Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Outsider Art Journalism from Home! Douglas Levicki Amateur Homedrawn Newspaper from England

One of Douglas Levicki's handmade newspapers "The Enterprise Magazine" published (in his mind) in 1935. The reporter produced numerous issues in the 1930s, if only for an audience of his family. He covered British radio stars, reported on the latest neighborhood gossip and provided lots of puzzles and gags. It is unlikely any were printed for distribution, but the obsessive work stands today as a beacon of the free press...and no trash like Murdoch's tabloid junk! Select pages from The Enterprise homemade newspaper. C. 1935. Collection Jim Linderman

Antique carved folk art stone

An antique folk art stone handcarved with incised initials. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Naive Outsider Art of Moses Baker

Naive Outsider Art of Moses Baker. 1974-1975. No further information on the artist. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Tintograph Stencil Children's Art Kit c. 1915

Several of these lovely 19th century stencil kits for children have been refound and posted over the years, but this one appears to be missing in action. Turned up by Natalie Curley Antiques.

19th Century Folk Art Ledger with Drawings from Students in a One Room School

Drawings dated 1894 from a one room school in King's Corner, Ohio. Doesn't seem to be much of a town there anymore. Note one drawing was created using a "pin-prick" technique. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Untitled Cement Sculpture (Man looking Left) circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Untitled Cement Sculpture (Man looking Left) circa 1950 15" tall. Collection Jim Linderman

Giant Tin Sardine Can Submarine Explores Lake Michigan Waters Folk Art Fish Sculpture

Well, a giant homemade fish submarine! "Lake Crossing in Sardine Can" reads the caption. I'm not sure the date. The fish is just over ten feet long. The maker Barney Connett prepares for launch.

Original A.P. Wirephoto circa 1950?

Rasmus Petersen

Rasmus Petersen stands by his rock garden Statue of Liberty with an odd plaque reading "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think" for some reason.

Antique Articulated Figure Folk Art Dancing Man

Antique Articulated Figure Folk Art Dancing Man c. 1920 Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Foot Ephemera

The small art of the mailed foot. Two of these anyway. The smallest is actually a Lady's Calling Card. Late 19th / Early 20th Century. Collection Jim Linderman

Apocalyptic Worship of the Antichrist Photograph of an Unknown Painting

Apocalyptic Worship of the Antichrist Photograph of an Unknown Painting. This is an original photograph circa 1920 (?) of a work I haven't identified. We'll have to rely on the frightening notes from the reverse. Tribulation Worship of the Antichrist, Rider of the white horse also dark horse of the famine, gray horse of Death, the lambs book of life. Is your name written there?

Original photograph, no date collection Jim Linderman

Pin Up Vending Machine Smut Ring Smashed! Meet the Press 1959

Chicago citizens will sleep better knowing the pin-up peep shows have been unplugged by Chief Investigator Paul Newey. Since there was no other crime in Chicago on this day in 1959, Chief Paul invited the press over to see his collection of confiscated coin-op smut. Paul's pursuit of the peep shows was crime-bustin' action of the highest order.

Original Press Photograph (8" x 13") with original corresponding published headline. Unknown Chicago Paper 1959 Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Emoji : Astonished Man

Folk Art Emoji. Wood carving with brad eyes.
Collection Jim Linderman

How to have a Office Romance on Zoom

How to have a Office Romance on Zoom. "Eye Flirtations" from All About Girls: Joke Pictures, Stories (no date) circa 1920.

Antique American Folk Art Drawings by Mantie L. Throckmorton 1925

Two drawings by one Mantie L. Throckmorton 1925. Oil Derrick and a Bicycle which would be pretty hard to build...but what a beauty. From a large sketchbook started around the same time the artist began taking lessons. Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Lake Tamarack Jigsaw Heaven Folk Art

Anonymous snapshot of Jigsaw yard art, New Jersey. No Date (circa 1950?)
Collection Jim Linderman

Primitive "Sailor" Whirligig Folk Art

Primitive "Sailor" Whirligig Folk Art with replaced paddles? Circa 1950.
Collection Jim Linderman

United States Map of Buttons

Buttons and Buttons. I took a break to appreciate this PRE-Coronavirus map of the United States. Postcard from the Lightner Museum of Buttons along with two "isolated" button kid composites. Circa 1950.

Thanks to Boxlot on Facebook.

Folk Art Foot Fetish ? Bizarre Carving of a Foot.

Wooden foot carving circa 1960, slightly larger than life size. Needless to say? Odd.
Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Vernacular Photographs: Let Us Entertain You

Vernacular Photographs: Let Us Entertain You. A few forgotten performers. Original photographs 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

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