Colorful Vintage Seed Catalog Covers

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries have a collection that includes about 10,000 illustrated seed and nursery catalogs dating from 1830 to the present. Here are a couple of examples. Zooming in on the crowd scene of Buckbee's county fair reveals a very tall clown in a great outfit. Reid's catalog cover has a cupid eating grapes. 500 images are documented in digital form on their website. Here's the

LINK

Thanks boingboing and cityfarmer.info

The Art of Amy Crehore

Wild Costume Party on the S.S.Conte Rosso, 1920's

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In my old box of family tricks, I found a couple of interesting group shots of people who are dressed in Halloween costumes. They are on board a ship called the S.S. Conte Rosso (the Red Count). My great, great aunt Louise Forde is probably in one of these photos. She lived in Italy for many years. My grandmother could also be in the photos. She went to visit her aunt in Italy and was a flapper during this time period.
Wikipedia says, "the SS Conte Rosso was an Italian ocean liner active in the early 20th century and noted for her lavish Italian interior decoration. Because much of its sailing would be in warmer waters, the designers included an outdoor dining area, unusual for ships of this era. The ship entered service in 1922 carrying passengers between Italy and New York. She was the first new transatlantic liner built after World War I and the largest Italian liner to date."
The Art of Amy Crehore

Leslie Illingworth, Cartoonist 1902-1979

Leslie Gilbert Illingworth was born in 1902 and died in 1979. "Illingworth joined the Daily Mail in 1939, and drew cartoons that were to lift Britain's morale during the Second World War, commenting on Churchill's leadership and Allied military victories. After the war ended, Illingworth was able to concentrate more on domestic issues in his cartoons, but kept a keen eye on foreign affairs, especially when they related to Britain. He became Chief Cartoonist for the satirical magazine Punch in 1945, but remained with the Daily Mail until his retirement in 1969." The Illingworth cartoon collection at the National Library contains 4,563 images! I have spent all morning checking out their website. I like his style, sense of humor, intelligence and fine draftsmanship. Not to mention the prolific amount of ink drawings (some quite complex) that he executed in his 40+ years on the job. He covered & recorded so much world history in the space of his life. I have been playing around with brush and ink recently and these cartoons inspire me.

For plenty more, have a look:

Leslie Illingworth

The Art of Amy Crehore

Playing History Detective

Stanley Forde as a kid in Buffalo (I think)
Ink Drawing of Stanley Forde by "Sabro" 1925

Small watercolor by H. Hilton 1911 of Stanley Forde
(probably painted by Mrs. Helen Hilton Story during his affair with her)

Stanley Forde, baritone 1878-1929

I am playing history detective with a box of crumbled old clippings and fragile photos that my grandmother had saved. Above is a photo of my great, great uncle Stanley Forde who stood 6ft 2 inches (without the top hat). He was an actor and singer on Broadway between 1909 and 1927. The plays that he appeared in are listed here: Broadway

He also appeared in a B&W silent film called "The Great White Way". Upon researching this film, I found that it was a comedy/romance from 1924 produced by Cosmopolitan Productions. It "includes brief appearances by several prominent newspapermen, cartoonists and society figures of this period: Winsor McCay, George McManus, Billy DeBeck and Harry Hershfield, Tex Rickard, Arthur Brisbane, Nell Brinkley, Bugs Baer, Irvin S. Cobb, Damon Runyon. Also Oscar Shaw, actor, and Pete Hartley, boxer." LINK to more about this film.

I found a number of stills from this film in the box amongst yellowed newspaper clippings and other physical evidence of Stanley Forde and his career. He married Mrs. Helen Hilton Story in 1912, after a scandalous affair with her at the Jersey shore (an affair which ended up in the Supreme Court). She was "an heir to millions" according to the newspaper article: the granddaughter of Judge Henry Hilton. It seems they travelled back and forth to London for a few years, but I'm not sure that the marriage lasted. I am starting to scan and archive some of the puzzle pieces of Stanley's life onto a set on flickr, including the film stills from "The Great White Way". Stanley Forde died at the age of 51 in NYC.

It's fun playing history detective. Here is the link to my flickr set about Stanley:

Stanley Forde

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. For anyone who is following my blog: Stanley Forde's family was in the 1890 Camping photos that I posted earlier. The photos that boingboing so kindly blogged about.(Thanks, Mark)

Vintage Photos of Twins

(Vintage family photos, Amy Crehore)

(Vintage family photos, Amy Crehore)

I found these two photos in my box of old stuff. Twins make great subjects for photos especially when wearing the same outfts. Perhaps the ladies in the top photo are mama and auntie of the kids in the bottom photo. I think it's around 1910 Italy because I found a postcard with those same kids on the front (dressed in the same outfits) and it had a postmark. It was addressed to one of my relatives who lived in Florence, Italy at the time (signed "love from Filippo"). People liked to have postcards made of their personal photos back then and send them to all their friends.

The Art of Amy Crehore
P.S. The people shown above are not my relatives. They are just friends of relatives.

My Demon Ukulele

Back of the Demon Uke

"Demon", A painted vintage ukulele by Amy Crehore
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Recently, I have had a few inquiries about my "Demon" ukulele. So, I thought I would blog it again. It has racked up a few thousand hits on my flickr account, thanks to stumbleupon. Not sure why everyone is fascinated by it, but maybe it's because this uke is a near mint Stella with an art deco "duco" finish from the 1930's. You can see the back of this uke in the top photo. It has an almost pinkish color in the light areas. It's a very natural-looking textured design. Absolutely beautiful. Here's an example of a rare National tenor guitar with a duco finish: LINK . Nice, eh?

I painted an original design of a girl struggling with a demon over flames on the body of my uke. And, on the headstock, I did a little logo of a demon's face and some hand-lettering.
The Art of Amy Crehore

See more of my painted ukes here with links to close-ups: FLICKR

Juggling in Brazil and Florida

Nice scenery. Watch for the shot of the juggler on the cliff with the raccoon.