Dull Tool Dim Bulb

At the Circus. Vintage photographs of Circus Performers and Trainers from the Jim Linderman Collection

Most of these antique circus photographs have appeared on the Dull Tool Dim Bulb blog before, each with a story and some documentation. This post is just to look. Various 19th and 20th century circus photographs Collection Jim Linderman

Antique American Folk Art Drawing Woman with Umbrella Anonymous late 19th Century Collection Jim Linderman

Courtesy the wonderful online shop CRITICAL EYE FINDS The site has beautiful and unique Items of interest to anyone who enjoys this blog! Folks are always asking where I find things? Critical Eye Finds is now one! Nice items, great photos and a transparent,fascinating pricing strategy. The inventory is selected by Kate Hackman, who has a strong fine art background. MUCH recommended! Antique American Folk Art Drawing Woman with Umbrella Anonymous late 19th Century Collection Jim Linderman CRITICAL EYE FINDS is HERE

Arthur S. Mole The Nine O'Clock Hour of Prayer or the Living Clock Hour of Prayer Mass Panorama 1915 RPPC Collection Jim Linderman

The Living Clock is a lesser known "mass panorama" photograph staged and photographed by Alfred S. Mole in 1915. This real photo postcard was mailed from Zion, Illinois the same year. I don't offhand find much about the piece, but Zion was a religious hotbed in the early 20th Century. Real Photo Postcard The Nine O'Clock Hour of Prayer or the Living Clock Hour of Prayer collection Jim Linderman Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE at Blurb.com. Scroll to see five books available.

Folk Art Handmade Postcard Teddy the Bear dated 1908

Folk Art Handmade Postcard Teddy the Bear dated 1908 Felt with cut paper letters and a hand painted applique. Collection Jim Linderman

Meet the Beatles Amateur Fan Drawings

Group of four (of course) amateur drawings of the Beatles. Anonymous. dated 1968. Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Outsider Art from The Seaside Psychiatric Hospital in Waterford Ct circa 1950-1970

Tempura or watercolor paintings on paper said to have been produced by a patient at the now abandoned Seaside psychiatric hospital in Waterford, Ct. I don't know about that, but they are very interesting. Group of paintings by F. Jennings circa 1950 - 1970. Collection Jim Linderman

Shopping for Pueblo Pottery Roadside Vendor Original Photograph c. 1930 collection Jim Linderman

A pair of travelers stop to shop for early 20th Century Pueblo Pottery of unknown tribal affiliation. The enlarged photo might allow someone to identify the pots for sale. Original Photograph collection Jim Linderman

A curious Folk Art Watercolor Painting c. 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

A curious Folk Art Watercolor Painting c. 1900, likely from Pennsylvania. On scrap paperfound in a scrap book. Anonymous. Collection Jim Linderman

Young girl in a foreboding Background Foreground Backdrop vintage photograph

Quite a photo setting...a wonderful photograph sent here for my birthday from a collector who has a better eye then I! It looks scary, but she's not alone. There are three other photos showing Mom, Dad and all three together. Vintage snapshot, no date. Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb

African-American Yard Show Outsider Art Folk Art Environment Assemblage Art Alabama c. 1993

Original photographs of a previously undocumented African-American Yard Show taken in the early 1990's by Mary Klein and Jim Linderman. The gentleman who built the environment, which was nearly as tall as his garage, is today unknown. Somewhere in Alabama, lost in the past. Dull Tool Dim Bulb the Blog.

Popular Culture Perceptions of the ARTIST Studio tour of Vintage Sleaze Paperbacks with Depictions of an Artist

Over the years while collecting obscure Vintage Sleaze paperbacks for a project, I accumulated a whole pallette of cruddy books based on the public perception of the passionate pleasures available to painters. Here are a few from the 1950s and 1960s...Share them all with your artist friends! See available books and affordable ebooks by Jim Linderman on BLURB.COM

Antique American Folk Art Drawing 19th Century "Meeting of the Old Man and his Grandson" collection Jim Linderman

Antique American Folk Art Drawing 19th Century "Meeting of the Old Man and his Grandson" Anonymous Collection Jim Linderman

Homemade Science Fiction Pulp Magazine Cover Drawn by Hand 1938 Collection Jim Linderman

This Science Fiction Pulp Magazine from before World War Two has been saved from destruction with a handmade cover! I am not sure how high the "pass-around" rate was for these rags, but this one has had life extended with the repair. Featuring an Edgar Rice Burroughs story titled "Synthetic Man of Mars" from 1938, it is the artistic vision of the humble home artist which interests me. He created a hand-written spine as well. Hand Drawn Science Fiction pulp magazine cover,created sometime after 1938. Collection Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb.

19th Century Child's Handmade Paper Weaving Froebel Kindergarten Work

19th Century Child's Handmade Paper Weaving. Froebel Kindergarten. From a handmade book of similar work. The simple (yet sophisticated!) training techniques of Frederich Froebel continue to set a high bar for children's art education. 19th Century Child's Handmade Paper Weaving. Collection Jim Linderman

Drawing of Haley's Comet 1910 on a piece of Birch Bark circa 1910 Folk Art

A scarce period Drawing of Haley's Comet circa 1910 on a piece of Birch Bark. A drawn by hand postcard. It's a curious one...a boy rushes in riding the comet with a net to collect mosquitos! Of course there was worldwide panic at the time. A good share of the fear came from religious nuts. My favorite factoid is that the impending doom resulted in a run on "anti-comet umbrellas" and protective pills. Collection Jim Linderman BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE AVAILABLE HERE ON BLURB.COM

Paper Doll Antique American Folk Art Make-Do Newspaper Doll collection Jim Linderman

One of the best "make do" folk art dolls I have seen, this is an original doll made of rolled newspapers. Dated 1947,with Phildelphia, Pennsylvania origin. 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:
1. The image illustrates an educational article; its inclusion in the article adds significantly to understanding the text because it is a historical sample of the art covered in the critical commentary, and shows use of an innovative style. Therefore the image substantially improves the educational value of the article.
2. The image is used as the primary means of visual identification of the article topic, which directly concerns a visual artist, and is indicative of the style for which hethe artists are renowned.
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4. It is not in any way replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image pertinent to the work referenced in the article

The copyright for some images are most likely owned by either the publisher, the writer(s) and/or artist(s) which produced them originally.

Any other uses of this image may be copyright infringement.

Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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