Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Postage Stamp Ruse of 1935. Swapped Heads fool Uncle Sam

I discovered a fellow tricking Uncle Sam way back in 1935. See anything wrong with the two examples of stamps on top here? The 1 cent stamp is supposed to depict Franklin, yet Lincoln fills the center! The 2 cent stamp is supposed to depict Washington, but this one has Nathan Hale. In the second example, Franklin has been replaced with Washington! What the? Both envelopes have been mailed and the rogue stamps cancelled. The four relevant and proper stamps follow below. Pretty good, eh? Actually, one Charles Bradley expertly clipped out and swapped the heads before mailing them back to himself. Why? I dunno. I think some folks just like to put one over on the government. A while ago I gave an interview in which I claimed not to be a stamp collector. I guess I am now.

Mixed up US postage stamps circa 1935 Collection Jim Linderman

Vintage Handmade Paper Doll Folk Art and Backdrop circa 1930 Anonymous

Vintage Handmade Folk Art Paper Doll and Backdrop circa 1930? Anonymous.

Antique Folk Art Carved Wooden Horse and Cart 19th / early 20th c.

Antique Folk Art Carved Wooden Horse and Cart late 19th / early 20th c. 48 inches long, the horse is 21" tall and 24 inches long. Child's riding size! The largest pull toy I've even seen. Original paint. Handmade carriage is made of wood and shaped tin. Found in Michigan
Collection Jim Linderman

Painted Knees and Tattoo History by Carmen Forquer Nyssen

Having faces painted on your knees never really caught on, though I posted a pic a few years ago trying. Now, master tattoo historian Carmen Forquer Nyssen has sent this example. Thanks! Carmen maintains the best historical site on all things tattoo at BUZZWORTHY TATTOO HISTORY. Makes sense, as she is the Great Grand niece of legendary tattoo artist Bert Grimm, one of the most revered early artists of the genre. Carmen's site covers many other tattoo notables and her research is impeccable. Seriously serious work. Anyone with the slightest interest in tats (some 36% of all Americans) could spend hours on her site. Carmen has written numerous articles and is working on what will certainly be the definitive book on Mr. Grimm.

One can follow Buzzworthy Tattoo History HERE on Facebook. The website is HERE

Anonymous press photograph, circa 1925.

Little Women Folk Art Carvings by Anonymous

Wee whittled women. Size 3" to 7" tall. Found in New Jersey, circa 1940 - 1950.
Collection Jim Linderman

The Normal Union System of Industrial Drawing 19th c. Watercolor Paintings

There were eight volumes of the incomprehensible Normal Union System of Industrial Drawing published by Sower Potts and Co. in 1878. There were dozens of private "textbook" publishers at the time who sold technical manuals to schools and individuals. The bulk of this one seems to be as simple as replicating simple designs in the blank spaces. The written instructions require a microscope to read! Obviously, our student didn't do very well, and upon failing it appears a younger sibling repurposed the pamphlet as a coloring book for watercolors. Both fail. A few pages of examples.

National Union System of Industrial Drawing (5" x 9") 1878 with watercolor embellishments. Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Mail Art 19th Century Bike and Bridge

Folk Art Mail Art 19th Century. A bike and a bridge! Mailed within New York state, 1888. Collection Jim Linderman

Here Today... Sam Doyle's House c. 1992

Here today, gone tomorrow. Original photograph of Gullah artist Sam Doyle's house c. 1992 by Jim Linderman (bottom) and the same as seen in a cropped photograph by Roger Manley, I believe, from the early 1980s (top) A beautiful essay with considerable photographs of the environment are HERE on the Sam Seawright site.

Best Handmade Get Well Card EVER!

"Cheer up" made by hand get well card by Ellen B. Moore-Morrill circa 1950.
Courtesy BOXLOT on Facebook.

VICE ! 10 Original Press Photographs from the Golden Days of Obscenity collection Jim Linderman

The doorway to the Book Shack photograph by John Collier 1973 Free Press (Detroit?)

Candy Barr Stripped of Freedom 1957 photographer unknown, no source indicated

Pornography businesses line part of 66th Street N in Pinellas Park 1979 photograph by Barbara Hansen St. Petersberg Times

An interior view of the lobby office at the Geisha House which is a massage parlor and peep show at 414 West 42nd Street. The two gentlemen pictured are employees 1972 photographer unknown, New York Times

King's News raid 1961 photograph, source unknown

After some local residents complained and called the sign lewd and indecent, the North Hempstead Town Board asked him to add more clothes to the sign 1957 photographer unknown N. E. A.

Peep Shows 1953? Photograph by Knefel Chicago Sun Times

Vice raid 1957 photograph by Clarence B. Garrett The Sun Papers

New York minister holds news stand magazines that caused objections 1963 AP wirephoto photographer unknown

Customs officers check the books in preparation for burning 1964 photographer unknown Keystone Press Agency

Folk Art Shovel-Tailed Snow Snake Real Photo Postcard

Folk Art Shovel-Tailed Snow Snake Real Photo Postcard of Rice Lake, WI. "Largest one ever seen."
Collection Jim Linderman courtesy Curley's Antiques

The Church of God Jesus and the Holy Ghost by W.C.Rice

The Church of God Jesus and the Holy Ghost by W.C.Rice, Alabama. Original photograph Jim Linderman

Large Folk Art Whirligig in the Sky

Large Folk Art Whirligig original snapshot c. 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Puma by Michigan Carver Fred Alten c. 1910-1945 Collection Jim Linderman

Collectors Joe and Lee Dumas discovered 156 carvings by Mr. Alten hidden in a backyard shack 30 years after his death. There were 14 hand built cages holding the menagerie in darkness since Alten passed in 1945. Collector Julie Hall wrote in the first catalog devoted to the work. "Alten's animals were "captured" in green wood cages with metal bars. It was apparent that, once Fred finished a dozen or so animals, he stood them in cages, and then permanently fitted the metal bars around them in a rigid wooden frame." "They were very strong, and I had to smash some of the animals to get them out…" Dumas is quoted in The Detroit News in 1986. It appears now this figure was one of them. I was told the tail was likely broken at that time. It also explains why the figure was photographed here (Country Living Magazine September 1986) on their shelves positioned with no tail showing! I also now have the tail.

Over the years, Alten's works have been added to many museums, some through purchase, others by generous donations. A dozen standard works on folk and outsider artists include his work.

Alten created his animals from several pieces of wood mortised together. Joined portions are seen here. He also often covered the carvings in wax while painting them and used a comb or pointed object to create a "hair" effect. A good portion of this has been lost since the little fella was photographed, but it has knocked around a good while. The puma was an orphan.

Shown here in Country Living Magazine 1986.

Puma Fred Alten c. 1920-1945. Wood, was, original paint. Collection Jim Linderman

Elke Sommer Celebrity Artist

Celebrity painters seldom amount to much.Red Skelton, Ronnie Wood, Sly Stallone, Miles Davis...even Tony Bennett. All great, but snubbed by the insular real art world. They painted when they should have performed. But we make an exception for Elke Sommer. Why? Because the art world treats women artists like crap.Sexism abounds. Painting is STILL seen as a hard ham-fisted manly activity.Think Jackson Pollock grunting over a floor-sized abstract, or Julian Schnabel bossing the city of New York into allowing his rooftop to exceed New York City limits. It helps if you are a troubled genius who drinks too much too. Well, Elke is neither of those, as far as I know..AND her paintings are FOR SALE HERE I think. Most seem sold, but I didn't click through too many. Give Elke Sommer some major love. Buy a Painting!

New York Corn Shuckers original photograph c. 1905

A nice group photograph of what appears to be a good portion of the town shucking the corn crop. Note remnants of outer leaves on the ground. I'm not sure how much work they got out of the two fellows lower right. I have to say they appear to have spent the day with corn liquor instead of shucking tools. Photograph by Lorenzo Short, Rondout NY circa 1905.

Love During Wartime Anonymous Photographs Continuing Series

Pair of Vietnam-era amateur photographs. Love During Wartime is a continuing series on Dull Tool Dim Bulb the Blog. Collection Jim Linderman

Vagabond Rat Hand drawn Postcard

A Vagabond Rat Hand Drawn postcard from a traveler.
Ohio dated 1906 (detail)
collection Jim Linderman

old time religion Jesus Saves from FIRE

old time religion Jesus Saves from FIRE. Original photograph Jim Linderman. Circa 1995.

Women of the 1950s Drawings by Anonymous Self Taught Artist

A few of the hundreds of drawings produced by a West coast "shut in" during the period from 1950 to 1960. An earlier post on the artist appears HERE.

Robot Sex (It's our own fault, guys)

Looks like Robby the Robot is going to get lucky! Cribbed from the blog Good Stuff is the frightening modern world coming when men will be replaced with robots. I'm not surprised to find women might consider replacing us with plug-ins. It's our own fault.

Son Ford Thomas Bluesman, Sculptor, Gravedigger and his son James c. 1992

Son Ford Thomas Bluesman, Sculptor, Gravedigger and his son James Leland, Mississippi c. 1992
Original photograph Jim Linderman

Folk Art Tillie Toy circa 1930 Ashbury Park New Jersey Symbol Carnival Figure Original Paint

Handmade Folk Art Tillie, the famed character who represented the Ashbury Park, NJ arcade for a century. Named after George Tilyou, the owner of Steeplechase Park in Coney Island…but it was the New Jersey Tillie who was saved by Bruce Springsteen fans.

"Tillie" Folk Art carving made from cigar box wood. Circa 1930. Eyes move. Collection Jim Linderman

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

Though the images, which I have myself largely scanned from my personal collection of photographs and ephemera, some are subject to © by the artist, syndicate that distributed them or otherwise the individual artists. The use here is regardless covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:
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