Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Needle Books

The point here? Anything is collectible and everyone should collect something. Even an object as mundane as a book of sewing needles has some merit, and these usually cost less than a hamburger.
Group of Early 20th Century Sewing Books Collection Jim Linderman

My Big Brother Jesus

Mail for the kids from Jesus, 1960 style. One even has a mirror so the offending heathen can't avoid seeing their own guilty mug.

Three "gentle reminders" circa 1960 Collection Jim Linderman

Nail-O-Gram

"TAKE YOUR TIME"... "That looks nice son"... "Well, that was a short birthday"... Pressman Toys was founded in 1922. As unlikely as it may seem from this astoundingly underwhelming toy, they remain in business today.
Nail-O-Gram Box and finished product c. 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

Roadside America

Imagine if your father's old train set could have filled an airplane hanger. (I hear Neil Young's does, and everything Neil does is cool) Well, "Roadside America" is a train set not only as big as a football field, it also has a fantastic creepy vibe from 1935, when it still was amazing that you could push a button and make things move. (Note bell-ringer button above) FOUR THOUSAND tiny industrious people and FOUR HUNDRED little buildings. Not only that, STILL OPEN EVERY DAY. I've been, more than once, and here is the spoiler: after letting you roam free a while to get value for your dollar, they line you up against the rear wall, stand you on bleachers, turn off all the lights and play a scratchy patriotic soundtrack while illuminating various things which make America great...first the churches, then various elements of throbbing industry, and finishing big with huge waving flags. Everyone leaves stunned and head further down the road to Hershey, PA for fresher treats. They have a website which could also use a little dusting off.

Three Roadside America postcards c. 1960 Collection Jim Linderman

Lead In My Pencil Blues and Collecting Pencils

ANY advertising pencil is fun. These all happen to be farm and farm supply examples.

Pencil trivia, of course, abounds, but none equals the masterful lyrics in which INNUENDO abounds by Johnny "Geechie" Temple who in 1935 recorded "Lead Pencil Blues"

I laid down last night, couldn't eat a bite
The woman I love don't treat me right
Lead in my pencil, baby it's done gone bad
And it's the worst old feelin' baby, that I've ever had

I woke up this mornin', my baby mighty mad
Cause the lead in my pencil, it's done gone bad
Lead in my pencil, baby it's done gone bad
And that's the worst old feelin' that I've ever had

My baby told me this mornin', she's feelin' mighty blue
Lead in my pencil just wouldn't do
And she said "Been ready all night -- Lead in your pencil daddy, just wouldn't write"
Lead in my pencil, baby it just won't write
And it's the worst old feelin' baby, that I've ever had

My baby says she goin' to quit me I'll tell you for this reason why
Lead in my pencil gone bye-bye
Laid down last night, couldn't help but cry
Wanted to write so bad, I was about to die
Lead in my pencil, baby it's done gone bad
And it's the worst old feeling baby, that I've ever had

Group of Advertising Pencils c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Where Warther Worked

Mr Warther worked at a steel mill 21 years but his splendid model took only 9 months. Note the big-ass trunk he used to lug it around! A "groganized" real photo, circa 1955. Grogan Photo was a Danville Illinois producer of real photos.

Steel Mill Carved of Walnut and Ivory by Ernest Warther
Real Photo Post Card circa 1955 Collection Jim Linderman

Order of Service

Location Unknown, Southern United States Original 35mm photograph and detail c. 1995 Collection Jim Linderman

Heart

Last night as the radio and I faded, I heard a fellow who claimed to be growing a new heart. True or not, it is clearly possible, and highly probable we we be able to grow human heart valves internally very shortly. Who will PAY for folks living to 120 and beyond is dicey, since there are already rumblings in both congress and medical ethics circles indicating we are simply not going to be able to provide retirement funds to those who live as long retired as they did working. The inevitable result will be those who can afford to pay for a new heart will be able to have one. One of the components of any health care proposal being discussed is how to determine those who gets and those who don't. Though if you rely on the "news" you'd think the only stumbling block is being able to "choose your own doctor." The rest of us will meet the ice flow which drifts away, so to speak. Not a cheerful valentine, but then chocolate jazzes the endorphins, so partake.

Miniature hand-painted Sacred Heart of Jesus Anonymous
1" x 1" circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

Hang Fire Books

Just a quick note of thanks to Hang Fire Books, one of the best sources of vintage sleazy paperbacks, obscure books and the owner of one of the most interesting blogs around. The proprietor is an old time picker in the best sense of the word. He combs the cobblestones of Brooklyn and turns up wonderful things, all the while reporting his success rate (which seems pretty good) He also builds a damn fine bookcase, this being done with wood and nails rather than his usual dry wit. He blurbed me, which is appreciated. His blog (and others I follow religiously) shows under my ABOUT ME page here. ALL the blogs I have bookmarked there are way above average, and you can also see the other blogs I write.

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.
3. Images are of lower resolution than the original. The image is not used here for profit.

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.

Any Trademarks used in this item listing are used for strictly descriptive purposes only. No association or endorsement is implied or inferred. No character or trademark ownership is given or implied.

If you are the owner of any aspect of an item which you believe to be copyrighted, please contact us immediately at j.winkel4@gmail.com