At work at the Times

My father, far left in this picture, was a printer at the New York Times for 46 years. Above, setting hot type, Dec. 18, 1976. The transition to cold type was just about to happen, I believe. People wanted to memorialize the old way of doing things with photos. The printers had a great union, the International Typographical Union, Big 6 was his chapter. Jobs were lost through attrition; no one was fired as automation streamlined jobs that once took many men to accomplish.

Above, laying out the sports page in October 1986, when the New York Mets won the World Series. My father loved his job, and his union. It's what gave my family a foothold in the middle-class.

The Times was my father's second family. In one of those amazing twists of fate, my husband works at the Times now. My father would have been proud. It's still the best newspaper in the world, as far as I am concerned.

I work for a newspaper too, and labor history means a lot to me. And the struggles of working people in other countries.

In Nov. 1988, I was on assignment in Chile for the Ford Foundation and took this picture. A demonstration had been organized by the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores. The men are holding a sign that reads: "We are workers, not slaves. No more miserable wages of 14,080 pesos." That amount was  equivalent to about $56 a month.

I was glad to hear the president of Apple visited Foxconn. Will it make a difference in the lives of workers who work long, tedious hours for little pay constructing our iPhones and iPads? I hope so.

Meanwhile, May 1 is coming up. I hear interesting things will be happening that day.

Click below to read more about working people.

Bridge tally, c. 1930s/Convention Update

2012  INTERNATIONAL PAPER DOLL CONVENTION

                                COME  FLY  WITH  US !

                                          Email #3

                                   THE  ART  SCENE 

Southwestern Ohio has some magnificent Art Museums, one close

and three a bit farther away, but each loaded with masterpieces!

Let's take a look at them.

DAYTON ART INSTITUTE

At 456 Belmonte Park North, the Dayton Art Institute is a true gem!

Located in a 1930 Italian Renaissance building, the Institute's

permanent collection contains more than 26,000 items covering 5000

years of history. The building itself is a work of art. It was modeled after

the Villa d’Este near Rome and the Villa Farnese at Caprarola in Italy,

both examples of sixteenth century Italian Renaissance architecture.

The European Art Wing features works by Pier Francesco, Monet,

Gerome, Ferdinand Bol, Peter Paul Rubens and many, many others.

The American Art Wing has works by Bischoff, Edward Hopper,

Alison Saar, Gilbert Stuart, and Georgia O'Keefe, to name a few.

The Asian Art Wing is particularly diverse, with ornately carved Indian

shrines, Thai stone Buddha, large Ming Dynasty painted screens

(ink and colors on gold paper), and Korean lotus tea bowls among

many others.

Then, there are smaller, but significant, Galleries

   - - Ancient Art, featuring Egyptian, Greco, and Roman works

   - - Oceanic Art, mainly Melansian

   - - African Art, featuring elaborate costuming by the Bilker people of

        Cameroon, rare 2000 year old sculpture by the TKO people of

        present day Nigeria, a carved wooden slit drum by the Lobala

        people of Central Africa, and much more

   - - Pre-Columbian Art, mainly Chimu from the Peruvian coast and

        Colima from west central Mexico.

There's also excellent outdoor sculpture, including cylindrical segments

by Lieberman, a spectacular soaring ribbon of stainless steel by Safer,

and Price's intriguing sculpture of painted steel 19 feet high. that

definitely are photo opportunities.

Yes, the Museum has a cafe (soups, salads, sandwiches, pies).

Cafe is open 11:30-3:30 PM Wednesday-Saturday; noon-3:30 Sunday.

The Museum hours are Wednesday - Saturday 10 AM - 5 PM;

Sunday Noon to 5 PM. The Museum is a 12 mile drive (16 minutes)

from the Convention Hotel. Parking is free. Telephone is (937) 223-5277

Admission is Adults $8.00 USD. Seniors (60+) $5.00 USD.

(Special traveling exhibits could have additional charge to view.)

There are three other major art museums within a 60-70 minute drive.

CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM

Located at 953 Eden Park Drive in Cincinnati, Ohio, this outstanding

museum is 61 miles or a 69 minute drive from your Convention Hotel,

mainly via Interstate-75.

The Museum's American Painting and Sculpture Section features

works by Charles Willson Peale, Saint-Gaudens, George Innes,

Grant Wood, William Harnett, Edward Hopper, Thomas Eakins,

John Singleton Copley, John Singer Sargent, and Albert Bierstadt,

to list a few.

The European Painting and Sculpture collection has works by

Van Duke, Manet, Gainsborough, Matisse, Memling, Rubens,

van Gogh, Hogarth, Boucher, Renoir, and Sir Joshua Reynolds,

among many others.

Their Classical Art collection is principally Greco and Roman.

The American and European Decorative Art sections have outstanding

vases, ornately carved furniture, glassware, porcelain, and sculpture.

The Museum is open Tuesday - Sunday  11 AM - 5 PM.

Admission is Free.  Parking is $4.00. Telephone is 1 (877) 472-4226.

There's a Cafe, 11 AM - 3 PM, that has salads, soups. sandwiches.

TAFT MUSEUM OF ART

Also in Cincinnati is another world-class Museum that is quartered in

a famous, and lovely, former residence. The Greek Revival building

was constructed as a villa on the outskirts of Cincinnati in 1820, and

was the residence of Nicholas Longworth, Speaker of the US House

of Representatives (he married Alice Roosevelt), and later the

residence of the brother of (US President) William Howard Taft.

The house is a US Narional Historic Landmark.

The Museum includes a suite of landscape murals in the foyer,

done by Robert Duncanson, and considered to be among the

finest such works of the period.

The museum's collections include European old master paintings, with

works by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Gainsborough, Frans Hals, 

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Monet, Goya, Rembrandt, Sir Joshua

Reynolds, and Adriaen van Ostade, among others; and 19th-century

American paintings, including the Duncanson murals, works by James

McNeil Whistler, Henry Farny, and John Singer Sargent's painting

of Robert Louis Stevenson. The galleries in the historic house also

include Chinese porcelains, European decorative arts, watches,

sculptures, furniture, and a Limoges porcelain and enamel collection

that is the finest that you will see anywhere.

The Taft Museum is at 316 Pike Street in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Telephone is (513) 241-0343. Parking is free in the garage.

It's a 63 mile (66 minute) drive from your Convention Hotel.

The Museum is open Wednesday-Friday, 11 AM - 4 PM, and

Saturday and Sunday 11 AM - 5 PM.

Admission is $10 for Adults ($8 for Seniors 60 and over)

Admission is Free for all on Sunday,

It has the Lindner Family Cafe, serving soups, sandwiches, salads,

various entrees, desserts, wine, beer, and soft beverages. The Cafe is

open 11 - 2 Wednesday-Friday, and 11 - 3 Saturday and Sunday. It's

very popular; reservations are strongly recommended (513) 352-5140.

COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART

This excellent Museum is at 480 East Broad Street in Columbus, Ohio.

It's a 62 mile (62 minute) drive east of the Convention Hotel, mainly via

Interstate 70. Their telephone information number is (614) 221-6801.

The Museum has many works by the Old Masters (Van Dyke, Boucher,

Gentiles chi, Lebrun, for example).

The 19th Century American section has pieces by Thomas Cole,

Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and

George Innes, among others.

The Museum boasts strong modernism collections,

It's Early Modernism area features George Bellows, Mary Cassatt,

Emerson Bellows, Charles Demuth, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent,

Middleton Manigault, Man Ray, Reginald Marsh, and Norman Rockwell.

The Late Modernism section has sculptures by Alexander Calder and

Henry Moore, and glassware by Dale Chihuly.

European Modernism includes works by Cezanne, Degas, Leger,

Maillot, Manet, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Rodin, and Diego Rivera.

The Museum is open Tuesday - Sunday  10 AM - 5:30 PM, and

stays open until 8:30 PM on Thursday night.

Admission is $10 for Adults ($8 for age 60 or over). [If you belong to

the Automobile Club (AAA), bring your card for a discount.]

Note: On Sundays, the Permanent collection may be viewed Free.

There's a dining facility, the Palette Express, open 10 AM to 3 PM,

that serves sandwiches, salads, and sweets.

If the Cincinnati or Columbus venues have particular areas of art that

reflect your passion, such as the Decorative Arts at the Cincinnati

Museum, the beautiful architecture at the Taft, or the Modernism

collection at Columbus, now you know where to find them. However,

if you'd like to visit an outstanding art museum with a breadth of

collections and artists that replicate those of the major metropolitan

museums, you need look no further than the Dayton Art Institute.

Not to overdo Museums, but in the next email, we'll look at a Specialty

Museum - - but not just "any" Specialty Museum. This one is the

largest and finest in the world - - yes, better than the Smithsonian in

Washington - - and may be of great interest to you or that potential

traveling companion, because it could fascinate one for days and days!

- - Garth

            2012 INTERNATIONAL PAPER DOLL CONVENTION

                               August 9 - 12, 2012

                Hope Hotel, Wright-Paterson Air Force Base                             

                                   Dayton,  Ohio                                                                     

******************************************************************************

                          CONVENTION REGISTRATION

NAME__________________________________________________

ADDRESS_______________________________________________

CITY_______________________STATE_______ ZIP/PC__________

EMAIL_____________________________________

PHONE____________________________________

Registration:  $185,00 USD 

Absentee Registration:  $75.00 USD

  (Absentee Registrations are limited in number.)

Guest Registration (3 Meals) $85.00

  GUEST NAME:__________________________________________

Make Checks payable to:  Louise Leek 

Mail to:

Mary Young

P.O. Box 9244

Dayton,  OH    45409

Pearline Soap, c. 1880s

Dressing up for Coney Island

I'm always amazed at how people once dressed up for places like the amusement park at Coney Island, in the years before sportswear became the default choice for everyday wear. I remember as a child wearing a nice dress for an airplane trip. Now you can count on people wearing shorts and flip flops to Coney Island, on a plane or even at the theater. Theater is my my personal last stand. I still get dressed for a Broadway show. I'm not talking fancy. Just nice.

The folks in this picture are wearing suits, hats and one woman has a nice fur collar. So perhaps this was not yet summer, or maybe it was an evening out. Just by the way they're dressed you can sense the anticipation and expectations they had for the evening. It was clearly date night, and chances are the night started elsewhere.  Did they end up on the Staten Island Ferry? I hope so--that would be a classic New York night out for couples.

This bar is clearly a faux setting; click on the picture to see just how cheap the bar backdrop is. I always get a kick out of these pasteboard settings. I first posted this picture nearly three years ago; it was the first thing I thought of when considering the dressing up theme. The back is marked "Butch & Icki & his goils friend's." That's the Brooklyn I know and love.

You can see how others dress up this theme over at Sepia Saturday; click below.

Bridge Tally, stylish wrap, c. 1920s

Bridge Tally smoker, c. 1920s

Paula Hill had this beauty on her table at the Ephemera conference.

On Wisconsin paper doll, spring 2012 issue

Thanks to Sarah Goldberg for the heads up about this article in the Wisconsin-Madison alumni magazine. And I hope Sarah will join us in Dayton!

Mrs. Cat, McLaughlin Coffee paper doll, c. 1880s

Mrs. Cat and I were introduced at the Ephemera Society conference yesterday, in Old Greenwich, Conn. It was love at first sight! It was my first visit to the conference. It will not be the last.

Girl Scouts, 1939

From the New York Public Library Digital Archive: A photo from the 1939-1940 World's Fair, titled "Denmark Participation." Girl and Boy Scouts greet Prince Frederik and Princess Ingrid, according to the archive notes, but Frederik must have been touring elsewhere on the grounds. And that must be the princess front and center, wearing a stylish hat, cocked just so.  This link and photograph indicates the visit to New York by the royal couple occurred in May 1939.

History shadows this photograph. All hell was breaking loose in Europe, and the Nazis would occupy Denmark April 9, 1940. Wikipedia says Danish leaders in 2003 finally acknowledged that Denmark's cooperation with the Nazis was "morally unjustifiable." However it's good to remember that, to its everlasting credit, Denmark refused to enact anti-Semitic laws or round up their Jewish population despite their occupiers' insistence.  History is complicated, no? I could use a box of Thin Mints right now.

You can scout out other interesting tales at Sepia Saturday; click below.

Katy Keene paper dolls

The Out of This World blog devoted to comic books has once again featured comic book paper dolls. You can see more high quality scans here.

Las Dulces de la Abuela, 2012

Translation: Grandma's Sweets. A contemporary label on a bag of candy that a co-worker brought back from Ecuador. The candy was a lot like Turkish Taffy, and came in tropical flavors, such as mango. Yum.

Hair coloring ads, 1936

Don't believe for a minute that women didn't strive for a youthful appearance even back in the days before Botox and plastic surgery became commonplace. These ads all come from the 1936 edition of Radio Stars. I was surprised at all the hair coloring ads; these are the ones I had time to scan in.

Women with straight hair want curly; curly heads like me usually want straight. In the 1960s, I tried a product called Curl Free with some success. In the 1930s, my thick wavy hair would have been the bee's knees.

Barbo! Coloring the gray at home is not something I would try.

Hey, bay rum in Barbo? What's that about.

An illustration of radio star Jessica Dragonette on the cover of the magazine. Artist Earl Christy captured the lovely waves in her au courant hair style.

You can comb through the other entries for Sepia Saturday by clicking the logo below.

André Fashion Studios, 1930-1941

Fashion Drawings & Sketches in the Collections of FIT and the New York Public Library.  

Fabulous.

Playing games

This week's Sepia Saturday theme is games. The vintage scrap above shows a girl with a stick, a ball and a wicket. Is this cricket or some other game? No mallet, so I've ruled out croquet, but I could be wrong on that count. Here's hoping someone can enlighten me. I found this charming scrap recently, at my favorite GreenFlea on Columbus Ave. and 77th St. in Manhattan.

Board games of the 19th Century had the most amazing graphics. This image (and the one below) is taken from the book, "The Games We Played: American Board and Table Games from the Liman Collection," 2003, Princeton Architectural Press. It was inspired by an exhibit of the Liman collection at the New York Historical Society. It was memorable for the replicas of classic board games set up on tables for visitors to play. The book is large and full-color--absolutely gorgeous photographs of board games.

Pillow-Dex: A forerunner to hacky-sack perhaps?

I adore this picture, and featured it on my blog about four years ago. Ida Wyman took this photo of girls playing paper dolls in the Bronx, circa 1948. They're playing with the "Boarding School" set. As a child I called them cut-outs, not paper dolls. Wonder if that was a regional thing. Or generational.

Cut on over to Sepia Saturday to see what other people are playing. Click below.

Spring frolic, c. 1880s