The Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes

Since it’s been weeks (again!) since Ragtag’s Typogrammoricon! has tumbled from our antique 1906 American Type Founders “American Line Type Book”, and since we’ve hit a point in the pages that’s a bit booooring (trust us on this), we’ve dived into later pages - again - to present you with just two of some very particular pages devoted to men’s fraternal organizations/lodges.*

Since this kind of group was quite common in the U.S. throughout its first centuries, and they were still very active at the turn of the century, frequently forming the basis for much of the social activity of small town U.S.A., it would have behooved the jobbing printer to get a few of these to have handy for whenever he printed a related article or announcement.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows - or Odd Fellows for short - is an American offshoot of a British organization formed in the 18th century for fellowship & charitable acts - which at the time was apparently considered somewhat odd. Their emblem includes three links, which represent friendship, love & truth.

Most of the Odd Fellow type offered is emblem/logo or regalia-related, and while interesting, not of very much use now to the average graphic designer. We’ve therefore cleaned-up one of the beehives, which is one of the images representing the originally all-female auxiliary order of the Oddfellows, the Daughters of Rebekah, and which symbolizes industry and united effort. We offer it for your high-resolution use. We love bees.

The Knights of Pythias was another fraternal & benevolent order, founded in 1864 to “promote friendship among men, and alleviate suffering”. They take their name from the Greek legend of the friendship of Damon and Pythias. Their motto is Friendship, Charity, Benevolence and their sister order was called, aptly enough, the Pythian Sisters. Their emblems primarily consist of imagery of knighthood and armor - originally each inductee was required to buy a ceremonial sword for use in lodge rituals -  but their Uniformed Rank, which adopted military terminology for its organization, also called themselves the Army of the Lily and used the calla lily as an emblem - we present the bud and full flower cleaned-up and at print resolution for your enjoyment.

There’s a couple of emblems thrown in at the bottom of this page from the Order of Heptasophs (The Seven Wise Men), founded in 1852, I’m not sure why exactly, which eventually floundered due to schism — and there’s one from the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, founded in 1852 to help Jewish immigrants to the U.S.; their initial clubs later became the foundation of the Jewish Community Center system. A Young Women’s Hebrew Association was later founded in 1888.

Finally: my maternal grandfather was a Mason, and he apparently took his membership and responsibilities very seriously; he was some grand poobah and had all the badges, honors and responsibilities of his office. Not that I really know what these were.

He was also an Odd Fellow, and while I heard it mentioned less often, it appears, at least in his small-town community, it was taken a bit less seriously - see the picture of he & his Odd Fellow lodge as they pose in lovely female attire. They do look a bit odd, except the guy in the upper right, who looks very much at at home in his pretty dress. My grandpa is the one in the front, second from the right - a redhead - on whom I’ve placed a red “x”. He does not shine as a woman.

There are no other photos of my male relatives in drag. That I know of.

* * *

*(We would present you with more typebits related to women’s lodges, but apparently the few that existed did not warrant a much of a look-in from the World O’ Metal Type. Maybe at some point later point in the book I will find some pieces devoted to the Order of the Eastern Star, which was all-female at the time - the wives of those belonging to the Masons.)

(This type book - from 1906 - is in the public domain; it is scanned from our own hardcopy.)

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

It’s been a good long while since I posted from our 1906 American Type Founders American Line Type Book - my work distracted me. Which is good for me, but maybe not as good for you.

Today I hope to remedy that with our 13th post (we at Ragtag Design.com do not believe the number 13 brings bad luck.) 13, 13, 13!!  See? We’re still here.

We’re making a HUGE leap from the last pages to page 101 - while the type specimen pages in between showed some very usable typefaces, they were only mildly interesting & fairly ordinary sample specimen pages. So we skipped them - because we can. (We wade through all the boring stuff so you don’t have to. ; ] )

So, on page 101, with a couple of simple sample ads and an ornament, American Type Founders features their University Script - a formal script typeface you’ll probably recognize, featuring some pretty fancy-schmancy caps. Their header is an art nouveau-ish Strathmore ornament, which I’ve made shiny and new, uploaded for you here in a print-quality high-res file.

Their first ad is a faux ad for the Society of Colonial Dames - which I’d never heard of; I figured it was D.A.R.-like, but probably long-gone. Nope, founded in 1890, around the same time as the D.A.R., they too are still alive & kicking - and unlike the D.A.R (for the most part) are primarily active in the field of historic preservation, restoration and the interpretation of historic sites. (Both groups, however, have a stringent ancestor-based membership requirement.) I’ve provided a screenshot of their heraldic logo.

So current are they, in fact, they even have an online store, a twitter, a youtube channel, and a facebook. It ain’t yer mom’s colonial preservation site.

I was not so lucky finding out anything about Youngblood & Brothers, from the second ad - there was a similar-sounding-but-slightly-differently-named store years ago in Detroit (and no further info other than a listing in an industry journal), but my google-fu produced *nothing* in San Francisco, though currently there are stores that hold that address. There were no groovy vintage photos or old-time ads to be found. (I cried a little.)

Certainly Youngblood is a family name that has been around for centuries, both in England & the United States. Alors. Sadly, not every record survives the transition to the internet.

Anyhoosits, we’ll be back sometime soon with more typeface pretties. Meanwhile, you can read more about the American Type Founders typefaces here.

(This type book is in the public domain; it is scanned from our own hardcopy.)

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

Today’s Typogrammoricon! is a twofer - Pages 5 and 11 of the 1906 American Line Type Book. In between 5 - 11 were a number of fairly ordinary type specimen pages, showing a few nice but fairly standard faces in various point sizes - necessary samples for selling movable type at the time, but not terribly interesting to y’all now. So I skipped ‘em.

Page 5 is the divider page between opening material and the type specimen pages, using their American Point typeface set - it offers several interesting little ornaments, both which I’ve cleaned up and offer for your print-quality use. Somewhere in the many years of owning this book I’ve ripped and smooshed  this page, so…

(Oh, the shame of it. Don’t look at me for just a moment - I’m not worthy… … … … … … … … Okay, I’m over it. Sorry. I offer it to you “as is”; it shows that even the most careful of bibliophiles can hurt their precious tomes.)

Page 11 is a faux ad they’ve made to show their Livermore #2 type, placed inside a strange little border with three bulbous-y cross shapes that oddly evokes (for me) thoughts of the three crosses at Calvary/Golgatha, somewhat inverted.  So there’s that. I offer it without further comment and for what it’s worth.

(This 1906 type book is in the public domain; it is scanned from our own hardcopy.)

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

More Typogrammoricon!

This is our 11th post from the 1906 American Line Type Book. I like this page, because American Type Founders offers to custom-design & cut a logo for their clients, and shows some examples - so you get to see some typical turn-of-the-century logos. Very different from the logos of today, when kabillions of various effects can be created & reproduced. We’ve also clipped the logos out & zoomed in so you can see them better.

Since once again: we find inclusion of this kind of type history info important (in our own very special OCD way) but maybe not-so-very fun or glitzy ; ] we’re also giving you several ornaments from later pages. A big bowl of fruit! A MENU header in beautifully florid Edwardian style!! (They are high-resolution jpgs, cleaned-up and suitable for 300 dpi print work.)

Later in the book, you’ll be seeing the rest of these Cafe/Menu illustration & ornament plates - and pages and pages and pages of other gorgeous and intricate images that were offered for sale as movable type: very useful to the job printer without money or resources for for commissioned illustration.

We’ll be back with more soon.

(This type book - from 1906 - is in the public domain; it is scanned from our own hardcopy.)

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

I’ve just chosen one at random - Bluth, it’s a good ‘un - just so you can know about this blog. It’s where graphic design meets TV & film in a way that feeds both of these obsessions of ours. Faux logos - in their words: “A fauxgo (fake logo) is a symbol or other small design created to represent a fictional company or organization that exists only on film.”

I wish we could convey how happy this tumblr makes us. It’s like coming home - to find a chocolate pie waiting for us.

tymn:

“No touching.”

The Bluth Company, Arrested Development (2003) via Rick Pollock

This is our 10th post from the American Line Type Book; it’s the page which offers type related to the use of diacritical marks (accent or tone marks). They had several typefaces - Cheltenham & Century - which had letters available with integrated accent marks; additionally, they offered accent marks as separate pieces of type that could be set/placed over typefaces not available with them. They called these “piece” accents.

Since we find inclusion of this kind of moveable type info important (in a kind of OCD way) but perhaps lacking in the drama and verve departments ; ] we’re also giving you several ornaments. Kitty! A bee! How can you not love them? (They are high-resolution png files, cleaned-up and suitable for 300 dpi print work.)

These two animal ornaments were from a set of about 100+ dingbats & ornaments designed for use with a typeface named “Post” which they also sold in numerous font variations - a sample of this type is offered in this post’s gallery. You can see how suited in style these images are for use with that face.

(Later in the book, you’ll be seeing the entire set of these Post ornaments: puppies! flowerpots! flowers! horsies! you-name-it! - and pages and pages and pages of other gorgeous and intricate images that were offered for sale as moveable type: very useful to the job printer without money or resources for for commissioned illustration.)

(This typebook- from 1906 - is in the public domain; it is scanned from our own hardcopy.)

From 1928, but it must have been designed earlier - it couldn’t look any more late Victorian if it tried with both hands. Love. It.

letterheady:

Dominion Press Clipping Agency, 1928 | Source

We’re up to page 40a and the ninth page we’ve posted. This page offers us the Norwood typeface, and two (high-resolution & print- usable) ornament images un-labeled by anything but their inventory call numbers - so they are either from a no-name face, or perhaps they are Norwood ornaments. We cannot say…

The piece typeset as their Norwood sample is a goodly portion of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem from “Prelude” in his collection Voices of the Night. (Ordinarily set as poetry, we’re guessing that they wanted to show off their Norwood face in a more conventional prose format.)

Pleasant it was, when woods were green,
And winds were soft and low,
To lie amid some sylvan scene.
Where, the long drooping boughs between,
Shadows dark and sunlight sheen
Alternate come and go;

Or where the denser grove receives
No sunlight from above,
But the dark foliage interweaves
In one unbroken roof of leaves,
Underneath whose sloping eaves
The shadows hardly move.
(etc…)

You can read about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at wikipedia. He was one of the most popular American poets/writers of his time, although his popularity has diminished since its peak in the mid-19th century and now his poetry tends to be regarded as somewhat singsongy and derivative.

Our first and still favorite introduction to Longfellow was via the delightful The Bullwinkle Show - during the episodic “Bullwinkle’s Corner”, he variously performed “The Arrow and the Song” as well as “The Village Blacksmith” (which we can’t locate online, or we would share it with you, too) with his usual moosey charm & panache. (You can listen to and/or read a straight-up rendering of “The Village Blacksmith” here.)

And you can read “Prelude” here, and find “Prelude” & other poems in The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at Project Gutenberg.

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

CROSS ROADS OF THE WORLD - The View from Our Place

Now that Ragtag Design has moved to Hollywood, we’re getting all into Old Hollywood sites. The obvious place to start is the place practically next door to our new office: Hollywood’s Cross Roads of the World. From our balcony, we can see the spinning globe on top of its tower as it lights up at night.

The Typogrammoricon Returns!

[We’re back after a brief hiatus due to a family emergency.]

Knowing how much you must have missed us ; ] we’ve prepared an especially nice page of the American Type Founders line book. This one shows off their Caxton Oldstyle face, as well as a Dellia Robbia initial cap “W”, a leafy flourish, and a Strathmore decorated initial cap - all three of which have been cleaned-up and provided for your use in a high-res png file. Because we loves ya like chocolate.

We’ll be continuing with more pages on a regular basis again.

[The main speech used as sample text is from Robert Emmet, Irish nationalist who led a rebellion against the British in 1803, and was executed. The full text of his speech is available here. The insert text is from Alexander Hamilton, a United States founding father and the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; it is from his speech to the (U.S. Constitution) New York Ratifying Convention in June of 1788. You can download a volume of his writings here at google books.]

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)