An Early Panel Comic Strip drawn by Elizabeth Stohn Associated Art Studios Correspondence School for Cartoonists 1918

 

Continues Below

While this early, drawn by hand "comic" strip (or graphic novel if you like) is nearly 100 years old, the young woman who drew it had little to base her format on.  Dating to 1918 or so, there seems to have been only some 20 major published newspaper strips at the time being told in panels.  The Katzenjammer Kids, which appeared in 1897,  is credited as the first strip with a story told in panels.  Mutt and Jeff  came along ten years later.  The third major strip of the era, Krazy Kat, appeared in 1913. The character had been part of "The Dingbat Family" a few years before it appeared as a spin-off.

The other characteristic defining a comic strip is the use of "balloons" to carry conversations.  This has that as well.

 

Substantial strips of the early 20th century are far better known today than when they first appeared.  Research and compilations have documented them to an audience far larger than those who saw the original work on a regular basis. 

The artist here is a young woman named Elizabeth Stohn of Newburgh, New York.  This work was found with several sketchbooks filled with single drawings as well as an 88 page graphic novel drawn in 1921.  She had progressed, and some of the work from that book are shown below.

It appears her maturation was due to a correspondence school of art.  in 1924 she received somewhat persnickety  feedback from the Associated Art Studios in New York City.  Specifically from Mort Burger, who was director of the school of cartooning then located in the Flatiron Building.  Mr. Burger was a cartoonist himself, though maybe not much of one.  Comic historian Allan Holtz writes "Mort was a producer of small panel cartoons which peppered the daily papers of New York and other cities in the 1900s and 1910s. These mini-cartoons fell out of favor in the mid-teens and Burger turned to other cartooning pursuits like this school."  Well…I always wondered why artists taught art instead of making art.  Mort did both, but seems to have been slightly more successful teaching.  He tried performing on stage as well.  As also found by Allan Holtz, Mort was killed in an automobile accident just 6 months after the artist here received his letter of criticism!  It is not known how many working cartoonists the school turned out.  One can find numerous examples of the advertisements he placed in magazines, but little about any successful graduates.

Ms. Stohn seems to have seen her share of misery by an early age…and in fact "comic" strip is a misnomer.  Her strip works are lurid.  The earliest comic strips were often far from funny.  As David Kunzle writes "the early (pre-19th-century) strip was seldom comic either in form or in content, and many contemporary strips are in no sense primarily humorous. The terms comics and comic strip became established about 1900 in the United States, when all strips were indeed comic."   Still, if anything characterizes her strip work, it is perils of a young woman.  This and the larger book work are filled with abuse and violence. One hopes it was not autobiographical. But she was ahead of her time.

There is a Hedwig Stohn from Newburgh, NY listed as being born in 1880.  Father of Elizabeth?  Husband?  There is an Elizabeth Stohn born nearby in 1910, which would make the artist a child while doing the works shown here, and only 14 at the time of enrolling in the Associated Art Studios.  Possible but unlikely?  She passed in 1988, and could be our artist, if a precocious one. In an earlier post on Dull Tool Dim Bulb a drawing by the artist was shown requesting further information.  As yet, no response.  Should additional information be forthcoming, it would be nice to see the entire 88 page graphic novel  "From Poverty to Luxary" (sic) published!

Works by Elizabeth Stohn 1918 - 1924 Collection Jim Linderman
(You may also be interested in the BOOK Eccentric Folk Art Drawings by the Author.
available from Blurb.

Blackface Theater. Young Women and Children of Vaudeville photographs by Frank Wendt

There are numerous studies and photographs of blackface in the American theater, but it is a bit less common to see women…and I guess even more unusual to see young women and children.  A series of cabinet card photographs circa 1910 of young vaudeville performers in burnt cork.  These were essentially among the first "publicity photographs" and sold at the stage door following performances.
 
Original cabinet card photographs by Frank Wendt circa 1910  (Wendt was the understudy of Chas Eisenmann, famed circus freak photographer.)
 
Collection Jim Linderman

Vintage Antique Gauze Linen Muslin Buckram Masks for Halloween or Theater

A fine group of novelty masks!

"Many of the masks for the early costumes were produced by U.S. Mask Company in Woodhaven, New York. Their earliest gauze masks, made of buckram, were sprayed with starch and steamed over a mold." according to the "Love to Know" website.  I am not so sure…as they can be found as coming from Czechoslovakia and other places (including the AMERICAN Mask Company, a company which originated in Europe.) They apparently moved to the United States around 1884.  They claimed to be the first mask manufacturing establishment in the United States of America.  Pages from the 1915 catalog are below. 
(Illustrated catalogue of papier mache, linen, wax, wire, gauze, show and curtain masks, noses, wigs, beards, etc. 1915 Findlay, Ohio)

Interestingly, they sold them in numerous categories including Dutchman, Devils, Dudes, Prominent men (such as presidents) and many more.  They appear to be a bit more dramatic than mine. I also find catalog pages as late as 1938 in cities other than Woodhaven.  They are probably still being made somewhere.

The material could be Buckram, which goes back to the Middle Ages.  It is a concoction of starch and strands of cotton.  You will find them called muslin, linen, gauze and likely more.  As with so many things, they look better beat-up after long use than pristine.  The ones above likely date to the late 1930s to the 1940s.

Thanks and a tip "o" the mask to BOXLOT on Facebook.

The Birth of Rock and Roll Number 4 from Dull Tool Dim Bulb

The Birth of Rock and Roll number four is an original slide circa 1950 from the Jim Linderman Collection, and we like it so much we gave it a watermark!  The Birth of Rock and Roll series of original photographs appears on Dull Tool Dim Bulb periodically.

Untitled Original Color Slide circa 1950 collection Jim Linderman

Phenix Sin City of the South and the Negro Apostolate Divine Savior

Phenix City, Alabama used to be ground zero for organized crime in the south.  You can look it up, and even though the city has tried hard to make you forget it, the stories persist.  Shooting, prostitution, gambling, bootleg liquor... and most of it there because the army trained thousands of hormone-filled young men nearby at Fort Benning, a considerable naive market for the criminal to prey on.  How many towns are called "The Wickedest city in the United States" even taking into account that cesspool of smut up north called Calumet?  (Heh Heh...Calumet.  Sin City and Phenix of the north!)  There have even been movies and songs written about Phenix, and a famous fictional guy named Maggot was from there!

Well, it is no wonder the African-American population chose another course for their children.  Mother Mary Mission and her Negro Apostolate of the Divine Savior.  It is still a happening place, and they even have a Facebook page.

Postcard, No Date.   Society of the Diving Savior Mother Mary Mission Phenix (Negro Apostolate of the Divine Savior)  Collection Jim Linderman.

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THIS IS ALSO A POST ON THE BLOG OLD TIME RELIGION BY JIM LINDERMAN

Slave Made African American Folk Art Figure ? Civil War Jekyll Island Georgia Collection Jim Linderman

A little Civil War man from Jekyll Island, Georgia.  Circa 1865, made as a whimsey from lead, I believe, and I assume the same lead used to make bullets.  That is a guess.  When I obtained the little fellow, he was in two parts, which is not surprising as lead is soft and he was buried a long time.  I have rejoined him temporarily for the photo.  You can see what he was found with below…relics.  Relics of a war we have still not come to grips with. How can we?  African American Slave Made Folk Art Figure? Or Mere Whimsey.

When I purchased this fellow, I had not mere whimsey in mind.  I was thinking of the famous slave-made iron figure also unearthed, but from a blacksmith's shop and slave quarters in Virginia, not a Civil War resting place.  The figure which has been written about by scholar John Michael Vlach is frequently used to illustrate African craft, sculptural traditions and skills which were transmitted across the Atlantic…setting the stage for a war fought over freedom and commerce just before the industrial revolution.

The similar stance, diminutive size and presence was evident immediately.  Were there slaves (or African-American freedmen) around the campfire in Jekyll Island when this fellow was melted in a spoon and shaped in the sand?  Or was this simply a way for a bored soldier, of either side, to spend some time.

Jekyll Island is called "an affordable Georgia Beach family vacation spot" today.  As with much of the low-country along Georgia and South Carolina, what was once plantation is now golf course.  Fifty years AFTER the importation of slaves to the United States became illegal, they were still coming to Jekyll Island.  The second to last shipment of slaves imported to the states arrived there in 1858…some 450 men torn from their homes and made to work.  I do not know how many men were on the boat when it left Africa, but one source says the ship Wanderer arrived with 409 slaves.  The mortality rate for passage was 12 percent, so that would be about right.

The people who arranged the illegal shipment knew what they were doing and knew the rewards.  They choose to profit. 

The Union Army arrived on St. Jekyll Island in 1862.  By that time the plantation was deserted, but after the war the man who owned the island returned and split it up among his sons.

So is my mere whimsey a more profound object now?  It is to me.  Did it just happen to be found during the same dig, but made earlier by an African-American man who lost his home but retained his esthetics?


"Relic" man  Metal (lead?) circa 1860  Height 4"  Collection Jim Linderman

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Skippy, Scrappy and Colortone American Toy Works Art Education Vintage Paint Set

Skippy, Scrappy and Colortone American Toy Works.  A lovely art set from the 1930s, and an excuse for me to plug one of my favorite books!

Colortone was but one of the product names for the American Toy Company, child's toy and game manufacturer active from around the 1920s to the 1940s in Long Island City.  They are not well-documented, but what is shown on the web displays a particularly beautiful graphic quality to their boxes.  Many of their products were art-orientated, including this huge and impressive set.  American Toy Company had their own line of crayons which were sold separately under the "Skippy" brand, and also "Scrappy" though I am not sure how many works of art like to be called scrappy.
 
Normally price stickers and such on original boxes don't add to the value, but in this case a "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS" pair of stickers from Grandma to Donald at least adds some charm.  Donald was not artistically inclined, the set is virtually untouched though funky with age…but the enclosed stencils to allow a child to cheat were well-used.


The book I love is a modest little thing I have mentioned before.  The beautiful "Objects of American Art Education"  by Diana Korzenik, which contains numerous items such as this from her own collection.  The catalog was published in 2004 but it still shows what a dedicated collector can do with persistence and vision.  I see a few copies on Amazon.  I rate it a BUY. 

American Toy Works  Colortone Paint Set, circa 1930  Collection Jim Linderman

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Widdicomb and Adams Furniture Grain Decoration in Grand Rapids Folk Art and Fine Art

CLICK TO ENLARGE Collection Jim Linderman

Salesman Sample circa 1880 Collection Jim Linderman

Furniture graining has been done for centuries, it is a technique which adds fine (appearing) wood grain to lesser woods.  An embellishment and enhancement.  Until the late 19th century, this was done by hand.  Either by the hand of a trained furniture-maker in a detailed, "fool the eye" manner but as often by amateurs who frequently used a nearly inept, but often most exuberant manner.

Both are enjoyed, but for me the crazy swirls and outlandish whorls of the amateur are far most interesting than those of a trained professional.  It is that old fine vs folk argument.  Do you like pretty or primitive?  Fancy or free-hand?  Some were done with hand-held combs, some appears to have been done with whatever was at hand, or even the hand itself!
The super-primitive style shown below on a piece of furniture I own is a good example of my preference, but others certainly enjoy a more accurate representation.

Until I found this bronze salesman sample for a wood and furniture graining machine, I never even thought about it being done as part of a manufacturing process.  It was new...and as you will see below,  the company represented on this little advertising plaque was responsible for patenting a portion of the technique.

Grand Rapids has been known as Furniture City, so it makes sense the machine emerged and was produced there.  Widdicomb Furniture began as a cabinet making company in 1858.  George Widdicomb, and after the Civil War, his numerous sons and relatives,  grew the company into increasing larger facilities with a growing payroll. 

The company was not limited by style or look, eventually becoming a most well respected manufacturer of "Chamber" style, American Empire, Colonial Revival, Chippendale, and in the 1930s Art Deco.  Later products were influenced by modern Scandinavian, Japanese and Shaker design. 

Several companies over the years manufactured under the Widdicomb name, and the family had a few subsidiaries and branches operating as well.  In 2002, Whiddicomb was absorbed into Stickley, Inc. and John Whiddicomb continues to be manufactured in Manlius, New York.

There was interest in improving the graining technique among the several Grand Rapids furniture companies.  The fine photograph below is from the Rare Victorian websitehttp://rarevictorian.com/2008/12/graining-machines-simulate-hardwood-grains.html which mentions other companies, and refers readers to the book Grand Rapids Furniture by Christian Carron.

Robert A. Adams of Grand Rapids invented and received the patent for his graining machine in 1880.  He indicates "by this method all the fine lines and fibers of the natural wood can be transferred to cheap wood, dispensing with the tedious and expensive process of veneering" which must have been of interest to the Widdicomb family. Two of the Widdicomb brothers went into business with Mr. Adams, possibly as investors?  At any rate, John and Harry are listed as officers in the short-lived company on the sample here.

The company records and archives, which are stored at the Grand Rapids Public Library contains stock receipts dated 1881 for the Adams Graining Company, and one for Widdicomb has turned up HERE shown below.
 
The Adams company (or rather division or subsidiary?) was located at 62 West Bridge Street.  Adams Graining and Decorating was absolved in 1900, so it would appear the machine founded to utilize the technique was either absorbed into Widdicomb, or abandoned.

Note the brass "card" above was "Grained and Decorated By Our Process" and you can see it ranges from fancy to primitive.  The sheet is two-sided and gives a good example of the techniques available.  It measures 4" x 6"  or so, about the size of a cabinet card photograph, which is what I assumed it was until I picked it up. The Brass or Tin is no thicker than a tintype photograph.

Adams Graining & Decorating Company Metal Salesman Sample circa 1880 Collection Jim Linderman

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