Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Fat Man Walking (Literally, THE Fat Man Walking) Circus Snapshot

Fat Man Walking (Literally, THE Fat Man Walking) Circus Snapshot 1958
Collection Jim Linderman

Justin McCarthy American Painter Nude Painting (detail)

Justin McCarthy American Painter Nude Painting (detail) circa 1965 Collection Jim Linderman

Man with Glasses and Top Hat Antique American Folk Art Carving

Man with Glasses and Top Hat Antique American Folk Art Carving Collection Jim Linderman

Giving Thanks Folk Art Drawing 19th Century

Giving Thanks Folk Art Schoolgirl Drawing 1876
Collection Jim Linderman

Adonis of 1936

Adonis 1936 Original drawing by Wm. Fitzgerald

Shooting Gallery Carnival Sideshow Hand-Painted Sign Banner

Shooting Gallery Carnival Sideshow Hand-Painted Sign Banner on canvas. Somewhat cryptic instructions. "Shoot off Hand?" Mid 20th Century collection Jim Linderman

Antique Nantucket Whirligig and Weathervane Late 19th Early 20th Century

Late 19th / Early 20th Century. You'll see that phrase often describing American folk art Sculpture. A real photo postcard dated 1914. Was this fellow in business 14 years earlier? Probably. This "Nantucket Merchant" has the standard Sailor whirligig and Whale weathervane, but the art-twirling Bear (second from left) never really took off. It's up to you if the crow on the right is real or not...cheap printing. Most of the crows around here won't let you get too close. (See his competitor below on the back cover of our new book)
Original Real Photo Postcard 1914 Collection Jim Linderman.

Antique Folk Art Drawing Woman with a Veil c. 1865 on Ledger Paper (Detail)

Antique Folk Art Drawing Woman with a Veil on Ledger Paper 1865 (Detail)
COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN

Old Folk Art Primitive Goose in Flight Whirligig

Old Folk Art Primitive Goose in Flight Whirligig. Abstracted Sculpture bird form. Circa 1950. Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Southern Hooked Rugs Folk Art from Georgia RPPC Collection Jim Linderman

Adairsville, Georgia is about halfway between Atlanta, GA and Chattanooga, TN. Route 75 probably allows one to skirt the roadside craft folk one could have run into during the 1930s, but it looks like Mrs. J. A. Greene did all right. Hooked Rugs and knick-knacks of wood likely made by her son. Folk Art of the rural South. RPPC dated 1941 Collection Jim Linderman
SEE ALSO THE BOOK AND EBOOK IN SITU: AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE available from Blurb.com

Hong Kong Beatniks

MAN ITS COOL! OH MAN ITS AWAY OUT! My long beatnik cigarette holder is good, because my hip doctor dadio told me to "stay away from cigarettes!"
Imported Hong Kong popular culture. Thanks and a way-out howl to Box Lot on Ebay.

The Boss Leaves Early. The Workers do Not Original vintage photographs collection Jim Linderman

The Boss Leaves Early. The Workers do Not. Original vintage photographs circa 1900
Collection Jim Linderman

African-American Folk Art Sculpture Yard Art in Georgia Hank Aaron Original Photographs by Jim Linderman

I am not disclosing the location of these beautiful cement folk art tributes in a yard in Georgia. As I recall, the artist has been written about some...but these photographs are over 20 years old and I do not know if the work still stands. Hank Aaron, an airplane, a bird. African-American Folk Art Sculpture created as environmental work tends to end up in others hands if it can be moved. I hope this work remains or has found a museum home by now.

African-American Folk Art Sculpture Yard Art in Georgia Hank Aaron Original Photographs by Jim Linderman circa 1990 - 1995.

SEE ALSO THE JIM LINDERMAN BOOK IN SITU: AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE 250 pages! Vintage photographs of folk art sculpture, yard art, folk art environments and outsider art of the 19th and 20th century. AVAILABLE HERE in Paperback ($23.39) and EBOOK ($9.99)

Real Photo Postcard of a Man Getting Hit with a Rock Trick RPPC

A gimmick real photo postcard. UFO in the sky? I think a photo trick. Either that, or he's not going to be standing very much longer. Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND AFFORDABLE INSTANT EBOOKS BY THE AUTHOR HERE

Justin McCarthy Art Drawing of Wilt Chamberlain 1960

Justin McCarthy Art Drawing of Wilt Chamberlain 1960 Collection Jim Linderman
See Also HERE

Primitive Mallet with Boot Heel Make-Do Repair

Primitive Mallet with Boot Heel Make-Do Repair.
Turn of the century handmade tool original Barn red paint and rubber repair
Collection Jim Linderman

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

Masked Woman snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

Happy Halloween.
Masked Woman original snapshot no date (1950?) Collection Jim Linderman

Large Sewer Tile Sewer Pipe Folk Art Gorilla Bank 20th Century 15" Clay End of Day Pottery Sculpture

Large Sewer Tile Sewer Pipe Folk Art Gorilla Bank Early 20th Century 15". Inscribed on chest "MARGIE" which could be the maker's daughter? Likely based on King Kong..there have been numerous commercial banks with similar form sold over the years. A massive piece weighing nearly 13 pounds. Collection Jim Linderman
See also books and instant ebook downloads by the author HERE

Untitled (Young Woman) Drawing by "D. M. C." 1935

Untitled (Young Woman) Drawing by "D. M. C." 1935 Collection Jim Linderman
See Also the new 200 page BOOK and EBOOK Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries

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

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