My Mobile Me Design Museum

Hello. Many years ago I'd go through stacks of magazines, newspapers and printed ephemera, editing, cutting and pasting into big scrapbooks. My visual "morgue." Today, as the print world goes digital, so does my scrapbook. Previously my collection appeared in Apple’s MobileMe gallery. I hope it inspires, entertains and informs you ####

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It's my 14 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

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1927 print ad for Arrow Shirts (art by John Held Jr.)

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John Held Jr. (1889-1958)

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Manhattan Skyline (1936) by John Held Jr

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John Held Jr.  (American, 1889–1958)

New York Skyline,  1934

Watercolor and pencil on paper,  51 x35,6 cm

img source © Invaluable

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 357

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley / illustrated by Lynd Ward

Harrison Smith and Robert Haas 1934

Published in 1934, this edition of Frankenstein with illustrations by Lynd Ward is a treasure. Combining elements from Art Deco and German expressionism, Ward’s 64 woodcut illustrations for Mary Shelley’s classic novel are revelatory, both subtly erotic and feverish. In Ward’s hands, Frankenstein’s creation is a looming powerful figure—human, but not quite—a figure of pity even as he inspires fear. An outstanding pairing of author and illustrator.

[peterpotassium]

Lynd Ward was an American woodcut artist who made graphic novels before that term existed. The way he used shapes and contrast is crazy to me

Panels from Vertigo (1937), Song Without Words (1936), and Gods' Man (1929)

[uwmspeccoll]

it’s Fine Press Friday!

This week we present  another title illustrated by American artist and illustrator, Lynd Ward (1905-1985): Idylls of the King, by English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), with introduction by Henry Van Dyke, and published in 1952 by the Limited Editions Club, in an edition of 1500 copies signed by the artist. Idylls of the King was first published as a cycle of twelve narrative poems, between 1859 and 1885. 

Lynd Ward made over forty individual lithograph illustrations for this fine press edition. The illustrations have at least three colors each, Ward drew directly on the printing matrix, an incredible amount of work. This direct process is sometimes called autolithography. The term, autolithography aims to differentiate the direct process of an artist drawing on the printing matrix, a stone or plate, from lithographs that are made by transferring an image to the stone by other means.  The lithographic plates were printed at the Duenewald Printing Corporation. The typographic layout was designed by Carl Purington Rollins in Bakersville types. Goudy Text was used for headers and the title. The type was printed at the Printing-Office of the Yale University Press in New Haven, where Rollins had been master printer from 1920 to 1948. It is quarter-bound in vermilion sheepskin and English buckram cloth. The cover is stamped in gold with a design by Lynd Ward.  This book is a gift of Loryn Romadka, from the collection of Austin Fredric Lutter. 

View other posts with work by Lynd Ward.

View more Limited Edition Club posts.

View more Fine Press Friday posts.

– Teddy, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[uwmspeccoll]

Juneteenth 2023

For Juneteenth this year, we present a few of the lithographic illustrations by American artist and illustrator Lynd Ward (1905-1985) for North Star Shining by American children's book author Hildegarde Hoyt Swift (1890-1977), published in New York by William Morrow & Co. in 1947 with lithographs printed by master printer George C. Miller (1894-1965).

The book, written entirely in verse for children, is intended as "a pictorial history of the American Negro," but although well-intentioned from a 1940s white point of view, unfortunately its white perspective often misses the mark in a cringe-worthy way. Nevertheless, we do find Ward's illustrations inspirational and reflect one of the finer points of the text:

Our name is legion; There are thirteen million of us now. We are a potent force in America. We are America.

The book is dedicated to Captain Clarence W. Griggs, chaplain of the 594th Port Battalion, killed in action at Okinawa April 12, 1945.

View posts from Juneteenths past.

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'Company Town' by Lynd Ward, 1932

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80′s KTZO-TV/KOFY-TV San Francisco, California Dog Commercials Part 4

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Frito-Lay Inc, 1966

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1957 Jello Ad

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1952 General Electric Vacuum Cleaner

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1969 Coca-Cola Advertisement

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1952 Beech-Nut chewing gum

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1978 Holland House Cocktail Mixes