Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Texas Rural Musicians during the Depression Original Photograph c. 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

A rare original image from Depression-era Texas of rural musicians entertaining a small group (and a photographer) in front of their humble home.. Foxtone Border Prints operated out of San Antonio from 1925 or so at least through the 1930s.

Antique Folk Art Sculpture of Ned Cheeryble from Nicholas Nickelby

Antique Folk Art Sculpture of Ned Cheeryble from Nicholas Nickeby circa 1850
Collection Jim Linderman

Flag Pole Sitters and Flag Pole Sitting

I've always wondered why flag pole sitting hasn't made a comeback. I blame lawyers. No one wants a lawsuit, and I guess if you own the pole, you are responsible for who sits on it, and thus who may fall.

The first flagpole sitter was Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly. HERE is the story of flagpole sitting on Wiki.

Unidentified Flag Pole sitters, circa 1930 Real Photo Postcard Collection Jim Linderman
Books and Ebooks by the author available HERE

Clay Head Folk Art Sculpture

Clay Head Folk Art Sculpture circa 1940 collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN HERE

Large Brass Industrial Man Profile Template

Function Unknown. Brass Man's Profile Industrial Template, no date. 16 inches tall.
Collection Jim Linderman

Who Invented "Making it Rain?"

Making it Rain, an anonymous snapshot circa 1940 COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

Tired Sagging Vintage Dart Board

Tired Sagging Vintaage Dart Board Collection Jim Linderman

An Articulated Folk Art Doll Carving with Original Clothes

An Articulated Folk Art Doll Carving with Original Clothes collection Jim Linderman

Erotic Folk Art Motion Toy

Erotic Folk Art Motion Toy with soldered coat hanger handles. No Date

Jack Knife Village George Danner Creates a Miniature Folk Art City 1934

George Danner creates a miniature carved folk art city in 1934. On reverse "Mr. George Danner with his jack knife village"

Pair of original snapshots collection Jim Linderman

The Scrapbook of Folk Art Shell Paintings by Mary Monteath circa 1930

The handmade book / workbook / artist's journal of Mary Monteath circa 1930 contains 50 pages of "shell paintings" along with numerous watercolors, sketches and ideas for craft projects. All original. The artist sold her work at craft shows in Michigan. Included are notes on her projects, a typed letter describing sources for her tiny seashells and more. Collection Jim Linderman

Two Wise Old Birds Comic Foreground Real Photo Postcard (and Preview of New Book on Same)

Two Wise Old Birds place their mugs above the painted screen.
Collection Jim Linderman

Spectacles on Trial! U.S. Spectacle Company Chicago IL Advertising Post Card

Spectacles on Trial! U.S. Spectacle Company Chicago IL Advertising Post Card
Collection Jim Linderman

Tar Paper House Shack Michigan Vernacular Architecture 1911 RPPC Collection Jim Linderman

Tar Paper House Shack Vernacular Architecture Michigan 1911 RPPC Collection Jim Linderman

Homemade Leather Folk Art Cat Antique

Sewn by hand. Circa 1920. Leather with remnants of original embellishments. Collection Jim Linderman

Wood Carnival Ball Toss Folk Art Sculpture

Wood Carnival Ball Toss Folk Art Sculpture. Plywood, circa 1950 Original Paint (traces of "10" under each eye...) 26" x 42" Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Wood Cop Stop Sign

Folk Art Wood Cop Stop Sign Circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Nude (Split Woman's Torso Sculpure) Collection Jim Linderman

Anonymous Circa 1950 Folk Art Nude Carving Sculpture North Carolina Collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by the author available HERE

Make-Do Folk Art Reddi wip Watering Can

Make-Do Folk Art Reddi wip Watering Can No Date Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND $5.99 Ebooks by the author available HERE

Shot from a Cannon F. O. Gregg Daredevil, Stuntman, Astronaut and Fearless photo collection Jim Linderman

Shot from a Cannon. Fearless F. O. Gregg went on to daredevil fame with automobiles, but It would be hard to beat his "shot out of a cannon" stunt. He poses like an Olympian while flying...and this pose had to come while in transit.

Original 8 x 10 photograph circa 1930 Van Fossen Photo Chicago, IL and Beckers, Davenport IA, and Real Photo Azo Postcard circa same. Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE HERE

David Blom and his Big Oxen Pete and Punk visit the Fair!

Although I did find an article about Pete and Punk in a 1954 newspaper, it adds little to the big story.

Pete and Punk Postcard circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Amateur Porky the Pig Folk Art Mask and the legendary Porky Son of a...Son of a....Son of A.... Clip

A child's school project of Porky the Pig. See Porky swear in the clip below.

Amateur Folk Art Porky the Pig Mask. Plaster of Paris circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

A Complicated 6 Figure Antique Whirligig Folk Art

An early 20th century piece, but as it had a rotating circle atop the figures and mechanism while it lived outside, the piece is in pretty good condition. Two sawing men and four hammering men work as the gears turn by the wind. It would require a good deal of repair to be put back in working order, but the effort which went into the making is much evident.

Six Figure Whirligig, early 20th Century. Collection Jim Linderman

Early African-American Beauty Pageant circa 1955? Original transparent Slide Collection Jim Linderman

A striking, and notable photograph slide from the 1950s collection Jim Linderman

A decade or more before the chant "Black is Beautiful" some history appears to be happening here.

While the promoters likely wish you didn't know it now, "Rule Number Seven" prevented women of color from participating in the Miss America contest until around 1970! The rule specified contestants had to be of the white race, although much earlier pageants had used them in dance numbers as slaves. During the nascent days of the 1970s women's movent, they had reasons to hate the show they didn't even know. That is, the show did not objectify women equally!

This pageant, on the west coast by an unidentified photographer certainly not only proves how wrong the Atlantic City promoters were, it seems to break serious ground. As I wrote in the book "Secret History of the Black Pinup" it was photographer Howard Morehead who organized the first black beauty pageant in Los Angeles in 1958. This slide could document one even earlier.

In 2002, PBS aired a documentary in The American Experience series reporting Black communities organized their own, and they did. This is a splendid example, and one I believe was not widely reported. Further study? Black Beauty Pageants. The documentary mentions a 1968 pageant, but not this one.

Let's hope some doctoral students pick up on this. Black History Month is on the way.

Untitled Slide Photograph Untitled (Black Beauty Contest) circa 1955? 3" x 3"
Collection Jim Linderman

Young Girl Tintype with Pine Tree Painted Backdrop Folk Art Primitive Painting and Portrait

A folk art portrait and painting in one! The book THE PAINTED BACKDROP explores the relationship between folk art limners and early photographic painted backdrops. Available now as a $5.99 Ebook download for iPad HERE

The Painted Backdrop by Jim Linderman DULL TOOL DIM BULB

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman

"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form."
Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019

"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017

"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time"
John Strausbaugh in The New York Times

"...one of the blog writers to watch for"
ARTSlant

"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016

"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman"
The Museum of Everything 2014

"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016

"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."
LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."
Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."
Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."
Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."
Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers."
Brian Wallis in The New York Times

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."
William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"
Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"
Could it be Madness-this?

"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb"
The Cynephile

"Yo no sé ustedes pero creo que es uno de los mejores sitios que he visitado en mucho tiemp"
Color Me in Blog

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."
The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"
Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."
Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."
American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday."
"...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."
John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."
William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."
BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"
Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"
Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"
Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

Fair Use

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