverLining posted some great links to Elaine Lustig Cohen works. Here are some more of her works that I have not seen posted elsewhere.

A Type Specimen page, 1950

"Elaine Lustig Cohen (b. 1927) is the pioneering female graphic designer who incorporated the aesthetic vocabulary of European modernism into American graphic design, during the 1950s and 1960s. After training as a painter, she developed her design skills working with Alvin Lustig (whom she married in 1948). Following Lustig's premature death in 1955, she took control of the studio and between 1955 and 1961 produced a distinctive series of covers for publishing houses Meridan Books and New Directions. With their strong concepts, abstract forms and typographic invention, they represented a break from the prevailing tradition of pictorial illustration in book-jacket design. Her ability to summarize the content of text in the cover design was further aided when, working for architects including Eero Saarinen and Philip Johnson she produced signage schemes intended to express a building's character. She designed many posters and catalogues for New York-based arts organizations, including the American Center for the Arts, the Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Jewish Museum. She married Arthur A. Cohen, publisher of Meridian Books; in 1973, they established Ex Libris, New York, a bookshop and gallery specializing in rare volumes of the European avant-garde. In 1995 her contribution to graphic design was acknowledge by an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York." (Livingston, 2003, 51). She continues to paint and create dynamic graphic collage-based work and is represented by Julie Saul Gallery, New York. Elaine Lustig Cohen donated her collection to RIT in 2008. " -Graphic Design Archive Online

7th Annual Purim Ball, The Jewish Museum, 1963

Hans Hoffman, 1997

Primary Structures: Younger American & British Sculptors, 1966

Literature in America, 1957

The Philosophy of Spinoza, 1958

The Federalist, 1961

Dangling Man, 1959

Max Ernst: Sculpture and Recent Painting, The Jewish Museum, 1966

Jonathan Edwards, 1959

Silver and Judaica Collection, The Jewish Museum, 1963

The Recollections of Alexis De Tocqueville, 1958

The Ideal Reader, 1997

The Disinherited Mind, 1958

Joseph Conrad, 1947 (co-designed with Alvin Lustig)

The Book of Jazz, 1958

Philosophy in the Middle Ages, 1959

Scenes From the Drama of European Literature, 1959

Jerusalem and Rome: The Writings of Josephus, 1960

Clear Writing, 1959

God and the Way of Knowning, 1957

Artists and Enemies - Three Novelas, 1997

New Year's Party Invitation, 1958

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see more of Elaine Lustig Cohen's book covers @ Scott Lindberg's excellent flickr page [link]
and at Graphic Design Archive Online [link]
also see thesilverlining's post which inspired me to finally post these [link]
there are a few more of her works at my flickr page [link]
and even more works at Julie Saul Gallery [link]

¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!

2009-11-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

Muerte en cruceta; by Lola Cueto, 1947

La bohemia de la muerte; anonymous, 1958

El crepusculo de la noche, in Tricolor no. 35; July-August 1924

El Hospital Juárez - (Ironia); by Carlos Neve, 1951

detail of Calaveras televisiosas todo por un hoyito; by Leopoldo Méndez and Mariana Yampolsky, 1949

Levantaos de sus fosas, calaveras, que aquí se halla el mayor de los troneras; by Manuel Manilla, 1971

Levantaos de sus fosas, calaveras, que aqui se halla el mayor de los troneras, by Manuel Manilla, 1904

from Veinte años de vida del Taller de Gráfica Popular; Andrea Gómez, 1957

by Julio Ruelas, 1903

from L'ABC no 15; by José Clemente Orozco, November, 1 1925

from Don Timorato no. 19; by Hector Ramírez, Ram, November 3 1944

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all images are from the stunning book La muerte en el impreso mexicano / Images of Death in Mexican Prints by Mercurio López Casillas [link]
for more prints see Doce Palabras excellent post 'Diálogo con los muertos' [link]
also see Morbid Anatonmy's 'La Portentosa Vida de la Muerte (The Astounding Life of Death)' post on Joaquin Bolaños [link]

Avant-garde's Letterhead

2009-10-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

The following are from Elaine Lustig Cohen and Ellen Lupton's book Letters from the Avant Garde: Modern Graphic Design, most of which came from Elaine Lustig Cohen's personal collection. Elaine Lustig Cohen was an excellent artist/designer [more on that in a later post] who was married to the great Alvin Lustig. She and her second husband, author/publisher Arthur Cohen, began collecting letterhead in the 1970s for their Ex Libris gallery, but the letters rarely sold. Although collectors at the time tended to view them as unimportant, they offer an unique and personal perspective into many of the most important artistic movements of the early twentieth century.
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"A global network of avant-garde movements flourished during the first half of the twentieth century, connecting artist and designers across Europe and the United States. Written correspondence, presented on dramatically designed stationery, was a vital part of the infrastructure of this international community. Artist and designers translated concepts from painting, poetry, and architecture onto the commercial format of the letterhead, creating, in effect, ‘corporate identities’ for modernism. Stationery for Futurism, Dada, De Stijl, the Bauhaus, and other groups and institutions served as typographic manifestos for the avant-garde. Some of the works drew on the normative conventions of commercial stationery – often with a flash of irony – while others reflected new concepts of typographic rationality." - Ellen Lupton

Bruno Munari, Mazzotti. Italy, 1934

FT Martinetti, drawing by Giacomo Ball, Movimento Futurista. Rome, 1939

Fortunato Depero, Depero. Italy (Trentino), c. 1927 (Collection Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Santa Monica)

Anonymous, Fernando Cervelli. Rome, 1932 (Collection Getty Center for the History of Arts and the Humanities, Santa Monica)

Tristan Tzara, MoUvEmEnT DADA. Paris c. 1918

Johannes Baader and Raoul Hausmann, Club Dada postcard. Berlin, c. 1919

Anonymous, Cause Le Surréalism (a Surrealist association). Paris, 1940s

Benjamin Péret. Paris (Collection W Michael Sheehe, New York)

Alexander Rodchenko, Dobrolet State Merchant Air Service. Moscow, 1923

El Lissitzky. Moscow, 1924

El Lissitzky, Vesc/Object/Gegenstand. Berlin, 1922 (from the collection of Hans Berndt, Germany)

Theo Van Doesburg, De Stijl NB postcard. Netherlands (The Hague and Leiden), 1920

Piet Zwart, Wij Nu Experimenteel Tooneel. The Hague, 1925

Piet Zwart, Laga-Compangnie. The Hague, 1922

Thon De Does, Reclame Ontwerper. Rotterdam, 1930

Josef Peeters, Het Overzicht postcard. Antwerp, 1923

Kurt Schwitters, Merz Werbezentrale envelope. Hanover, 1924

Joost Schmidt, Das Bauhaus in Dessau postcard. Dessau, 1925-26

Herbert Bayer, Ernst Kraus Glasmaler Weimar. Weimar, 1924 (Collection W Michael Sheehe, New York)

E McKnight Kauffer, Lumium Limited. London, 1935 (Collection Cooper-Hewitt, Nat. Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution)

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all images from Elaine Lustig Cohen and Ellen Lupton's book Letters from the Avant Garde: Modern Graphic Design [link]
also see the blog Billheads & Receipts [link]
David A Bontrager has a remarkable collection of trucking company letterhead [link]
letterhead at amassblog [link]
Insurance Letterhead and Covers [link]

More from the 1905-1906 Russian Underground Press

2009-10-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

A few months back I posted images from 1905-1906 Russian revolutionary periodicals that I found at Yale University’s digital library. Recently I (accidentally) came across a related book called Blood and Laughter: Caricatures from the 1905 Revolution that contains more illustrations of the 1905-1906 Russian underground press.

from Leshii (Woodgoblin) No. 2, 1906

"Sunday 9 January 1905: Hundreds of thousand of workers assemble in the streets of St Petersburg. They are in their Sunday best and accompanied by their elderly relatives and children. There are no banners or slogans though some carry icons or church emblems, for this is to be a peaceful demonstration led by an Orthodox priest, Father Gapon. They set off for the Winter Palace, bearing to the Tsar their petition for a constitution. ‘Sire!!’ it reads. ‘We workers have come to you to seek justice and protection. We are in great poverty, we are oppressed and weighed down with labors beyond our strength. We are insulted, we are not recognized as human beings…’

For two cold hours they stand waiting in the snow for Tsar Nicholas to appear and receive their petition. A shot rings out, and they stamp their feet. Another, and they laugh that it must be blanks. A third, and suddenly women and children slump lifeless int eh snow. Still they assure themselves that this must be a mistake, for the Tsar would not shoot down unarmed civilians. But now the gendarmes are galloping in the crowd, and the slaughter has begun. The shooting continues all day long. The dead are counted in the hundreds, the wounded in the thousands, their blood spilt on the Schlusselberg Highway, the Troitsky Bridge and the Nevsky Gates. But the police cart away the bodies so quickly that it is impossible to know the full toll.

Bloody Sunday killed superstition, the old faith in a just Tsar, and unleashed a tumultuous rage among the masses. Father Gapon was soon forgotten, ‘his priestly rode’, wrote Trotsky, ‘a mere prop in the drama whose true protagonist was the proletariat’. A huge wave of strikes swept the country, paralyzing more than 100 towns and drawing in a million men and women. Throughout the summer peasants rioted while terrorists struck at figures of authority.

Alongside the struggle in street and factory was the struggle for the free press. Ministers and clerics suffered assassination more by the pen than the bullet as the revolution strove for the expression of powerful emotions long suppressed. A flood of satirical journals poured from the presses, honouring the dead and vilifying the might. Drawings of frenzied immediacy and extraordinary technical virtuosity were combines with prose and verse written in a popular underground language, veiled in allegory, metaphor and reference to the past.

Russia had a rich history of satirical journalism. In the 1770s, in the reign of Katherine the Great, an elite of intellectuals close to the court developed a new ‘aesopian’ language – deeply subversive to the enlightened autocracy – to express their opposition to the old regime. The satire of the court flourished until the shadow of revolution in Europe drove the Empress to suppress it. Again in the 1860s highly popular satirical journals sprang up, drawing consciously on their courtly predecessors to curse the Crimean War and Tsar Alexander II’s empty promises of reform. While populist revolutionaries went ‘to the people’ to make common causes with the peasants, radical journalist set out to collect folk-stories, popular sayings, soldiers’ songs and workers’ ballads. The old allegorical vocabulary was joined to the language of popular satire. By the 1870s these journals has been closed down, but this language was now part of the everyday speech. Satirical writing returned to the underground, where it flourished, rooted in popular protest, until 1905. It was then that satire achieved its full power.

Fore a few brief months the journals spoke with a great and unprecedented rage that neither arrest nor exile could silence. At first their approach was oblique, their allusions veiled, and they often fell victim to the censor’s pencil. But people had suffered censorship for too long. Satirist constantly expanded their territory and their targets of attack, demolishing one obstacle after another as they went, thriving on censorship. The workers’ movement grew in boldness, culminating in the birth of the St Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Deputies, the people’s government. For fifty days the Tsar and his ministers were confronted by another power, another law. Journalist and printers seized the right to publish without submitting to the censor. The satirical journals then reached their apotheosis, until the revolution died as it had risen, bathed in blood.

More clearly than any party resolution or government proclamation, the caricatures of 1905 tell the story of that heroic failure – and they are a symptom of that failure too…they chronicle with incredible vividness that moment of the transition from Tsarist despotism to Bolshevik revolution." -by Cathy Porter, from Images of Revolution: Graphic Art from 1905 Russia

from K Svetu (Towards the Light) No. 3 1906

"In the State Duma. 'Interpellation'"by Alexander Kudinov. Leshii No. 1, 1906

from K Svetu (Towards the Light) No 2, 1906

Strana Mechty (Land of Dreams) No. 1, 1906

"The Moscow Vampire" - Volshebny Fonar No. 2, 1906 (depiction of Governor-General Fedor Vasilevich Dubasov)

from Kosa No. 4, 1906

from Pchela No. 3, 1906

from Zarnitsy No. 8, 1906 (Witte and Durnovo burning the books)

Krasny Smekh (Red Laughter) No. 2 1906, by Boris Kustodiev

Satiricheskoe Obozrenie (Satirical Review) No. 1, 1906

"The Triumphant Pig" - Maski (Masks) No. 8, 1906

"The Treacherous Neva Reflected Everything" - Volshebny Fonar (Magic Lantern). No. 1, 1906

"Christmas Tree" - Burelom (Storm-Wood), Christmas 1905

"31 December 1905" Burelom (Storm-Wood), Christmas 1905. Facing is Drubasov, the Governor-General of Moscow and organizer of the suppression of the Moscow uprising, and Prime Minister Witte is shown with his back turned, playing with death.

from Zarevo (Dawn) No. 3, 1906

from Zarnitsy (Summer Lightning) No. 1, 1906

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All of the images come from David King and Cathy Porter's Blood and Laughter : Caricatures From the 1905 Revolution [link]
I haven't yet got my hands on it but David King and Cathy Porter also published Images of Revolution: Graphic Art from 1905 Russia [link]
also, once again, see Yale University's collection at Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library [link]
my previous post on the subject [link]
see Trixie Treat's post on the journals [link]

Relating to Quacks, Quackery and Nostrums, Part 1

2009-10-06T22:21:00.000-07:00

"Quack is a pejorative term, disparagingly, albeit sometimes defensively, applied by a member of the establishment, the orthodox, regular, professional, credentialed and accepted class to describe the unorthodox, unlicensed, disapproved member of a fringe or irregular group. It is a term of condemnation employed when one wants to belittle another. Above all, the term has become associated with the sellers of medicines and the marketers of medical systems, those with the "true" method of curing specific ills or, in an earlier day, all the ills of mankind.

While the origins of the term are obscure, the term "quack" probably came from the Dutch Quacksalber, a charlatan, mountebank, empiric or itinerant seller of medicine. It may also have been derived from the sounds made by a duck, the term applied to the hawker of nostrums whose excessive zeal in describing the merits of his or her cure may well have sounds similar to the squawking of a duck. The chatter of the quack, in most cases more like torrent s of words, would have been familiar to both town and rural populations even in the ancient periods, for quacks have long been well known in every society. Over the past four hundred years they have been representative figures in folktales, stories and especially in prints, drawings and political caricatures..." –William H. Helfand, from Quack Quack Quack

Detail from "Quid hic nobis lumine satium", c. 1670, Anonymous

Detail from advertisement for Dr. Rock's Tincture, 1738, Anonymous

"The Dance of Death: the Undertaker and the Quack." 1816, by Thomas Rowlandson (from Wellcome Library)

"Nancy Linton: A faithful representation of her actual appearance & condition after having been cured by the use of Swann's Panacea", c. 1833, by C Hullmandel (from a drawing by WH Kearney)

"Singular Effects of the Universal Vegetable Pills on a Green Crocer! A Fact!", 1841, by Charles Jameson Grant

Detail from "The Great Lozenge Maker", 1858, by John Leech - from Punch

"Dr S.B. Collins' Painless Opium Antidote" Advertisement, 1874

"Quackery - Medical Minstrel Performing for the Benefit of Their Former Patients - No other Dead-heads Admitted", 1879, by Joseph Keppler - from Puck

"Death's-Head Doctors - Many Paths to the Grave", 1881, by Joseph Keppler - from Puck

Detail of "Death's-Head Doctors - Many Paths to the Grave", 1881, by Joseph Keppler - from Puck

Detail of "Death's-Head Doctors - Many Paths to the Grave", 1881, by Joseph Keppler - from Puck

"Death in the Pestle", c. 1885, by Henry Nappenbach - from The Wasp

Detail of "Death in the Pestle", c. 1885, by Henry Nappenbach - from The Wasp

"The Travelling Quack", 1889, by Tom Merry

An itinerant medicine vendor known as Medicine Jack carrying his wares in a knapsack on his back. (from Wellcome Library)

"William Radam, Microbes and the Microbe Killer", 1890

"The Great American Fraud, an investigative article by Samuel Hopkins Adams", 1907

Quack advertisement for the cure of cancer, 1912 (from Wellcome Library)

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Unless noted all of these come from Quack, Quack, Quack: The Sellers of Nostrums in Prints, Posters, Ephemera, & Books by William Helfand - @ Open Library [link]
Wellcome Library has a good collection of quackery related images [link]
The excellent blog The Quack Doctor [link]
The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices [link]
see the blog Quack Cogitations [link]
Quack cartoons at cartoonstock [link]
BBC slideshow: Quacks and Cures [link]

Year of the Monkey Postcards

2009-09-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

About a week ago Amy at Aqua Velvet posted some remarkable Japanese Postcards from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Here are more Japanese postcards from the same collection, all related to the Year of the Monkey ( ).

Monkey Trainer from Towa shinpo, Ogawa Usen, 1908

"Born 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968, 1956, 1944, 1932, 1920, 1908. People born in the year of the Monkey are the erratic geniuses of the Zodiac cycle. They are clever and skillful in grand-scale operations and are smart when making financial deals. They are inventive, original and are able to solve the most difficult problems with ease." -Namiko Abe, about.com

The Monkey in Morning Suit of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932

The Monkey Celebrating with Ozoni of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932

The Monkey's Baseball of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932

The Monkey's Rugby of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932

The Monkey Pounding Rice (Osaru no mochitsuki) of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932

The Monkey's Playing Ball (Osaru no hogan nage) of New Year's cards, unknown artist, 1932

Monkey and Crab, Takahashi Haruka, 1932

Three Monkeys with Spade Shape Motifs, Takahashi Haruka, 1932

Monkey in the Guise of a Shinto Priest, Takahashi Haruka, 1932

Takahashi Haruka, 1932

Takahashi Haruka, 1932

Takahashi Haruka, 1932

Takahashi Haruka, 1932

Takahashi Haruka, 1932 [?]

Three Monkeys: See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, Takahashi Haruka, 1932

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Boston's Museum of Fine Arts Japanese Postcards Collection [link]
Information about the Year of the Monkey in the Japanese Zodiac @ about [link]

Collages of Wilfried "Sätty" Podriech

2009-09-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

I first saw the work of Wilfried "Sätty" Podriech a few weeks back at the California History Museum, which was showing his collages of Gold Rush illustrations. They were surreal and fantastic and I went hunting for more. Here are some of my favorites of his work (that I couldn't already find online) from his books Time Zone and The Cosmic Bicycle.

"Sätty (Wilfried Podriech) was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1939. As a child he played in the ruins of the city, which was heavily bombed during World War Two. After three years of apprenticeship in mechanical engineering, he worked in Canada, then moved to San Francisco in 1961. For a few years he worked as a steward on the Pacific cruise ships of the Matson Line, and later as a heating and ventilating systems designer.

In San Francisco he lived in North Beach, and associated with artists and bohemians of the Beat Generation. Since childhood he had demonstrated artistic potential. In 1966, inspired by the openness and creativity of San Francisco’s emergent Hippie culture, he began making pictorial collages. Some of these were sold as poster size prints, which were then very popular. He became a prolific artist, concerned with fine technique and with expression of the broadest range of human experience. He intended his art to engage the imagination and counteract the pernicious stimulus-response programming of media advertising.

Sätty created many colorful artworks and lithographic prints, and hundreds of black and white collages. During the 1970s many were used as illustrations in both the counter culture and establishment periodicals. He produced two collage books, The Cosmic Bicycle and Time Zone, a pictorial allegory. He created illustrations for the comprehensive treatise, The Annotated Dracula and for The Illustrated Edgar Allen Poe, a book of stories he selected. During the late 1970s until his death in 1982, he produced numerous collages inspired by events in San Francisco’s often dramatic, unruly history, from the Gold Rush to the 1890s. Many of these occasionally bizarre images have recently been published in Visions of Frisco, by Regent Press, Berkeley.

In a review of Sätty’s art, S.F. Chronicle art critic Thomas Albright stated, “His work evidenced his Germanic roots with a somber, dreamlike realm of utopian, surrealist fantasy spiced by disarming accents of the bizarre and grotesque.” His art has been exhibited in many galleries and museums, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the National Museum of Art, Belgrade; and the National Museum, Warsaw."
-by Walter Medeiros, The Archive of Counter Culture Art. (via I Want You Magazine)

from The Cosmic Bicycle (1971) -

from Time Zone (1973) -

not a collage, but an illustration from The Annotated Dracula (1975) that I can't help but post -

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Information, interviews, articles, and exhibition at zpub [link]
John Coulthart has writen about Sätty on his great blog feuilleton and in Strange Attractor Journal Vol. 2, which you can buy here.
Sätty @ I Want You magazine [link]
posters of/by Sätty @ Wolfgangs Vault [link]
album covers by Sätty 1, 2, 3, 4
more Sätty at the excellent blog The Cabinet of the Solar Plexus [link]
Prayer and Ode for Satty by Alan Cohen [link]
Sätty is Dead essay by Michael Bowen [link]
Visions of Frisco @worldcat @amazon; The Cosmic Bicycle @worldcat; Time Zone @worldcat; The Illustrated Edgar Allan Poe @worldcat @amazon; The Annotated Dracula @worldcat, @amazon

George Cooke Caricatures

2009-09-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

George Cooke was a caricatures artist who drew Edwardian music hall performers for the Grand Theatre of Varieties, in Hanley Worcestershire. He compiled them in a series of albums.

This is the frontispiece for the first of several albums of caricatures of music hall performers by George Cooke. The Dame figure in a roundel is probably a caricature of Cooke himself. The performers below represent the comedian Edwin Boyde, right, and the mimic Leo Tell, left. [link]

Carl Hertz, or Leib Morgenstern, when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 9 January 1905. He was billed as ‘The Famous Carl Hertz. In his gigantic show of Marvellous Illusions and Surprises. The most elaborate and sensational conjuring show ever presented. Assisted by Mlle. Dalton’. His acts at Hanley included making a birdcage and canary disappear and discovering the canary in the pocket of an audience member. He also performed there the ‘mystifying movements of a clock dial, which stops at any time spectators may desire, and records the numbers of a throw of a dice before the dice have actually been used’. [link]

Juno Salmo, ‘The Golden Mephisto’, when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley. This was either during the week of 2 January 1905 or 16 April 1906. The contortionist Juno Salmo was known as the homme grenouille or ‘frog-man’ when he performed in Paris with the Nouveau Cirque in a frog costume. He dislocated his shoulders, hopped around the aquatic part of the ring and did acrobatic contortions on a trapeze that appeared to be made of bamboo. He is seen here doing a similar act, but balancing on a pole dressed as a yellow devil. [link]

Comedian Edwin Boyde performing the sketch ‘Bread and Jam’ at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 12 December 1904. He was billed enthusiastically as ‘London’s Greatest Comedian’. From all the principal London music halls’. [link]

The Three Meers when they were performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 17 October 1904. They were billed as ‘An Eccentric Wire Act. Fifteen Minutes of Continuous Laughter’. [link]

Woody Kelly as a whiskered tramp character. He was performing at the Grand Theatre, Hanley, during the week of 10 June 1907. The act was billed as ‘Kelly and Gilette in the sketch “Fun in a Billiard Room”’. [link]

Dr Carl Hermann when he was topping the bill at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 26 February 1906. He was billed as ‘The Man who Tamed Electricity! The Human Resistance Coil! The Modern Miracle Worker! Hypnotist! Electrician! Scientist! Performs the Feat of Passing over 10,000 Volts of Electricity Through his Body! The Sensation of the Century! Doctor Amazed! Scientists Puzzled!’. [link]

Comedian Will Manning of Manning’s Entertainers. He was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 19 December 1904. The company had appeared there the previous March, and now they were billed as ‘The Welcome Return of Manning’s Entertainers in the Convulsing Carnival of Uproarious Mishaps’. [link]

Comedian George Gilbey when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 26 December 1904. He was billed as ‘Mr George Gilbey. From the Principal London Variety Theatres’. [link]

Caricature of the contortionist George Antill, who performed at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 15 August 1904. He was billed as ‘Comedian. The Evening Shadow’. [link]

Morris & Morris when they were performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 1 August 1904. They were billed as ‘a pair of real good comedians’. When they appeared previously at the Grand in September 1903, the review noted that, ‘Their fun in the trapeze is equal to anything that has been seen here’. [link]

Comic duo Burns & Evans performing spoof acrobatics at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 8 August 1904. They were billed as ‘American comedians, as Alfonso and Gasten in "Funnambulism" [link]

Caricature of the American performer Wieland when he was topping the bill at the Hippodrome, Stoke-on-Trent, during the week of 24 July 1905. He was billed as ‘The Great Wieland. America’s Foremost Comedy Juggler’. [link]

Sam Mayo, ‘The Immobile One’, when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 29 May 1905. He was billed as ‘the Original Immobile Comedian’. [link]
And here is a 1922 song that I very much enjoy by Sam Mayo, called Things Are Worse In Russia

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all of these come from the Victoria and Albert Museum [link]

Japanese Postcards of the Russo-Japanese War

2009-08-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

"By the early twentieth century, convergent Russian and Japanese imperial ambitions in the Far East reached the boiling point over Manchuria. In February 1904 Japan attacked and sank much of the Russian Pacific Fleet anchored off Port Arthur. Weakened by successive and humiliating defeats that helped spawn the 1905 revolution, the Russians accepted U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s offer of mediation, as did the exhausted Japanese. Representatives of the two sides met in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in September 1905, where they signed the Treaty of Portsmouth. Under the terms of the agreement, Russia was forced to give up many of its earlier gains in Manchuria and the Far East." -Library of Congress

Side View of Temple Building with Red Sky Background

Balloon with Japanese Flag in the Sky

Sinking Russian Naval Boat

Red Explosion Motif and Silver Lines

Rising Sun, Cherry Blossoms, and Eagle

Danger Off Port Arthur

The Fall of the Variag

Letter from the Front

Nurse and Soldiers

Nurse Looking Over a Wounded Soldier

School Girls' Banzai

News Runners Rushing in with the Latest

Newspaper Man Rushing in the Latest

Newboys in Fight

Newsboy Selling Extras

Crowds Gathering to Read the News (by Hashimoto Kunisuke)

Children Holding Japanese and Russian Flags

Sailor

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"The Russo-Japanese War coincided with the emergence of picture postcards as a global phenomenon. Photographers, artists, illustrators, flat-out propagandists—all suddenly possessed, in these engaging little mass-produced graphics, a new vehicle for reaching a huge popular audience.

International postal conventions made it possible to circulate these images globally. Collecting postcards became a modest way to become cosmopolitan without much expense, and the war between Japan and Russia provided the first dramatic international spectacle for postcard manufacturers to focus on in common. Admiral Tōgō’s surprise attack triggered a postcard boom—not just in Japan but around the world.

This new mode of expression attracted many of the nation’s talented artists, including some who were or would become well known. The postcards themselves became ephemeral little works of art as well as little gems of propaganda.

This makes Japanese postcards of the Russo-Japanese War interesting in their own right, but this is just the half of it. Because Russia was also producing postcards of the war, and not only Russia but also France, England, Germany, Italy, and the United States, the great “war in the Far East” of 1904-1905 is the first modern war we can revisit, in a compact and manageable way, from a truly multi-national perspective.

We can literally “see,” through thousands of fixed-format images (postcards have remained the same size to the present day), what people throughout the world were being offered as a mirror to the war and all that it portended." -John W. Dower, MIT's Visualizing Cultures [link]

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all of these come from MIT's beautiful Visualizing Cultures collections [link]
also see the accompanying collection Yellow Promise / Yellow Peril, a collection of foreign postcards from the war [link]
another related collection of woodblock prints from the war [link]
an essay by John W. Dower about the war and these postcards (with more postcards) [link]
for more information and resources on the war visit the impressive Russo-Japanese War Research Society website [link]
LOC's Russian-Japanese Relations in the Far East [link]
Strange Maps Russo-Japanese War Cartoons post [link]
About Postcards post Russo-Japanese War Military Propaganda Postcard [link]

Theatre Magazine

2009-08-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

Founded in 1900 as a pictorial quarterly called Our Players, it changed its name to The Theatre in May of 1901 when it became a monthly edited by Arthur Hornblow. Subsequently it was known as Theatre Magazine or simply Theatre. It became the finest of popular monthlies devoted to the theatre, as opposed to the more intellectual Theatre Arts, and survived for exactly thirty years, closing after its April 1931 issue. -Answers.com

November 1906

August 1921

October 1921

January 1922

January 1924

Febuary 1924

April 1924

July 1927

March 1929

April 1930

June 1930

October 1930

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most of these covers come from magazineart.org [link]
you can view more at finsbry's fabulous flickr page [link]
several more are at the always great Art Deco [link]
more at Gallery Direct Art [link]
thirty or so editions can be read at the Internet Achieve [link]

Programs of Boar's Head Dramatic Society

2009-08-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

"The Boar's Head Dramatic Society of Syracuse University was initiated by a small group of students in the spring of 1903. This group recognized the need for an on-campus organization that was solely committed to all aspects of dramatic production. Their plans did not get underway, however, until 1904 when -- still affiliated with the English Club -- they presented "King Lear" in Syracuse, Rochester and Auburn, under the direction of Professor Frederick D. Losey.

On February 9th, 1906, "Boar's Head" was adopted as the official name of the newly founded organization. This name was chosen in honor of the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap, London, 'favorite resort of Falstaff, Prince Hal and their companions' in Shakespeare's Henry IV.

Boar's Head eventually faded out in the late 1960's, but produced over 200 plays in its sixty year run. Dramatic activities continue at Syracuse University, but no longer under the auspices of Boar's Head." -Syracuse University archives

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The Great Gatsby - April 3 1928

Time Out - May 11 1931

Life Goes to College - February 14-18 1939

Long Live Love - April 6 1949

The Bourgeois Gentleman - March 14 1950

The Red Rose and the Briar - April 11-18 1951

Some Faint Star - April 2-5 1952

Gigi - April 26-30 1954

Same old faces - November, December 1955

Lysistrata - May 12-15 1954

Othello - February, March 1960

Rashomon - March 17-19 1966

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& a few of my favorite ads from the programs...

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all of these come from Syracuse University's digital archives [link]

Film Poster Paintings from Ghana

2009-08-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

In the 1980s video cassette technology made it possible for “mobile cinema” operators in Ghana to travel from town to town and village to village creating temporary cinemas. The touring film group would create a theatre by hooking up a TV and VCR onto a portable generator and playing the films for the people to see.

In order to promote these showings, artists were hired to paint large posters of the films (usually on used canvas flour sacks). The artists were given the artistic freedom to paint the posters as they desired - often adding elements that weren’t in the actual films, or without even having seen the movies. When the posters were finished they were rolled up and taken on the road (note the heavy damages). The “mobile cinema” began to decline in the mid-nineties due to greater availability of television and video; as a result the painted film posters were substituted for less interesting/artistic posters produced on photocopied paper.

The artistic freedom that these artists were given allowed for the creation of some very interesting and sometimes bizarre posters that, as screenwriter Walter Hill wrote, were quite often “more interesting than the films.”

Most of these posters come from the book Extreme Canvas: Movie Poster Paintings from Ghana that Will from A Journey Around My Skull linked me to. The rest were found online at the below links.

Cujo (Lewis Teague, 1983)

The Terminator 2 (James Cameron, 1991)

Deadly Prey (David A. Prior, 1987)

Evil Dead II (Sam Raimi, 1987)

Demonic Toys (Peter Manoogian, 1992)

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (Brian Gibson, 1986)

Eaten Alive (Tobe Hooper, 1977)

The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert, 1977)

Sleepwalkers (Mick Garris, 1992)

House Party (Reginald Hudlin, 1990)

Dolly Dearest (Maria Lease, 1991)

Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (James D.R. Hickox, 1995)

The Stolen Bible 2 (Emeka Nwabueze, 2004)

Monster Evil Protact [?]

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Extreme Canvas: Movie Poster Paintings from Ghana by Ernie Wolfe, Ernie Wolfe III, John Yau, Roy Sieber - worldcat [link] amazon [link]
GhanaMoviePosters.com [link]
Killers of Canvas @ the Dutch Poster Museum [link]
online exhibition at Rene Wanner's Poster Page [link]

The Cornell Widow

2009-08-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

The Cornell Widow was a humorous student-ran magazine at Cornell University. It was first published on October 4, 1894 and continued until financial problems shut it down in 1962. The magazine's name comes from the term "college widow" who was "the girl who bowled over class after class of freshmen without really landing one." Although much of the humor is dated (and sometimes offensive), it offers a very interesting view into the times and events during which it was published. The Widow's artwork was very often remarkable, but unfortunately many of the best designed issues are still very difficult to find.
I dug several of these covers from various places online [see below] and the rest are scans from the misleadingly titled book The Cornell Widow Hundredth Anniversary Anthology: 1894-1994 (as said above The Widow ended in 1962 and this anthology was actually published in 1981 - the title was a humorous response to the 100 year anthology of The Widow's rival The Cornell Daily Sun).

April 1916

November 6, 1922

January 22, 1923

February 1923

Easter - March 31, 1923

December 1923

November 1925 by Waleter S Beecher

February 1926

March 26, 1926

Christmas 1927

May 24, 1928

May 1942 by Walter McQuade

March 1952 by Walt Kelly

March 1949 by Richard Koppe

by Charles C. Porter

1906-1908

1927-1928

& a few from the inside:

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several covers (though surprisingly not more) can be viewed online at Cornell University's Rare Book and Manuscript Collections [link]
the anthology and several issues at amazon [link]
a bound collection of 1922-1923 issues (with pictures) on ebay [link]
several issues for sale (with pictures) at Ruby Lane [link]

Magician Souvenir Programs

2009-08-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Floyds: Magic and Mystery (1900s)

Boughton (1907)

Ray Newton: Mystic Entertainer (1910)

Floyd (1910s)

Bennett Springer: Conjurer (1911)

Duval-Baldi Company (1920s)

Marlo the Great (Cleveland - The Britton Printing Co., 1920s)

Laurant: The Man of Many Mysteries (1920s)

Dr. Harlan Tarbell: World Famous Teacher of Magicians (1930)

Reno: Master of Magic (1930s)

Walden: In Mighty Marvels of the Magic World (Columbus, Ohio - The Capitol Printing Company)

Durno: In the White House of Magic

Durno: In the White House of Magic

Marco the Wizard in Marco Company Magicians

Totten : Magic, Illusions, Impersonations (Hamilton, Ohio - Brown & Whittaker Printers)

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these are from the University of Iowa's fantastic Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century - [link] @LOC [link]

Tibetan Anatomical Paintings

2009-07-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

These Tibetan medical tangkas were "painted by the Nepalese tangka artist Romio Shrestha and his Tibetan, Nepalese, and Bhutanese students in Kathmandu during seven years in the late 1980's and early 1990's."

The Face of Impermanence

Images of Impermanence

Cadaver

Vulnerable Points

The Inner Mandala

Chakras and Energy Channels

Chakras and Energy Channels

Topographical Lines of Channels

"Thangkas illustrations of the points of the body associated with bloodletting, moxibustion and minor surgery, differentiated, respectively, by the use of the colors blue, yellow and red."

Bloodletting Channels

Dzogchen Channels

Cranial Physiognomy

Anatomy of Light

Anatomical Grids

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some of these illustrations come from the book The Tibetan Art of Healing by Ian A. Baker - worldcat [link] Powell's books [link] - amazon [link]
others (along with many more) are from the American Museum of Natural History's collection "Body & Spirit: Tibetan Medical Paintings" [link]
Romio Shrestha's website [link]

Lebanese Political Posters

2009-07-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

EDIT: Thank you to Aline for identifying Seta Manoukian as the author of the second 'Progressive Socialist Party' poster below.

The Progressive Socialist Party

The Progressive Socialist Party (Seta Manoukian)

The South - Lebanese National Movement (Anonymous, c. 1978-9)

The Assault on Saida is an Assault on the National Resistance (Omran Kaysi, 1985)

Saia Above the Arrows of Treason (Omran Kaysi, 1985)

Steadfast in the South - Independent Nasserist Movement - Murabitun (Anonymous, 1980)

The Lebanese Left

Against Imperialism and Zionism - Lebanese Communist Party (Anonymous, 1977)

The South and the Resistance

Your tricks are uncovered and justice will prevail (Anonymous, c. 1978-9)

Dar al-Fataal-Arabi (Helmi el-Touni, 1977)

Commemoration of Gamal Adb-el-Nasser's birthday. A green memory in days of drought Socialist Arab Union (Helmi el-Touni, 1989)

Quote from Yasser Arafat - PLO (Seta Manoukian and Walid Safi, 1960s-70s)

Dar al-Fata al-Arabi (Helmi el-Touni, c. 1977)

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American University of Beirut Jafet Library's Political Posters 1960s-1980s collection [link]
for more great posters and thoughts on the power of the poster see Zeina Maasri's book Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War - on worldcat [link] at Powell's Books [link]

The Chicagoan

2009-07-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

The Chicagoan was a Chicago culture magazine published from June 1926 until April 1935. In the years after it folded the magazine was largely forgotten about until 73 years later when Neil Harris rediscovered the magazine and published The Chicagoan: A Lost Magazine of the Jazz Age.

“It’s a crescent-shaped town, 26 miles by 15, along a great lake that’s begun to weaken and recede. No wonder. An unchallenged murder record — a splendid university — hobo capital to the country — railroad ruler, corn baron, liquor king — and the finest of grand opera. Altogether the most zestful spectacle on this sphere.”

June 14, 1926

March 26, 1927

October 8, 1927

March 10, 1928

April 7, 1928

August 11, 1928

September 22, 1928

April 27, 1929

March 15, 1930

April 26, 1930

October 25, 1930

January 17, 1931

March 28, 1931

June 6, 1931

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See more at the Chicago Press online gallery [link]
Also see the book The Chicagoan : A Lost Magazine of the Jazz Age - at Powell's [link] at worldcat [link]
various articles on the The Chicagoan [link] [link] [link]
wikipedia article [link]

Japanese Historical World Maps

2009-07-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

18th and 19th century Japanese world maps.

Bankoku sokaizu / Ishikawa-shi Toshiyuki. Hoei 5 [1708]

Oranda shinyaku chikyu zenzu / Hashimoto Naomasa Hakubin. Kansei 8 [1796]

Dai Nihon yochi benran / Giko Yamazaki. Tenpo 5 [1834]

[Oranda Chikyu zenzu : kan] / Tajima Ryukei. [between 1840 and 1868]

Chikyu bankoku sankai yochi zenzu / Sekisui Cho Harutaka [c. 1850]

Shochu bankoku zu / Kudo Tohe, Kaei 6 [1853]

Shintei - chikyu bankoku hozu. Unknown cartographer. Kaei 6 [1853]

Bankoku chikyu zu: zen / Mineta Fuko cho; Hashimoto Gyokuran mo; Murakami Goyu sho [c. 1853]

Bankoku chikyu bunzu : zen / Hashimoto Gyokuran. [between 1856 and 1868]

Sekai zu. Unknown cartographer. [c. 1860]

Shinkoku shochu kokai sekai zenzu / shukuzu Garyuken. Meiji 6 [1873]

Ansha sekai chizu : Higashihankyu no bu Nishihankyu no bu kan / koku Fukutomi Seisui : Fukutomi Seiri. Meiji 7 [1874]

Shinsen bankoku zenzu : zen / Sakai Sutehiko. Meiji 18 [1885]

Kaisei shinpan bankoku meisai zenzu : zen / Maeda Torakichi. Meiji 19 [1886]

Bankoku zenzu : zen / Yoshimura Sentaro. Meiji 21 [1888]

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these maps are from Japanese Historical Maps from the East Asian Library of University of California, Berkeley [link]
more at University of Texas, Austin's Historic Maps of Asia [link]
also see Japanese Imperial Army Maps Online (in Japanese) [link]
and Tohoku University Library's Kano collection (in Japanese) [link]

The Silent Film Posters of Peter Kocjančič

2009-07-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

J'accuse! (Abel Gance, 1919)

Kalvarija žene [Calvary Women] (1925)

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)

Les misérables (Henri Fescourt, 1925)

Dance Fever (Alexander Korda,1925) [?]

A Modern Dubarry (Alexander Korda, 1927)

Harry Hill, der Herr der Welt (Lorenz Bätz, 1923)

Die elf schillschen Offiziere (Rudolf Meinert, 1926)

My Friend the Chauffeur (Erich Waschneck, 1926) [?]

Alpentragödie (Robert Land, 1927)

Die tolle Lola (Richard Eichberg, 1927)

Der Mann ohne Schlaf (Carl Boese, 1926)

Harry Piel - Strah na sokolskem gradu [Fear in the Castle Sokolski] (1925)

Xenia Desni

Harold Lloyd (1925)

Buster Keaton (1925)

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All of the translations are via google translate. If anyone can help identify/clarify anything please let me know.

once again all of these posters are from the Digital Library of Slovenia [link]

Slovenian Event Posters

2009-07-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

Celjske Summer Events (Institute of Cultural Events, Celjske), Radovan Jenko, 1979

International Fair of Textile and Textile Machinery (Leskova), P Djokic, 1959

International Fashion Fair (Ljubljana), B Širok, 1957

Exhibition House for Opportunities [?] (Ljubljana, Gospodarsko razstavišče), D. M., 1956

International Graphic Exhibition (Ljubljana), 1957

International Textile Exhibition (Gospodarsko razstavišče, Ljubljana), 1956

International Packaging Fair (Ljubljana), 1957

Gorenjski Fair (Kranj, Gorenjska, Slovenia), 1953

Tourist Exhibition (Ljubljana), 1955

International Exhibition of Wood (Ljubljana), 1955

International Fair of Radio and Telecommunications (Gospodarsko razstavišče, Ljubljana), Gašperšič, 1957

Soft Drinks Exhibition (Ljubljana), 1954

Craft Industry Exhibition (Šentvid, Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1954

Exhibition of Children's Drawings, 1961

Exhibition of the Hungarian Book (National and University Library in Ljubljana), 1969

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Help with any awkward translations would be appreciated.

from the massive collection at the fantastic Digital Library of Slovenia [link]

El rostro (The Face)

2009-06-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

From the Spanish book Magia blanca moderna o sea Magnetismo, hipnotismo, sugestion y espirtismo (Modern White Magic that is Magnetism, Hypnotism, Suggestion and Spirituality) by Q.G. Polinntzieu, published by Barcelona Maucci in 1899.

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"The nobility of character is always revealed from the forehead to the nose, by the proportion and symmetry of this part of the face..."

This is the face of the ambitious.

This is the face of the perverse.

This is the face of the hedonist.

This is the face of the distracted.

This is the face of the imposter.

This is the face of the heroic.

This is the face of the prideful.

This is the face of the miserable.

This is the face of the cunning.

This is the face of the considerate.

This is the face of the honest.

This is the face of the cruel.

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You can download the entire book at Biblioteca Digital Hispánica from Spain's National Library [link]
(thanks to my lovely girlfriend for translating)

Vintage Grocery Store Displays

2009-06-25T10:34:00.001-07:00

Interior of the John Thompson Grocery Company store on 15th Street in Denver, Colorado. Butchers in white coats and aprons pose around a display of deer carcasses that are decorated with Christmas wreaths and garland. Signs read: "Mocha and Java, The Best Coffee Grown", "Ou[r] Home Ma[de] Cand[ies] Are Th[e] Best Made." 1900-1910, photo by Harry M. Rhoads [link]

Interior view of the Save-A-Nickel Store at 4210 Tennyson Street, in Denver, Colorado; shows stacked cans, fruit, and advertising signs: "Sunbrite Cleanser." May 21, 1940, Rocky Mountain Photo Company [link]

Sunkist Grocery Store display, 1940s [link]

Kraft displays, Jenkins' Groceteria, Calgary, Alberta. c. 1945 [link]

Mayfair Supermarket Cookie Display, 1950's [link]

Arrowhead Drinking Water, 1950's [link]

Libby's Canned Food Display, 1950's [link]

Bon Ami Jet Spray Display, 1950's [link]

Bell Chips Circus Display, 1956 [link]

Bell Chips Display, Shopping Bag in Upland CA, 1950s [link]

Man reaching for a box in a display at Cozart's Supermarket. Aug 11, 1965, Daily Reflector (Greenville, N.C.) [link]

Duke's Mayonnaise jars assembled in a display at Cozart's grocery store. Feb 1965, Daily Reflector (Greenville, N.C.) [link]

Coca-Cola Supermarket Display [link]

Marlboro Supermarket Display, Ralph's Supermarket [link]

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For more vintage supermarket photos see:
Groceteria [link]
DC Grocery [link]
Vintage Supermarket Photos @ the World of Mr. Toast [link]

Thai Matchboxes

2009-06-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

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-All of these images are from Anake Nawigamune's beautiful book A Century of Thai Graphic Design [link]
-find the closest library copy at worldcat [link]
-Articles on Chuan Sunthranan, a Thai man who has been collecting matchboxes for over 70 years and just opened a "Matchbox museum" of his collection [link] [link]

19th Century Japanese Drug Advertisments

2009-06-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

Kyō maruyama okaruyaki - Lightly baked confection by Kyō maruyama. (late 19th century)

Fukunai dokusō-gan - Internal poison cleansing pills (if taken for a month, cleans various poison sicknesses such as syphilis and gonorrhea). (late 19th century)

Shinyaku Sonota - Divine Medicine and others, with portraits of Jun Matsumoto, Shochu Sato, and Ki Hayashi. (Hashimoto Chikanobu, 1878)

Shōni-yaku-ō Kindoru-san - King of children's drug: Kinder-Puwder (Morikawa Chikashige, 1880)

Rakuzen-dō sanyaku: Hoyō-gan, Chinryūin, Ontsū-gan, Megusuri Seiki-sui - Three drugs from Rakuzendō for low energy, heart-burn, and constipation (Eitaku, late 19th century)

Tsukisarae kokoku; Kaitetsu-gan – monthly cleansing (c 1830)

Yōtetsugan - Iodide iron pill (Hasegawa Sadanobu, mid-late 19th century)

Miruwa kusuri kasumi no hikifuda - Medicine for clear vision. (Utagawa Yoshitsuya, 1862)

Miruwa kusuri kasumi no hikifuda - Medicine for clear vision. (Utagawa Yoshitsuya, 1862)

Benri ohaguro tokiwa no tsuya - Easy to use teeth-blackening oxide, Tokiwa no tsuya means "everlasting luster" and is also the name of the woman pictured (Hasegawa Sadanobu II, late 19th century)

Hikan yakuōen - drug for spleen and liver (1895)

Ichikawa Danjūro kōen Seisei gan - Ichikawa Danjūrō announcing the drug “Seisei gan” (for hangover) (Utagawa Toyokuni III, mid 19th century)

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all images are from San Francisco University's Japanese Woodblock Print Collection [link]
see more at Digital Clendening's Japanese Art on the Subject of Medicine [link]

Japanese Lantern Slides

2009-06-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

"In the 1930s, Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai (a predecessor of the present Japan Foundation) actively created lantern slides and distributed them to institutions around the world to help educate about Japan." Here are a few of my favorite slides...

Heaven

Hell

Sanitation Campaign

Scary Kite

Domestic Dispute

Stories

War Stories

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These slides are from the University of Hawaii at Manoa digital library [link]
see more Japanese lantern slides at Triptych: the tri-college digital library [link]

Hypnotist Posters

2009-06-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

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see the Library of Congress' Performing Arts Posters [link]
the amazing Circus Museum [link]
Magic Posters [link]
Raffaele De Ritis' Novelties and Wonders [link]
for even more links see the Cabinet of Links [link]

Omochae: Japanese Toy Pictures

2009-06-02T16:22:00.001-07:00

These are (I think) illustrations of everyday images in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868), and are very likely from the 1974 book Omochae by Tatsugorō Hirose. A search for "Omochae" and a translation of おもちゃ絵　 brings me the term "Toy Pictures" - which might mean toys in art (as the above link suggests) or a type of illustration (?). If anyone can clarify any of this then please let me know.

UPDATE - thank you very much to Michael Pick and his wife for the following clarification on what a Omochae/Toy Picture is: "From what we could gather they were mostly used for teaching/storytelling - there's an example of one in use here for instance which speaks volumes and the text backs up the contents of the illustration. The translation is correct - they were called "toy pictures". Some of them have the names of places and characters, so I assume those would have been used in the telling of stories, historical or otherwise.
I'd be willing to wager that they're related to the similar practice of kamishibai ("paper drama") a simple variant of the magic lantern show/slideshow/proto-cinema/animation. This usually involves/involved the telling of a story with a bunch of illustrated cards. Wikipedia has a little entry on it..."

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The entire collection is at the rare book section of the Japanese National Library [link]

US Army World War II Pocket Guides

2009-06-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Pocket Guide to China (1943) [pdf]

"China has been at war for 5 years with her enemy and ours -- the Japanese. She has met heavy defeats and won important victories. She has suffered more than 5,000,000 casualties in those years of war. Yet, today, the free people of China are still fighting, still holding a better armed foe. You and your outfit have been ordered to China to help this gallant ally. Your job, fighting side by side with the Chinese, is to rid that country of the Japanese. No American troops anywhere have a more important assignment. Two problems face you right away. You don't know the language and you don't know the people. That makes it harder to be a guest in China than in a country like England or Australia. Nobody expects you to learn a language as complex as Chinese, although the glossary at the end of this book will enable you to learn enough to get along. To understand a people is something else again. It takes a blend of curiosity, common sense, and courtesy. You might well adopt as your motto one of the many proverbs that guide the Chinese in their own conduct. They say... 'When you enter a neighborhood as what is forbidden; when you enter a country ask what the customs are.' It is the purpose of this guide to tell you about some of these customs. It will take you only about 20 minutes to read, but, by helping you to understand China and the Chinese people, it can add interest to your stay in their country and help you to do a better job for America."

A Pocket Guide to Hawaii (1944) [pdf]

"This is about Hawaii, to introduce you to a new country. New countries are like new friends. You can't get to enjoy them until you've learned something about them -- until you know the score. So here's the score on Hawaii... Before the Japanese went berserk, the Hawaiian Islands had three salable products -- sugar, pineapple, and climate. The sugar and pineapple were shipped to the Mainland (continental U. S.) where you ate them. The climate was used by an ever-increasing horde of enthusiastic tourists. It all worked out pretty happily. Then came December 7, 1941 -- and the foul blow that brought us all to Hawaii, soldier, on the way to Tokyo... The first thing you'll notice about the city of Honolulu is that it's full of drug stores, department stores, soda fountains, movies, offices, and even Americans... So you're not as far away from home as you think."

Pocket Guide to Iran (1943) [pdf]

"As an American soldier assigned to duty in Iran (once called Persia), you are undertaking the most important job of your life. There is no other war theater where military success by the United States and her fighting allies will contribute more to final victory over the axis. You've heard a lot of talk in this war about life lines - the sea lanes and land routes by which military supplies flow into the combat zones to be turned against the enemy. Iran is much more that a life line. It is a major source of the power that keeps the United Nations' military machine turning over -- oil. Because of its prime strategic value, Iran in the only country in the world where the armies of three of the United Nations -- Great Britain, Russia, and the United States -- are operating in daily touch with each other. This combination of great powers, cooperating in the defense of Iran, is a clear-cut indication of the decisive importance of the task you and your outfit have been called upon to do. You, as an American, have a responsibility that goes beyond the ordinary military duties required of you. Your country has a reputation throughout the world for decency and unselfishness in its dealings with other nations. That reputation is a major asset for us in this global war. By your actions you can uphold it or destroy it. Accordingly, it is part of your job to establish and maintain friendly relations with the soldiers of our Allies -- Russia and Great Britain -- and with the people of Iran (Iranis). Most of those you meet won't know very much about Americans, except by reputation. They will watch to see how you act and what you do and will probably say to themselves: 'So, this is what Americans are like.' And what they think of us will have much to do with our military success or failure. It isn't a very difficult job. You'll be expected to act pretty much as you would at home, using your common sense to tell you what to do when you run into a tough situation. You'll be expected to keep your mouth shut and your eyes open even after you are sure of your ground. And you'll need to respect the ways of thinking and doing things of the Iranis and of the British and Russian soldiers, no matter how different they may be from your own. If you adopt the attitude that we Americans don't know all the answers and that the world doesn't revolve around Kankakee, Ill., you won't be very far off the target in your dealings with other peoples. Beyond a spirit of tolerance and a willingness to meet the other fellow half way, the thing you'll need most in order to get along in Iran is information. Your opinion of the country and the people will never be any better than your knowledge of them. As you exercise your curiosity and gain fresh knowledge, you will increase your efficiency as a soldier and will add personal value and pleasure to a tough job. This guidebook is to help you move in that direction, but it is little more than a preview. A smart soldier will soon know far more about the country than is to be found between these covers. That is the target to shoot at, and there is no better way to begin getting acquainted with the country than by understanding Iran's present position in this global war."

A Short Guide to Iraq (1943) [pdf]

"You have been ordered to Iraq (i - RAHK) as part of the world-wide offensive to beat Hitler... American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the Iraqis (as the people are called) like American soldiers or not... Herr Hitler knows he's licked if the peoples united against him stand their ground. So it is pretty obvious what he and his propaganda machine are trying to do. They're trying to spread disunity and discontent among their opponents whenever and wherever they can... One of your big jobs is to prevent Hitler's agents from getting in their dirty work. The best way you can do this is by getting along with the Iraqis and making them your friends. And the best way to get along with any people is to understand them. That is what this guide is for. To help you understand the people and the country so that you can do the best and quickest job of sending Hitler back where he came from. And, secondly, so that you as a human being will get the most out of an experience few Americans have been lucky enough to have. Years from now you'll be telling your children and maybe your grandchildren stories beginning, 'Now when I was in Baghdad ----.'"

Pocket Guide to New Caledonia (1943) [pdf]

"You and your outfit have come to New Caledonia not only as friends to help guard the strategic interest of the United Nations in a distant and vital corner of the world, but virtually as discoverers. The island of the Free French has been the home of Frenchmen for more than a century, but few Americans have been there, and few know anything about it. This guidebook now in your hand is the first guide of any kind ever published to inform Americans on New Caledonia. Its purpose is to introduce you to the country and facilitate your learning more about a people whose love of freedom is as great as our own. If you are an alert soldier, the time should come quickly when you know more about the country than is to be found in the guidebook... The more you learn of New Caledonia, the better you discharge your duty as an American. The position of this island is of great importance to the security of our country. One glance at the map will tell you why. To win the war, we must keep the freedom of the seas and continue the movement of our fighting materials to our allies and to our own forces. New Caledonia stands guard over the Pacific lifeline which joins our strength with Australia and with the Dutch who still give battle to the enemy in some of the islands of the East Indies. You are fortunate that this island is to be your station for the time being... If you take care of yourself, you will thrive on the island, and will find yourself among friends. The trail has been well blazed for you. The conduct of you fellow soldiers in New Caledonia has been good. They have not only adjusted themselves easily to their situation but have won the respect and admiration of the New Caledonians. The men of New Caledonia are anxious to get at the enemy. They believe that they are the best soldiers in the Pacific. When men think that way, so they are."

Pocket Guide to New Zealand (1943) [pdf]

"You are going to New Zealand. You are going there because it is one of the main bases of the United Nations in the Pacific and one of our principal stepping stones on the road to Tokyo. Since you will be a guest of the New Zealand people it seems a good idea for you to know a little about them. Always remember that it is to our enemies' advantage to sow seeds of discord between us and our allies, and it is to our advantage to understand them and to make them our friends. You are going to meet people who, in many ways, are much like ourselves. For although New Zealand is on the other side of the world from us, its people are about midway between the British and ourselves in manner and culture. Only the last generation of New Zealanders have given up referring to Britain as 'home'. On the other hand, being pioneers, they have developed along much the same lines as Americans. They have been seeing our movies, listening to our radio, and reading our magazines -- and their chief visitors have been Americans. So, you will meet a people with some of the British reserve, with may British methods and institutions, but with American outspokenness and directness -- plus a working knowledge of American slang... The New Zealanders are a hospitable people... [t]hey like Americans and have enjoyed meeting the U. S. troops that have preceded you. They appreciate the help that we have been able to send them but whatever you do, don't get the idea that you are going there to protect a helpless people. The New Zealanders are doing their full share in this war and have been in there pitching since 1939. They are already fully mobilized."

A pocket Guide to North Africa (1943) [pdf]

"You are to do duty in North Africa as a soldier of the United States, and this guidebook has been prepared to assist you in serving in a strange country as well as to give you a more complete understanding of why you are fighting there and to make your service a more worthwhile personal experience... Our Armed Forces are bringing North Africa under control, and from this base they will make the entry into Europe which will become the death wound of the Nazi and Fascist dictators and of their forces. You are a part of the great enterprise. How well you fight and work and how properly you conduct yourself in North Africa will mean much in furthering the cause of your country and her Allies... Instruction in how to cope with the natural difficulties of your position, including how to maintain yourself in desert country and how to deal with your enemies, is primarily the responsibility of your commanders. The purpose of this book is to keep you from making mistakes in your dealings with the people of North Africa so that the United States will have their friendship and its armed forces will have their cooperation."

A Short Guide to Syria (1943) [pdf]

"Your unit has been ordered to Syria. Soon you will be standing on the shores of a sea or on a desert which has played a great part in world history. You, an American soldier, are no one of the countless fighting men, over the past two thousand years, who have tramped across this neck of land connecting Europe and Asia. Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon -- all have struggled on this land for world dominion. Here two great religions -- Christianity and Judaism -- sprang up. Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Roman, Turkish and European civilizations have left a mark on Syria's sparsely inhabited lands. And for three centuries, waves of Crusaders from Europe fought the Saracens for possession of this Holy Land. You are in Syria to fight -- and to win -- against Hitler, who seeks world domination. And a big part of your job is to make friends for your cause -- because this is a war of ideas, just as much as of tanks, planes and guns. You're here to prevent Hitler from taking over this strategic land. He's tried once and probably will again. That's why the Free French and the British occupied Syria in July 1941. Under the League of Nations, France was given a mandate over Syria after World War I. When France surrendered in World War II, German 'tourists' began to filter into the desert. Then the British and Free French acted to protect the oil fields and pipe lines and guard this 'land bridge' to Asia. Your coming will be welcome to Syrians. In fact, at the end of the last war, Syria fought to be placed under American mandate protection. And, too, many Syrians have been educated at the American University at Beirut. So, you are in a friendly country and you won't have much trouble making friends, if you use ordinary horse sense in your dealings with the people of this land. But, with the best intentions in the world, you're likely to make serious mistakes, if you don't learn a little something about Syrians and their ways of doing things. This pamphlet will help to give you a quick picture of Syria which may make it easier to get along."

Pocket guide to West Africa (1943) [pdf]

"In West Africa you will be playing an important role in the world-wide strategy to smash Hitler and the Axis. On Africa's West Coast you will be guarding vital supply lines to North Africa, Egypt, India, Russia, and even China. From this region must come much needed strategic materials for our own war machine and for all of the United Nations. The Nazis had been waiting for the chance to execute their elaborate plans for the exploitation of Africa's vast resources and labor supply. Your presence in West Africa means that these plans have been put on ice. Thus you are striking a hard blow at Hitler, and at Hirohito, too. Before the war not many Americans visited West Africa. But America was well-known there for American goods are popular. Educated West Africans have long stressed the liberality of Americans ideals and policies... Many West Africans know the story of the independent Negro Republic of Liberia and America's role in creating it. In their minds Americans symbolize friendliness and a square deal... West Africa may seem strange to you at first, but you will soon find it easy to feel at home. Both the Europeans (these will mainly be English and French) and the Africans like and respect America and Americans. They will be very friendly to you and will expect in return only that you respect them and their way of doing things. Good will toward America is a valuable asset and you will want to protect it. You will understand that not only you as an individual but also your nation will be judged by how you act and what you say. Even this brief introduction to West Africa, its people, and customs may aid in avoiding anything that might stir up suspicion or even hatred of Americans - and thus serve Hitler's cause."

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more WWII Pocket Guides at Southern Methodist University's digital collection [link]
some can also be found on archive.org [link]
also see The Arabists commentary on the guides to Iraq [link] and Iran [link]

"Nursery Rhymes" Playing Cards

2009-05-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

Unknown Maker, c. 1880.

History of Playing Cards
The earliest authentic references to playing-cards in Europe date from 1377, but, despite their long history, it is only in recent decades that clues about their origins have begun to be understood. Cards must have been invented in China, where paper was invented. Even today some of the packs used in China have suits of coins and strings of coins - which Mah Jong players know as circles and bamboos (i.e. sticks). Cards entered Europe from the Islamic empire, where cups and swords were added as suit-symbols, as well as (non-figurative) court cards. It was in Europe that these were replaced by representations of courtly human beings: kings and their attendants - knights (on horseback) and foot-servants. To this day, packs of Italian playing-cards do not have queens - nor do packs in Spain, Germany and Switzerland (among others). There is evidence that Islamic cards also entered Spain, but it now seems likely that the modern cards which we call Spanish originated in France, ousting the early Arab-influenced designs. -International Playing-Card Society

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this entire deck (along with many many more) can be viewed at Peter Endebrock's Playing-card Pages [link]
more playing cards at Yale's Cary Collection of Playing Cards online database [link]
more information on the history of playing cards at the International Playing-Card Society [link]

Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing

2009-05-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

Illustrations from Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing (Ajā’ib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharā’ib al-mawjūdāt - كتاب عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات) by Zakarīyā’ ibn Muḥammad al-Qazwīnī, originally published in 1283. The illustrator, copyist and date of the edition are unknown. The nature of paper, script, ink, illumination, and illustrations suggest that it was produced in provincial Mughal India, possibly the Punjab, in the 17th century.

Eight constellations (from the top): Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius (a large figure drawing water from a well), Pisces, Cetus (a harpy with a peacock's tail), Orion (a standing turbaned male with sword and shepherd's staff), and the constellation Eridanus (the River).

Creatures from the Island of Zanj (jazirah-i Zanj), including gray and green winged humanoids.

Five mythical sea creatures, including a human-headed fish and a winged fish.

Above: a woman with long hair behind a large gray fish. Below: a monkey (labeled insan al-ma', 'aquatic being') and a pink fish.

Six animal-headed demons or jinn, all (except the blue elephant-headed demons) snapping their fingers.

Fabulous beasts and demons: two horned demons playing musical instruments; a feline, horned quadruped with two heads; a brown demon with a cat's head and tail, wearing wrist beads (noise-makers); and an elephant with rear claw feet. On a page labeled 'people of the Seal of Solomon (muhr-i Sulayman)'.

A humanoid with hair standing on end.

A lynx or caracal (‘anaq) and an elephant-headed demon.

A cock and (above) a partridge (darraj).

A simurgh (‘anqa', a mythical bird) and, above, a bird that appears to be a hoopoe but is labeled 'aq'aq (magpie).

An ostrich (na‘amat) and a small black bird labeled hudhud (the hoopoe).

A dragon (thu‘ban).

Five fabulous creatures: a dark-skinned female wearing only a head-scarf and pearls; two winged figure, nude except for pearls; a bare-breasted, long-haired female with six legs and wrist beads (noise-makers); and, at the bottom, a human-headed snake.

Four mythical creatures: a humanoid with his head in his chest, a human-headed turtle, and two half-sectioned women.

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More illustrations at the Islamic Medical Manuscripts @ the National Library of Medicine [link]

World Series Baseball Programs

2009-05-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

1889 American Association-Championship League "Worlds Championship Series" - St. Louis Browns vs. New York Baseball Club (?)

Not the "World Series" as it is today - this series was between the American Association and Championship League Club, before these professional leagues fell and the modern World Series of American League vs. National League began in 1903. (I can't find much information on this series or the "Championship League Club", if anyone has more/more accurate information please let me know.)
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In 1894, Pittsburgh's owner William C. Temple offered a championship trophy to the winner of a best-of-seven-game series between the National League's first and second-place teams. In addition, he stated that the winning franchise would receive 65% of all ticket sales and the losing team would pocket 35%. Temple's novel idea would last for the next three years and helped to build the foundation for baseball's post-season popularity. More changes were on the horizon and in 1901, the American League was established much to the dismay of the senior circuit. Suddenly, baseball found itself engaged in a "civil war" as both rival leagues competed separately for the fan's loyalty and attention. Two years later a truce, previously known as the "National Agreement", was redefined outlining baseball's employment, salary and travel requirements. The 1903 compromise produced the business blueprint for major-league baseball and resulted in a merger that has lasted to this day. Once again Boston and Pittsburgh, the top American and National League teams, found themselves competing against one another in the first official "World Series". -Baseball Almanac

1903 World Series - Boston Americans (5) vs. Pittsburg* Pirates (3)

*In 1903, Pittsburgh was spelled Pittsburg without the ending h.

1905 World Series - New York Giants (4) vs. Philadelphia Athletics (1)

1911 World Series - New York Giants (2) vs. Philadelphia Athletics (4)

1913 World Series - New York Giants (1) vs. Philadelphia Athletics (4)

1914 World Series - Boston Braves (4) vs. Philadelphia Athletics (0)

1919 World Series - Cincinnati Reds (5) vs. Chicago White Sox (3)

1920 World Series - Brooklyn Dodgers [Robins] (2) vs. Cleveland Indians (5)

1927 World Series - New York Yankees (4) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (0)

1931 World Series - Philadelphia Athletics (3) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (4)

1933 World Series - New York Giants (4) vs. Washington Nationals [Senators] (1)

1934 World Series - St. Louis Cardinals (4) vs. Detroit Tigers (3), Game 7

1942 World Series - St. Louis Cardinals (4) vs. New York Yankees (1), Game 5

1952 World Series - New York Yankees (4) vs. Brooklyn Dodgers (3)

1956 World Series - Brooklyn Dodgers (3) vs. New York Yankees (4), Game 5

1962 World Series - San Francisco Giants (3) vs. New York Yankees (4)

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World Series programs and scorecards from the Baseball Hall of Fame [link]
More programs and info at Sports Collectibles [link]
More info at FC Associates [link]
Even more info at Collectors Weekly [link]

The Film Posters of Joop van den Berg

2009-05-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Joop van den Berg (1897-1985) was a Dutch artist who illustrated various film, theatre, and public service posters. I can't find too much information on him so if anyone has further/better information please let me know.

De zwarte tulp [The Black Tulip] (Maurits Binger & Frank Richardson, 1921) (?)

The Volga Boatman (Cecil B. DeMille, 1926)

The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926)

Die weisse Sklavin [The White Slave] (Augusto Genina, 1927)

Flucht aus der Hölle [Escape from Hell] (Georg Asagaroff, 1928)

Die Ehe [Marriage] (Eberhard Frowein, 1929)

Atlantic (Ewald André Dupont, 1929)

Der Weg nach Rio [The Road to Rio] (Manfred Noa, 1931)

S.O.S. Iceberg (Tay Garnett, 1933)

I Was a Spy (Victor Saville, 1933)

Bleeke Bet (Alex Benno & Richard Oswald, 1934)

Regine (Erich Waschneck, 1935)

Le mensonge de Nina Petrovna [The Lie of Nina Petrovna] (Viktor Tourjansky, 1937)

Thérèse Martin (Maurice de Canonge, 1938)

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more of Joop van den Berg's amazing work at Memory of the Netherlands [link]

Pictures of Life and Character in New York (1877)

2009-05-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Illustrations from the book published by G.W. Averell & Co in New York, 1877.

Page 8 - Venues for Horses

Page 9 - Theatrics

Page 10 - Fashions of the Day

Page 11 - Boxing

Page 12 - Earning a Living

Page 13 - Chinese Quarters

Page 14 - The diversity of people in New York City

Page 15 - Characters of New York

Page 16 - Street Peddlers

Page 17 - Service personnel

Page 21 - "Our artist in the United States - XI. Wall Street, New York."

Page 26 - "Night on the East side. A dime lodging house."

Page 29 - "The Prohibition movement. The drug store of the future."

Page 30 - The duty that lies near. Puck. "The new parks are a good thing, Mr. Grace, but suppose we begin by making 'breathing-places' of these dirty streets!"

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All images are from the History of Medicine Digital Collection [link]
more info on the book "Pictures of Life and Character in New York" [link]
worldcat results [link]

Edward Hull Illustrations of "Death's Ramble"

2009-05-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

The following are illustrations "designed & done on stone" by Edward Hull for Thomas Hood's poem "Death's Ramble". They were printed by C. Hullmandel and published at The Gallery No. 27 Regent St. in London in December 1827.

One day the dreary old King of Death
Inclined for some sport with the carnal,
So he tied a pack of darts on his back,
And quietly stole from his charnel.

His head was bald of flesh and of hair,
His body was lean and lank,
His joints at each stir made a crack, and the cur
Took a gnaw, by the way, at his shank.

And what did he do with his deadly darts,
This goblin of grisly bone?
He dabbled and spill'd man's blood, and he kill'd
Like a butcher that kills his own.

The first he slaughter'd, it made him laugh,
(For the man was a coffin-maker,)
To think how the mutes, and men in black suits,
Would mourn for an undertaker.

Death saw two Quakers sitting at church,
Quoth he, "We shall not differ."
And he let them alone, like figures of stone,
For he could not make them stiffer.

He saw two duellists going to fight,
In fear they could not smother;
And he shot one through at once--for he knew
They never would shoot each other.

He saw a watchman fast in his box,
And he gave a snore infernal;
Said Death, "He may keep his breath, for his sleep
Can never be more eternal."

He met a coachman driving his coach
So slow, that his fare grew sick;
But he let him stray on his tedious way,
For Death only wars on the quick.

Death saw a toll-man taking a toll,
In the spirit of his fraternity;
But he knew that sort of man would extort,
Though summon'd to all eternity.

He found an author writing his life,
But he let him write no further;
For Death, who strikes whenever he likes,
Is jealous of all self-murther!

Death saw a patient that pull'd out his purse,
And a doctor that took the sum;
But he let them be--for he knew that the "fee"
Was a prelude to "faw" and "fum."

He met a dustman ringing a bell,
And he gave him a mortal thrust;
For himself, by law, since Adam's flaw,
Is contractor for all our dust.

He saw a sailor mixing his grog,
And he marked him out for slaughter;
For on water he scarcely had cared for Death,
And never on rum-and-water.

Death saw two players playing at cards,
But the game wasn't worth a dump,
For he quickly laid them flat with a spade,
To wait for the final trump!

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the illustrations were found at US National Library's Images of the History of Medicine [link]
more Thomas Hood can be read at Project Gutenberg [link]

Interview

2009-05-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

Marty from ephemera was kind enough to interview me about this blog - you can read the interview here.
Thank you very much to Marty and the great ephemera blog, and to everyone who visits ephemera assemblyman.
-joel