Treasures and Musings @ Modern Graphic History Library

Honoring Mom This Mother's Day

This Sunday is Mother's Day.  It's the day to honor your mother for all she's done for you.

When she cared for you as an infant...

 
   John Gannam's Balanced Pacific Sheets advertisement, Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 19. 1919.

 

And stayed with you when you couldn't sleep...

   

Al Parker illustration from Jane's Blanket, 1963

 

When she made sure you had practiced for your music lesson...

 
 Haddon Hubbard Sundblom's fiction illustration, Ladies Home Journal, Jan. 1936.

 

And made sure you ate a healthy, germ-free breakfast...

 
  Listerine advertisement, Delineator, Feburary 1930

 

So this Sunday, make sure to do something nice for her.

 
  Al Parker's December 1939 Ladies Home Journal cover

 

Offer to do some of the housework  ...

 
 Bon Ami advertisement, Delineator, May 1929

 

Or help with the laundry ...

 
   McCall's cover by Haddon Hubbard Sundblom, March 1933.

 

You could always give her flowers ...

Shredded Wheat advertisement, McCalls, April 1930.

 

Or just give her a hug...

 

Fiction illustration by Al Parker for Joy Street, by Betty Gor, McCalls, Feb. 1949

 

And wish her a Happy Mother's Day!

Al Parker's Jane's Blanket drawing and fiction illustrations are part of the Al Parker Collection. The Haddon Hubbard Sundblom illustrations and John Gannam's Balanced Pacific Sheets advertisements are part of the Charles Craver Collection.  Advertisements from Delineator and McCalls are from the Periodicals Collection. 

 

May Day Outfit Suggestions

Modern Graphic History Library wishes you a Happy May Day! 

In order to celebrate, you will need something nice to wear.  Why not make a paper dress?  It's economical and easy to make, plus very fashionable. (Just be careful sitting down, so your hard work doesn't get crumpled or torn!)

Ladies Home Journal, May 1913

To create these dresses, you will need:

• paper
• stiff netting
• ribbon
• appliqués
• paste (to glue the appliqués on the paper)
• strong thread (to sew the paper onto a white slip) 

This assumes you have a white slip to use as the foundation for the dress.  If not, you can easily buy one at a local department store for 75¢, or you can just use an old white dress you no longer want.

Ladies Home Journal, May 1913

The violet dress is the least expensive to create at $1.10.  The rosebud dress only costs $1.45, but you save 25¢ if you can leave off the rose leaves on the hat.  The most expensive outfit is the daisy dress, at $2.60. 

A leaflet with full instructions for the dresses is available by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to the magazine.

Ladies Home Journal, May 1913

The children and teens will also need outfits, but paper dresses probably aren't the best option.  For something more durable, check out these "May styles" from Butterick. 

Delineator, May 1929

Patterns (with instructions and finishing ideas) range between 30¢ - 50¢, with most costing just 35¢.  You can order your patterns through the mail, or stop in at the Butterick store in St. Louis (located on Pine.)

Delineator, May 1929

Now that you have something to wear, you can enjoy the May Day Festivities, courtesy of University Archives.

All of the dress images are from Modern Graphic History Library's Periodicals Collection.

Spring Cleaning with MGHL

Now that it's Spring, it's time for all the fun and excitement that comes from spring cleaning.  Yes, spring cleaning is supposed to be fun-- you will be smiling the entire time.  For those of you feeling skeptical about this and need proof, see below...

For all scrubing all of your wooden items, you will need Old Dutch Cleanser, at only 10¢ a can.  Don't worry: it comes with full instructions, so you can smile as you scrub.

 
   Advertisement in Ladies Home Journal, September 1913.

For the rest of the house, you can rely on Bon Ami.  It promises it will not scratch as it cleans, so you can happily wash the windows, the mirrors, the bathtub, and the woodwork.

 
   Advertisement in Ladies Home Journal, April 1911.

After you have cleaned your woodwork, you will need to continue to dust it.  With your free sample of Liquid Veneer, you will be one of millions of women around the world happily singing a dusting song. 

 
   Advertisement in Ladies Home Journal, April 1911.

When it comes time to clean the floors, you will need an O'Cedar Polish Mop, which promises that mopping and polishing will be "just like play." The mop costs between $1 - $1.50, and the polish only costs 25¢. You can try the mop risk-free for two days.

  Advertisement in Ladies Home Journal, December 1913.

After you've done all this work, you can't forget to clean the carpets.  For that, have a Hoover representative come to your house to demonstrate a vacuum, ranging from $59.50 - $135.

  Advertisement in Delineator, April 1929.

Now that your Spring Cleaning is finished, you should have brightened your day (as well as your house.)  However, if you are still feeling sad, a handsome stranger could always approach you and say:

"You could wash all the floors you wanted to in my house."

 Al Parker illustration for the short story Little Things are Big Things by Alice A. Fraser,  appearing in the August 1935 Woman's Home Companion.

All of the advertisements can be found in the MGHL's Periodicals collection, which includes Ladies Home Journal, Delineator, and McCalls.  The Al Parker fiction illustration is part of the Charles Craver tearsheet collection.  Happy Spring Cleaning!

Back to School Shopping with MGHL

Classes have begun, but do you have everything you need? Take a look at these advertisements -- you may see a few things you forgot. All images are from the Periodicals Collections or the Charles Craver Collection.

Blazers and loafers make "the perfect outfit." This Penaljo ad appeared in the September 1951 issue of the travel magazine Holiday.

As this 1951 ad (also from Holiday) notes, "no back-to-school wardrobe is complete without a Troy Robe!"

This article from the September 1929 issue of The Delineator gives an overview of what every young woman should take to college, including a tweed suit (Figure C) and a fur coat (Figure A).

This 1946 ad illustrated by Pete Hawley promises that a Jantzen girdle will "give the figure proper verve." We especially like the bulletin board in the background full of college-related ephemera, including a photo of a pipe-smoking boyfriend.

Mario Cooper Illustrating Agatha Christie

During her lifetime, British mystery writer Agatha Christie published 66 detective novels. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s -- the peak of Christie's career -- in the U.S. these works often first appeared as serials in magazines like Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, and Redbook, giving fans an opportunity to read and follow a story months before the book's publication.  While many artists illustrated her work, perhaps no illustrator collaborated with her more than Mario Cooper; by our count his illustrations accompany at least 8 of her novels that appeared in Collier's. Cooper's illustrations for Christie's fiction are striking, economical, and bring a bit of glamor to detective fiction. All of the images below are tear sheets from the Charles Craver Collection. To learn more about the collection or Mario Cooper, check out the collection's finding aid.

Cooper's first illustrations for Christie were Appointment with Death, which Collier's published in nine installments from August 28 to October 23, 1937. This novel, as all of the others in this post, feature Christie's best-known and most frequently used character, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The amazing sky in the background of the first image reveals Cooper's expertise with watercolors; for many years he taught the medium, and from 1959 to 1986 was president of the American Watercolor Society.

Murder for Christmas (published in the UK as Hercule Poirot’s Christmas) followed Appointment with Death. It appeared in ten parts in Collier's from November 12, 1938 to January 14, 1939. This illustration (like the one below from The Patriotic Murders) has relatively few components, but the simple, if slightly off composition and bold color perfectly convey the tension in Christie's fiction.

Sad Cypress appeared in Collier's in ten parts from November 25, 1939 to January 27, 1940. Reviews of the novel ranged from modestly positive to lukewarm, perhaps the inevitable result of being the follow up to the wildly popular And Then There Were None, Christie's biggest success and the best-selling mystery of all time.

The Patriotic Murders (published under the name One Two, Buckle My Shoe in the UK) appeared in nine installments from August 3 to September 28, 1940.

Women in Pop Culture at the Modern Graphic History Library

We've created a new research guide about mid-century depictions of women in popular culture. Women as girlfriends, wives, single girls, mothers, homemakers, workers, consumers, rebels, femme fatales, even superheroes...they're all here. The guide provides an overview of what kind of materials and images we have in our collections and how to find them, recommended books, and an image gallery. It will be particularly helpful to users interested in 20th century ideas about gender roles, domesticity, consumerism, sexuality, and feminism. A few highlights are included below. Check out the Women in Popular Culture at MGHL research guide to see more.

Al Parker ad for American Airlines, from Ladies' Home Journal, September 1950

From the Al Parker Collection

Al Parker illustration for Ladies' Home Journal, August 1946

From the Al Parker Collection

Ladies' Home Journal, August 1912

From the Periodicals Collections

Wonder Woman #137

From the Center for the Humanities Comics Collection (A new collection we're currently preparing for public use. We'll have more information about it very soon!)

Edwin Georgi illustration from The Saturday Evening Post, December 1944

From the Charles Craver Collection

Advertisements at the Modern Graphic History Library

We've created a new research guide about advertisements in the MGHL collections. The guide provides an overview of what kinds of advertisements are in our collections and how to find them, links to other digital image collections focused on advertisements, recommended books, and an image gallery showcasing items from our collections. We've included a few highlights from the gallery below. Please check out the Advertisements at MGHL research guide to see more.

Al Parker ad for American Airlines, May 1951, from the Al Parker Collection

Ad for Campbell's Soup, illustrator unknown, from the Charles Craver Collection

Earl Cordrey ad for Listerine from Ladies' Home Journal, May, 1946, from the Charles Craver Collection

Fred Mizen ad for Coca-Cola from Ladies' Home Journal, February 1925, from the Charles Craver Collection

Mario Ruben Cooper ad for Pontiac from the Saturday Evening Post, May 11, 1940, from the Charles Craver Collection

Ad for Van Camp's Pork and Beans from Ladies' Home Journal, December 1911, from the Periodicals Collections

George Salter & The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

One of the largest collections within our Periodicals Collections is The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. We have 40 years' worth of issues, and perusing them you'll not only come across familiar writers -- such as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Ursula K. Le Guin -- but encounter work by some of the most influential individuals in mid-century illustration and graphic design.

One example is George Salter, the magazine's art editor from its first issue in 1949 until 1958. Salter designed the calligraphic logo, illustrated several early covers, and helped establish the look of F&SF. When Salter came to the magazine, he already had had a hugely successful career in book design, and was (and still is) well known in the field for his innovative and beautiful dust jackets. Although there are many bios available about him online, few mention his illustrations for F&SF.  A look at Salter's covers, however, shows that they're worth remembering alongside his other work: they are engaging, unconventional, and somehow manage to evoke something about science fiction and fantasy without relying on clichés. Take a look:

If you're interested in seeing more of Salter's work, you can check out some of his book cover designs here and here. If you'd like to see more F&SF covers, the site Galactic Central has scanned every issue of the magazine's run, and you can find them here.

Beauty Secrets from the Periodicals Collections

Much like today, advertisements about maintaining an attractive appearance were a staple of early twentieth-century women's magazines. This week we bring you a selection of beauty-related ads from our Periodicals Collections.

 
This ad for Othine which appeared in a July 1929 issue of the Delineator states that the product will free you from the shame of having freckles by removing "these homely spots." Because darker or tanned skin was considered less desirable than fair skin, during the early twentieth century there were countless products promising to lighten skin and fade blemishes, freckles, and liver spots. Unfortunately, many of these products, like other cosmetics of the era, contained harmful amounts of mercury.

Sometimes ads for personal hygiene and beauty products reflected the changing ideas about gender and femininity, as is the case with this ad from a May 1930 issue of the Delineator. "Can a girl Smoke and still be Lovely?" The answer, of course, is yes -- with the help of the right toothpaste.

Scanning our old periodicals, you're likely to find ads for a familiar product with an unfamiliar angle. Listerine was originally created in 1879 as a surgical antiseptic, and over the years has been marketed in many different ways for a variety of purposes. This ad, from an October 1929 issue of McCalls, touts the product's ability to "close pores...tighten sagging muscles" and keep skin youthful.

Even ads for foods and household items sometimes centered on femininity and attractiveness, suggesting that a woman's appearance was the result of not just proper hygiene or a beauty routine, but all aspects of her life. According to this ad from the February 1930 issue of the Delineator, if a look in the mirror reveals sallow skin, dark circles, and dull eyes, chances are it's because you're not eating Post's Bran Flakes: "the pleasant way to build a background for beauty."

Again, we've saved our favorite for last. This ad for Wrigley's Doublemint gum published in the February 1930 issue of the Delineator claims that, thanks to chewing gum, "the enchanting women of ancient Aztec civilization probably had the most exquisite teeth and youthful  loveliness of mouth of all the women who ever lived" and therefore "chewing Wrigley's for beautiful lips is but making use of an old Beauty Secret." When Wrigley's began including packages of chewing gum with their baking powder in the early 1890s, the free gift proved to be so successful that the company phased out their primary product and shifted their focus to gum soon after.

Christmas Gift Ideas from Ladies' Home Journal

Just in time for the holidays, below are a few Christmas gift ideas from Ladies' Home Journal, one of the magazines you can find in our Periodicals Collections.

Handmade cravats, watch fobs, ash trays, and laundry bags are some of the ideas "fourteen men suggested...as acceptable Christmas gifts" in the November 15, 1910 issue.

From the Christmas 1915 issue, this feature on last minute gift ideas "for those who have been busy with other affairs" observes that there's still enough time to crochet slippers, a bag, or hat trimmings.

A page from the November 15, 1910 issue  notes that because "youthful enthusiasm is at its height during college days" handmade blankets, pennants, and pillows bearing the school's name will "bring a thrill of pleasure and happy recollections to the students at home."

 

Our favorite Christmas present idea comes from a December 15, 1910 issue that recommends a puppy or kitten for the child who already has plenty of toys. The feature suggests presenting the new pet with a bow tied around its neck, sitting in a basket decorated with ribbon and holly. (While the animals images are likely to draw your attention first, don't overlook the art by illustrator Florence E. Storer at the top of the page.)