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NEEDLE PACKS: More from the archives.

For all you fans of needle packs, sewing ephemera, mid century ephemera, women's history, historians of sewing and needlle arts, graphic design lovers ...have I named all the fan categories for mid twentieth century needle packs? Of course not. Why do you love needle packs? Enlighten me.

Meanwhile here are some more delicious images from the Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections.

Unusual needlepack in the shape of a coal bin. Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections.

 

A gift from Gambles Home guard Custom Matched Colors, diecut in the shape of a paint can. Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections.

United States, Ocean liner. The popular travel theme.

Lucky Lucky New York-Paris. Needle book, Lucky That's all. Liza Cowan Ephemera collections.

One World.  World's best needle book. Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections.

 

Bulldog Needle Book. Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections.

 

Pigo Needle Book. Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections

 

The army an Navy Needle Book. Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections

 

Burlington VT, YMCA, vintage postcard

Burlington Vermont Community YMCA, circa 1940. Postcard.

Liza Cowan ephemera Collections

NEEDLE BOOKS FROM J. MEGAN MAYS

J. Megan Mays is one of my favorite customers at Pine Street Art Works. She gets what I'm doing -  and shares my passion for ephemera. Last week she brought in a disc of scans from her collection of vintage needle books so I could share them with you. Yay Megan, thanks so much for spreading the love of mid century needle book graphics.

The first three are just graphically stunning and simple. They are unusual for the genre because they do not feature people. I've never seen another one like this homage to sewing accessories.

 

Needle book. Collection of J. Megan Mays. Made in USA.

 

Needle book -Ideal Laundry. Collection of J. Megan Mays

Woolworth Needle Book - Collection of J. Megan Mays. Made in Western Germany.

Typical for needle books is the travel theme because a needle and thread can be so handy on a journey. Railway, airplane, ships, even rockets are common themes for travel in needle land. This family seems on a mythical trip through the Alps.

The Silvertown, needle case. Collection of J. Megan Mays

Here is the same family in a different, probably earlier guise. You often see the same graphic worked and reworked by different artists and factories.

 

Maple Brand Needle Book. Collection of J. Megan Mays

This family of four is traveling by air. Or maybe they are welcoming Daddy home after an arduous journey by propeller plane. Gone are the days when we dressed up to travel.

Reliance Needle Book. Collection of J. Megan Mays. Made in Japan.

This couple is off to the stars on their own private rocket.

 

Atomic Gold Eye Needle Book. Collection of J. Megan Mays. Made in Japan.

Meanwhile, back home, we revisit the theme of women and children sewing. Or, in this case, Mom is sewing and the kids are fighting.

 

My Own needle book, Collection of J. Megan Mays. Made in Japan

And here we are back to one of the endless variations of a group of women sewing and embroidering.

 

Lovely Lady Needle Book, Collection of J. Megan Mays. Made in Japan

So, thanks to Megan for letting me use her collection and I hope you enjoyed it.

LAKE CHAMPLAIN VINTAGE POSTCARDS

This summer marks the 400th Anniversary of Samuel Champlain discovering  invading the body of water known by the Abenaki as Biawbagok - the waters in between, and by the Iroquois as Caniadari Guarunti, the door to the country. The hoopla over the quadricentennial of Lake Champlain now begins.

Ephemera fans can rejoice not in Native American images but in a bounty of European-American images produced over the last hundred or so years. Here are but a few I've collected:

 

Postcard. Steamboat Vermont. copyright 1909. PSAW ephemera collections

 

Postcard back.

"This is a picture of the first Steamboat on Lake Champlain. (and the second in the World) It was built and launched at Burlington Vermont, in 1808, just 200 years after Champlain had entered its waters in a birch bark canoe.

The owners and builders were two brothers, John and James Winans; it was called the "Vermont;" and it was 120 feet long, 20 feet beam, 167 tons measurement; with an engine of 20 horse power, and commanded by Capt. John Winans"

 

Postcard. Steamer Ticonderoga.  Ephemera Collections PSAW.

The Ticonderoga is now at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne VT.

"Built in Shelburne in 1906, it operated as a day boat on Lake Champlain serving ports along the New York and Vermont shores until 1953. In 1955, the Ticonderoga was moved two miles overland from the lake to Shelburne Museum in a remarkable engineering effort that stands as one of the great feats of maritime preservation."

 

Rock Point, Lake Champlain. Postcard. PSAW ephemera collections

Lake Champlain from Red Rocks. Postcard PSAW ephemera collections.

Red Rocks is about a mile from Pine Street Art Works. 

 

Wells, Richardson & Co, Diamond Dyes Trade card. PSAW ephemera collections

Wells, Richardson & Co was a huge business in Burlington during the late 1800's up to the 1930's. I've always imagined that this image takes place at Red Rocks. See the Lake in the background?

LITHO DETAILS

Yesterday I posted a couple of details from Jello recipe books. I'm enamored of the way the details of the lithography breaks down into dot patterns. Here are some more.

Jello Booklet, detail.
You can see that someone wrote over the "W" with pencil. People leave mysterious traces of themselves.

Jello recipe booklet, detail

Jello Recipe booklet, detail

Jello Recipe Booklet, detail

Jello Recipe Booklet, detail

Jello Recipe Booklet, detail

Jello recipe booklet, detail

Jello Recipe Booklet, detail

Jello Recipe Booklet, detail

Jello Recipe booklet, detail

Needle pack, detail. made in Japan.

Needle pack, detail. made in Japan.

Needle Pack, detail. made in Japan

Needle Pack, detail

Needle Pack, detail. made in Japan.

Needle Pack, detail. made in japan

Needle Pack, detail, made in Japan

Needle pack, detail

Atlantic City Rolling Chair Postcard, detail

Atlantic City Rolling Chair Postcard, detail

Corset trade card, detail

Diamond Dyes Trade Card, detail

Corset trade card, detail

MORE JELLO IMAGES

Here are some more images from my Jello Ephemera Collection. We'll start with the 1916 recipe book, which is all about the new bride starting her family life with Jello.

Jello Recipe book 1916. Cowan ephemera collections

Jello Recipe book 1916. Cowan ephemera collections.

"Though the honeymoon is not yet over and everything she does is still perfect, the young housewife who is no cook has gone through a period of awful trepidation while preparing that first dessert."

This was in the day when young ladies of a certain class didn't live alone before they were married, and most likely had household help doing the cooking.

 

Jello recipe book. 1916, Liza Cowan ephemera collections.

"In her old home she had never been taught to cook, as so, when her father and mother, making their first visit to "the children"miss her from the room for a moment and then witness her triumphant return, bearing a tray with tea things and napkins and spoons for two, and two beautiful dishes of Jell-o upon it..."

 

 

Jello recipe book, 1916. Cowan ephemera collections.

"Father and mother and other "company" have come and gone many times  before baby arrives, and the lovely bride, looking hardly a day older, has become a proficient housekeeper."

 

Jello Recipe book, 1916, centerfold. Cowan ephemera collections.

Jello recipe book, 1916. Cowan ephemera collections.

On this beautiful summer afternoon three of her schoolmates - all happily marries- gather at her home to live again their girlhood life and exchange confidences regarding the whims of their husbands and the cleverness of their babies..."

 

The Jello girl made her first appearance in 1904. She was Elizabeth King, whose father, Franklin King, was an artist at the ad agency that made the Jello Ads. The Jello girl remained a staple of Jello ads for forty years. She appears at the end of the Jello Bride Recipe Booklet, as well as on the front cover.

"Attention, children! Some day you will be buying groceries, and if they have continued to go up in price, you will do well to consider the cost of different articles of food."

Jello recipe book. Cowan ephemera collections

Jello Recipe book. 1912. Cowan ephemera collections

 

 

Jello Recipe book. 1917. Cowan ephemera collections
 

Detail. Jello recipe book 1917. Cowan ephemera collection.

Look how beautifully the lithography tolerates enlargement.

Jell-o Recipe book. 1918. Cowan ephemera collections.

 

Jello Recipe book, 1915. Cowan ephemera collections.

 

Jello Recipe book. Date unknown. Cowan ephemera collections

This book has more gorgeous beautifully printed images than any other. And the copy I have is in brilliant shape. The rest of the images in this post are from this book.

 

 

Cowan ephemera collections.

 

 

ATLANTIC CITY - ROLLING CHAIRS

My blog banner says, "wherever the ride goes" and I swear I never know what that will be. I was looking a the postcard of the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City and I remembered that my mom, Polly Spiegel Cowan, took me to Atlantic city for a weekend when I was about ten years old. It was rainy and cold and I hated it, but I did enjoy her stories about her visits there as a youngster. Of course she stayed at her Uncle Simon's hotel, The Ambassador. It would have been special trip, since she lived in Chicago as a girl. Her favorite memories seemed to be of the rolling chairs. And the salt water taffy. Honestly, I wasn't paying that much attention, I just wanted to get back home. But this vague memory inspired my search for images of Atlantic City rolling chairs.


Late 19th or Early 20th Century. The boardwalk was originally built to keep sand out of the hotels. Atlantic city, in it's early days of the 1850's was a health spa and middle class vacation playground. Leisurely walks, or rides, along the boardwalk were a famous attraction.


Sheet music. 1905


Same song, different version


Early 20th Century Postcard



1908 Postcard, Boardwalk at night


No date on this one. But early 20th century.



Boardwalk 1910



A Boardwalk pastime. 1914



1948


Rolling Chairs in 1961, around the time I went with my mother.


This must be late 1960's. The rolling cars have lost their elegance, and there's some horrible piece of institutional architecture added to the otherwise elegant cityscape.

Now Atlantic City is a big gambling strip and since I don't like to print ugly images on my blog I'll stop while the going's good.

Jello

I’ve been collecting Jello ephemera for thirty or more years. I used to find recipe booklets at yard sales for a dime, but that was then. Now they are a bit pricier, and harder to find, although with eBay anything’s possible, with patience and determination.

Jello started advertising heavily at the beginning of the 20th Century. The early booklets are lush with chromolithographed color. The Jello really does seem to shimmer off the page. Jello was an innovative advertiser throughout the 20th Century, and my collection goes right up to the seventies.

My collection will stay intact and is not for sale unless I have doubles. I do, however, make reproductions and have them mounted by Silver Maple Editions, for sale at Pine Street Art Works.

I only reproduce images from ads in my collection, in limited editions, and only those before 1925. Although it is possible to find good scans of Jello, and other, ads on some websites, I  find it somehow unseemly - if not unethical - to sell copies of electronic copies of copies of art.The parade of simulacra must not be allowed to get too rowdy.

The back cover of this booklet - of which the above Jello Ice cream Powder was an insert - shows the Jello girl on the phone to the grocer, who is pictured on the front of the booklet answering the phone. Phones were a new technology, and using them in the advertising shows just how modern and up to date the product is. The telephone cord in the picture becomes a real life green string which is threaded through the  green hole on the upper right.

If this ad were  being made today, the girl would be using her Blackberry to call the grocer. If we called the grocer anymore. "Hello, City Market, send over a box of Jello please."