Typography: Peace and Joy

My holiday greeting from the early 1990s was based on the candy bar, Almond Joy. 

Since then the logo has changed. The wrapper was used on another chocolate bar.

(Next post December 30: 100 Ampersands, Part 2)

Typography: Typorama

Typorama is an exhibition of Philippe Apeloig’s graphic design work at Les Arts Décoratifs, from November 21, 2013 to March 30, 2014. Design Boom has some excellent photographs of the exhibition.

This past summer I was contacted twice, by representatives of Les Arts Décoratifs, regarding my photograph of the Garden Cafeteria sign, which was posted February 14, 2013. On June 20, Cécile Niesseron requested a scan of the photograph. On July 8, Ameline Thomas asked for my birth date.

While preparing the exhibition catalogue, someone had researched Jewish culture in New York City. The Garden Cafeteria was a meeting-place for some of the Jewish intellectuals, beginning in the 1940s, in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Place Matters has a 23-paragraph article on the history of the Garden Cafeteria. (Click “read more” for the complete article.) The Jewish Museum has a photograph of the cafeteria.

This research was associated with Apeloig’s poster, “Radical Jewish Culture: Scene Musicale, New York”. Below is the description, in French, from the Typorama catalogue, followed by a Google translation. (The English edition is available from Thames & Hudson.)

En 2010, le musée d'Art et d’Historie du Judaisme a présenté l’exposition “Radical Jewish Culture” consacrée au label new-yorkais de musique expérimentale du meme non. Ce groupe de compositeurs et d’interpretes a inventé une musique hybride qui jette un pont entre l’avant-garde et la tradition. Ses influences vont de la musique klezmer a Lou Reed, en passant par Steve Reich.

L’affiche donne l’impression d’être le cliché d’un graffiti du Lower East Side a Manhattan, quartier des premiers émigrants juifs a New York, puis lieu de prédilection des compositeurs et de nombreux artistes. Aujourd’hui transformé, il conserve néanmoins quelques éléments des enseignes des nombreuses boutiques et lieux de culte. Sur beaucoup d’immeubles, les vielles lettres ont été recouvertes de nouveaux éléments des communautés hispaniques et chinoises qui s’y sont installées. Ces murs et ces façades ornés sont devenus les témoignages vivants du passage du temps et des cultures.

Sur l’affiche, on découvre des notations du compositeur John Zorn, le leader du Radical Jewish Culture, qui tiennent a la fois de l’écriture musicale et du graffiti. Des lettres très arrondies conçues comme des pochoirs ont été dessinées pour évoquer la musique expérimentale, rappelant également les enseignes lumineuses d’autrefois. Les noms des artistes, composés en petites capitales jaune flou, sont disposés un peu partout dans le canevas formé par le titre.

In 2010, the Museum of Art and History of Judaism presented the exhibition “Radical Jewish Culture” dedicated to the New York experimental music label of the same name. This group of composers and performers invented a hybrid music that bridges the gap between the avant-garde and tradition. His influences range from klezmer music, Lou Reed, through Steve Reich.

The poster gives the impression of being the picture of Lower East Side graffiti in Manhattan, a neighborhood of the first Jewish immigrants in New York and a favorite place for many composers and artists. Now transformed, it still retains some signs of many shops and places of worship. On many buildings, old letters were covered with new elements of Hispanic and Chinese communities who have settled there. These walls and the ornate façades have become living witnesses to the passage of time and cultures.

On the poster, notations of composer John Zorn, the leader of Radical Jewish Culture, which both songwriting and graffiti are found. Of stencils designed as very rounded letters were designed to evoke experimental music, recalling the old neon signs. Artist names, in small yellow capitals are arranged around the outline formed by the title.

Composer/musician John Zorn was profiled this summer in the New York Times. Zorn’s music label is Tzadik and he wrote about Radical Jewish Culture.

Here are scans of the catalogue cover and pages 202 and 203. The image of the Garden Cafeteria photograph is about the size of a credit card.

(Next post on Wednesday: Peace and Joy)

Lettering: Hand Lettered

The Bookseller

September 1903

Advertisement

The New York Times
January 4, 2017

(Next post: Typorama)

Comics: Pretty in Ink

Pretty in Ink is the latest book by Trina Robbins and available from Fantagraphics Books. My connection to the book is in the acknowledgments which is missing in this first printing. Here’s what Trina wrote:

A heartfelt thank you to Kyle Ryan, Ellen Klages, Shaun Clancy, Jonathan Warm Day Coming, Patrick Ford, Bill McGrath, Christine Chambers; to Caryn Leschen who gave me my title, and Allan Holtz (and his great website, http://strippersguide.blogspot.com), for the priceless material that they provided, and to Alexa Dickman for her detective work that resulted in my finding Fran Hopper, and to Steve Leialoha for putting together the pieces. This would still be a book without them, but it would not be half as good a book.

A special thank you to Alex Jay for his information on Katherine Patterson Rice, and clearing up the Jean Mohr gender mystery; Jean Mohr, who was included in all my past books, is a man!

Future printings of Pretty in Ink will have the acknowledgements.

To celebrate the release of the book, here are links to my profiles of women cartoonists on Allan Holtz’s comic strip blog, Stripper’s Guide.

Mildred Burleigh, Ruth Carroll, Bertha Corbett (see Comments), Emma Gordon (see Comments), Juanita Hamel, Jeanne Harris, Violet Moore Higgins (see Comments), Glen Ketchum, Fay King, Melisse, Tarpé Mills, Marjorie Organ, Katharine P. Rice, Eleanor M. Schorer, and Sylvia Sneidman.

Women in Comics Posts

Jeanne Alippe, Ruth Atkinson, Olive Bailey, Valerie Barclay, Betty Bentley, Vivian Berg, Zena Brody, Jean Callahan, Helen Chu aka Duffy Mohler, Ellen Cole, Corinne Boyd Dillon, Anahid Dinkjian, Jill Elgin,

Barbara Clark Fogel, Laura E. Foster, Evelyn Gaines aka Lynn Lovelace, Merna Gamble, Gerda Gattel, Selma Meyers Gleit, Jane Krom Grammer, Anita Greene,

Bonnie Hano, Delores Heilman, Ray Hermann, Joye Hummel, Marjorie Wilkes Huntley, Grace Jacquet, Charlotte Jetter, 

Anna Kaufman, Bessie Mae Kelley, Nadine French King, Alice Kirkpatrick, Grace Kremer, Ada Levy,  Pauline Loth, Veda Lufkin,

Marion McDermott, Emma C. McKean, Tarpé Mills, Claire S. Moe, Phyllis Muchow, Lily Reneé, Ruth Roche, 

Georgette Sauterel, Marie Severin, Marcia Snyder, Lora Sprang aka Pat Gordon, Serena Summerfield, Daisy Swayze, Terry Szenics, Claire Szep, 

Alberta Tews, Peggy Zangerle

(Next post on Monday: Blanche Ostertag)

Lettering: Thanksgiving 1905

The American Printer

November 1905

(Next post on Monday: Pretty in Ink)

Lettering: 100 Ampersands, Part 1

The Printer and Bookmaker
July 1898

Some Queer Ampersands.

What is the legitimate form of the ampersand? Ringwalt’s American Encyclopaedia of Printing says that it was not adopted in its present form until about 1750. It was originally the Latin et surmounted by a ligature, and the type founders give it to us in Roman in this form (&), and in old-style italic in this form {&). There is a wide difference between the two, and there exists a still wider difference in various display types, while the sign painter takes all sorts of liberties with the figure. The word is a contraction of “and per se and,” signifying “and by itself and.” It is occasionally spelled ampersand, and is found in old books in the form ampusand, amperse-and, ampassyand, amperzed, etc. Having for many years received recognition in primers as a tailend to the alphabet, and being apparently of fixed use in the language, it becomes interesting to discover what forms it becomes interesting to discover what forms it has taken on in arriving at its present shape, if indeed it have any present legitimate shape.

From the Railroad Car Journal we unexpectedly find light on the subject, through a contribution from Warner Bailey, whose connection with the Boston and Maine Railroad has caused him to travel over most of the territory between the States of Maine on the East, Kentucky on the South, and Illinois on the West. During these trips Mr. Bailey made it a pastime to copy all the forms of ampersands he saw painted on railway cars. He discovered no less than one hundred and forty different styles, of which there are reproduced in the accompanying illustration one hundred of the most peculiar. They are certainly worth studying as curiosities, and it is difficult to judge by what mental process some of the more outrageous forms were arrived at by the paint-brush artists.

Related Posts
100 Ampersands, Part 2
100 Ampersand, Part 3
100 Ampersands, Part 4
Wood Type Ampersands

Ampersand Cocktail

& a.k.a. Song of the &

(Next post on Thursday: Thanksgiving 1905)

Creator: O.A. Olson, Ames Lettering Guide Inventor

Oscar Anton Olson was born in Norway on December 12, 1883. Olson’s birthplace was found on census records and his birth date was recorded on his World War I draft card. A record of his arrival in the United States has not been found. Who’s Who in American Education (1956) said he was the son of Nels Edward and Louise Annette. According to the Naturalization Record Index at Ancestry.com, Olson became a citizen on October 27, 1884.

In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Olson was a servant in the Mickelson household, which consisted of the parents, their four children and a female servant. Mr. Mickelson was a dealer in dry goods and groceries. Apparently, Olson worked for him as a salesman.

Olson attended Iowa State College. The photograph of Olson (left) is from the 1907 yearbook, The Bomb. He graduated in 1908.

Olson has not been found in the 1910 census. Who’s Who in American Education said he married Goldie Payne of Lincoln, Nebraska, on January 23, 1911.

The Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 1914 named the graduates of June 1914. Olson received a degree in mechanical engineering. According to Who’s Who in American Education, Olson received his masters degree.

The 1915 Iowa State Census recorded Olson and his wife in Ames. He was a draftsman who had four years of high school and four years of college. And he was a Lutheran.

The Iowa Official Register for the Years 1915–1916 had information on Iowa State College. In the category of instructors was “Oscar Anton Olson, B.M.E., Mechanical Engineering.” The State of Iowa 1916, Report of the Iowa State Board of Education said: “Oscar Anton Olson from Instructor to Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering.”

On September 12, 1918, Olson signed his World War I draft card. He was an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at Iowa State College. Olson and his wife, Goldie, resided at 617 Clark Avenue in Ames, Iowa. He was described as medium height and build, with brown eyes and hair.

Olson was at the same address in the 1920 census. His occupation was college teacher and he had a four-year-old daughter, Louise.

Five years later, the Iowa state census listed Olson, his wife, two daughters and mother-in-law at 706 Wilson in Ames.

All of them were found in the 1930 census in Ames at a different address, 712 Tenth Street. Olson continued as a college teacher. The 1936 Ames city directory said Olson was the acting head and associate Professor of Engineering Drawing at Iowa Sate College.

The photograph of Olson (above) is from the 1938 Iowa State College yearbook, The Bomb.

Olson’s address was unchanged in the 1940 census. Olson’s job was drawing engineer at the state college. He retired in 1948.

According to the Social Security Death Index, Olson passed away in March 1971. His last known residence was Ankeny, Iowa.

Engineering Design Graphics Journal (1971) reprinted the following article from the Ames Daily Tribune, March 18, 1971.

“One of the many reasons the name ‘Ames’ is known far and wide is a little device developed by O.A. Olson. Called by him the ‘Ames Lettering Guide’ the small instrument probably has been used by nearly every aspiring engineer or draftsman who was ever enrolled in a mechanical drawing class.

“Simple in its design, the device allowed the draftsman to put precisely-spaced lines on his drawing as a guide to the lettering required to identify various parts and the plate itself. For more than half a century, Mr. Olson’s invention has been in widespread general use.

“For many years, the manufacture of the lettering guide was carried on in the basement of his home, and the work of assembling, packing and shipping furnished employment for several generations of college students and student wives.

“Mr. Olson took great pride in his little manufacturing operation, showing visitors around with detailed explanation. He ducked under furnace pipes with comments about the ‘low overhead’ and explained that the assembly area was below ‘the kitchen upstairs, where we make the dough.’ 

“The Ames lettering device was not his only invention. He also perfected a number of items intended for use in teaching geometry and for other mechanical drawing applications, including the Draft-pak used by school students here and elsewhere.

“He had a great imagination, enetrprise [sic], practicality and with it all, a great love of life. Along with many other people here, we held a great affection for him.”

O.A. Olson, 87, died at his daughter’s home in Cedar Rapids on Monday, March 15, 1971.

Born on December 12, 1883 at Tonsburg, Norway, he came to the United States as a small child. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1908 with a B.S. degree and in 1914 earned the M. E. degree. He was appointed to the staff of mechanical engineering in 1913 and served with the department until 1935 when he became head of the engineering drawing department. He retired in 1948. Professor Olson founded the O. A. Olson Manufacturing Company in 1919 to produce the Ames lettering guide which sold all over the world. He is also the inventor of a valve seating machine as well as developing a number of graphic design teaching aids.

Besides being a member of the Ascension Lutheran Church, he was a charter member of the Sioux City Rotary Club and held membership in the Ames Rotary Club. He aided many engineering students by offering them work in his plant, thus enabling them to graduate. Professor Olson is named in “American Man of Science”, “Who’s Who in Iowa”, “Who’s Who in America”, “Who’s Who in Education of Norwegian Origin” and “Who’s Who in American Education”. He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Wright of Cedar Rapids and Mrs. Huston of Ames, a sister, Anna G. Olson of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, a half-sister, Mrs. Nettie Mattison of Bingham Lakes, Minnesota, seven grandchildren and one great grandchild.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Goldie Payne O. Olson, and a brother.

The Spring 1993 issue of Engineering Design Graphics Journal published a recollection of a meeting with Olson.

...I had the pleasure of meeting Professor O. A. Olson, the inventor, manufacturer and distributor of the Ames Lettering Instrument, at the ASEE Annual Conference in 1956 at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. I don’t know that Professor Olson ever peddled his product door-to-door, but it was always available in college bookstores and on display at ASEE conferences where samples were freely distributed. The Ames Lettering Instrument is among the most useful and long lived of many such devices appearing during the past fifty years. In the original Ames Lettering Instrument, the rotating plastic disk was secured in a bent-wire frame. The wire frame tended to rust and get out of shape, and was soon replaced by a plastic mount, a great improvement. It is possible that some of our younger members have never used, or before heard of, the Ames Lettering Instrument. Back in the “old days” when drawings were annotated with hand-lettered notes, light guide lines were ruled as an aid to maintaining straight evenly spaced lines of letters. The Ames Lettering Instrument greatly simplified the rather tedious and boring task of ruling guide lines. It is my understanding that the Ames Manufacturing Company has provided jobs for countless Iowa State University engineering students over the past half-century.

• • •

Draftsmen were using lettering triangles to draw guide lines. The Iowa Engineer, May 1912, published a version (below). 

The 1921 Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser Co., Manufacturers and Importers Drawing Materials featured their Xylonite Lettering Triangle (below).

The Pease Unique Lettering Angle was advertised in The American Stationer and Office Outfitter, October 22, 1921 and Industrial Arts Magazine, December 1922 (below).

In 1925 the Keuffel & Esser Company submitted a patent application for a “Drafting Instrument” which was published in 1929.

Another tool was the Draftsquare in The American Stationer and Office Outfitter, July 30, 1921.

Olson invented a lettering-triangle and wrote a description March 9, 1917. His innovation was the rotating disc. A technical drawing, description and application were sent to the United States Patent Office which filed it on March 29, 1917. Olson’s lettering-triangle was patented April 16, 1918 and assigned number 1,262,971. The document can be downloaded here.

The Iowa Engineer mentioned Olson’s inventions, including the lettering device, in its May 1917 issue:

Prof. O. A. Olson of the M. E. Department has in the past six months come into especial prominence by patenting three labor saving devices. These three latest additions to the industrial world are a lettering triangle called the “Ames Triangle,” a thread cutter and end holder for hand sewing, and an advertising novelty in the form of a pencil which contains, instead of the lead, a strip of paper three inches wide and twelve inches long. These are not his only inventions, for he now holds nine patents three of which are foreign.

A new design, called the Ames Lettering Instrument, was featured in The Iowa Engineer, February 1920, and advertised in The Iowa Engineer, October 1920 (below).

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum has the 1922 Ames Lettering Instrument in its collection.

Manual Training Magazine, September 1921, touted Olson’s drafting device.

Teachers and students of mechanical drawing will be glad to learn of a new and distinctly practical tool for use in lettering.

It is called the Ames Lettering Instrument, having been originated by Prof. O. A. Olson of Ames, Iowa. Among the many devices for lettering, this instrument is unique, being extremely simple in design, light and compact. It consists of a celluloid disc held so as to rotate on a U-shaped retaining ring on which is attached a bar, which serves as a base and straight edge.

A series of holes in the disc enable the user to draw with accuracy and ease the guide lines for three systems of lettering and for letters of any height. By turning the instrument, the bar can be used as an angle enabling one to draw guide lines at either 75 or 68 degrees. Altogether it is a compact, convenient and practical instrument.

A classified advertisement for the Ames Lettering Instrument appeared in Industrial Arts Magazine, December 1922.

The Ames Lettering Instrument was part of a drafting set advertised in American Machinist, December 28, 1922. The description said: “The Ames lettering instrument is a steel frame holding a celluloid disk which may be rotated in it. In the disk are three parallel rows of tapered holes for drawing guide lines for lettering.”

An excerpt from Olson’s entry in American Educators of Norwegian Origin (1931) said:

…Inventor and manufacturer of the Ames Lettering Instrument. “There is no lettering device of which I have any knowledge, that approaches it in simplicity, neatness, accuracy and range of work. It is a satisfaction to know that the instrument is carrying the word ‘Ames’ to all parts of the United States, and to every country of the world where engineering work is being done.” Prof. Warren H. Meeker, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State College. 

A 1945 issue of Plastics and Resins published this article: 

Lettering Instrument Before the largest or the smallest airplane, ship, jeep or tank can be built, complicated and detailed diagrams, charts and blueprints must be drawn, and lettering instruments have assumed an importance perhaps greater that they have ever known before.

The Ames Lettering Instrument is the only instrument of this type that provides for the spacing of guide lines for the three different systems of letters most commonly used by commercial draftsmen. It is the only instrument that provides a means of drawing, without adjustment of parts, the two slope lines usually used for notes on drawings. The instrument also provides a means of drawing guide lines for letters of any height from 1/16 to 1-1/2 inches and for the four guide lines required by students learning to letter.

This lettering instrument is made in two parts, the circular center piece revolves by means of a groove in the outside piece permitting simple adjustment. The transparent Lumarith from which it is made allows lines already drawn to be seen clearly through the instrument. Its L-ipse fitting construction guarantees against slipping and subsequent distortion of the letters while the instrument is in use.

The Ames Lettering Instrument is manufactured by the O. A. Olson Manufacturing Company, Ames, Iowa. Lumarith is a product of Celanese Plastics Corporation.

Olson’s lettering instrument continued to evolve. In 1951, Olson received a patent for new version of his lettering instrument.

The date of the instrument below has not yet been determined.

Years later, the Ames Lettering Instrument would be known as the Ames Lettering Guide; the one below was purchased in the 1980s.

For decades, the Ames Lettering Guide was an essential tool used for lettering comic strips and comic books. Examples can be found in The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics (2013) and Drawing Comics (2012).

The Ames Lettering Guide continues to be manufactured, although, no longer in Ames. The Kansas City Business Journal, October 31, 2004, said Olson’s grandson, David Huston, was producing the lettering guides.

(Next post on Monday: 100 Ampersands, Part 1)