Mundell's Solar Tip Shoes for Children

 

Happy Father's Day!

 

I love everything about this card! I hope it brings a smile to your face, too.

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theme Party, ca. 2017

 

The UCB was a favorite destination in the Before Times, and I'm sad that it didn't survive the pandemic. It was a cheap comedy date!  I found this advertising trade card at the theater one night, about four years ago, and was excited to see the paper doll motif, of course, even though none of the outfits were drawn to fit the actual dolls. It's still cute.

Amy Poehler and Matt Walsh may be able to reopen the UCB in NYC and LA, now that things are getting better.  But it sounds like a challenge.

My Friend Irma paper doll, ca. 1947

 

A Wonder-Book, 1929

 

My mother-in-law found this book about three years ago at a flea market. Florida or New Jersey? I'm not sure anymore.  She has good instincts about what I like, and this was no exception. 

The surprise when I opened the book:

An early work of illustration by Fern Bisel Peat! Of course, Peat was not a contemporary of Nathaniel Hawthorne; this is a reprint of his work from 1851, in which he re-imagined Greek myths for children. The Saalfield Publishing Company reissued his work with Peat's lovely illustrations in 1929. 

"Children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple, likewise. It is only the artificial and the complex that bewilder them." -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lenox, July 15, 1851.

from The Miraculous Pitcher

from The Three Golden Apples

from The Golden Touch

from The Gorgon's Head

from The Paradise of Children

Get well paper doll greeting card, ca. 1930s

To a little girl who is ill

If I were your

little dolly

I'd put my bed by yours,

And plan the fun 

that we will have

When we can get

out doors.

Johnny Funny Bunny's Spring Planting by Harrison Cady, 1921

Ladies Home Journal, May 1921