My Week at the American Sign Museum
Report from this incredible museum, which celebrates its 25th anniversary with a new book this year.
When I visited the American Sign Museum in 2015, my ability to focus on the location itself was somewhat overwhelmed by the Letterheads 40 event that was in full swing there. Then, on the last day, we hit the road for the original Better Letters Circus tour, but I swore that one day I'd return.
That day came last Monday, when I turned up for a week of research for a book I'm writing to celebrate the museum's 25th anniversary.
It was an incredible week in an incredible place, but I was initially awestruck by everything there was to take in; it was like the 'freeze' from the 'fight, flight, or freeze' responses to threats, but with a positive twist!
After I'd pulled myself together, I got to work on learning everything I could from the exhibits, and the people that have brought it all together. This included time in the expansive library, where I set up my work station for the week, and a trip to the nearby storage facility where there is a vast collection of artefacts queuing up to get into the main buidling.
Even with a whole week, long days due to jetlag, and an access-all-areas pass, I still feel like I've only scratched the surface of what the museum has to offer. Luckily I'll be back for Letterheads 50 in June, but in the meantime, here's a taste of my week at the American Sign Museum.
The Letterwall
When you first enter the museum, you're greeted by the Letterwall, which provides myriad examples of the materials and production methods used for creating letters and signs.
The museum showcases the numerous ways that different materials can be used and combined to create a seemingly endless variety of letterforms.
Painting & Gilding
The museum should be a place of pilgrimage for sign painters, with everything from showcards to kit boxes and giant glue-chipped and gilded signs. (I'll follow up on this post with another piece focusing on some more of the 'Ye Olde Sign Shoppe' goodness that I came across.)
The intricately gilded and painted portfolio of George C. Brooke dates from 1870, which makes it the oldest item in the museum's displays.
Keith Knecht's kit box is one of my favourite items at the museum, and I was able to get a look at the back side on this visit. There will be more from Knecht in 'Meet the Letterheads' in BLAG 07, and I've previously shared even ore kit boxes from the museum.
Original sketches from Chicago's Beverly Sign Co. (Check out the new book on the firm, and the feature about them in BLAG 06.)
Flick the Switch
The museum is overflowing with illuminated signs, from early incandescent bulbs to neon and backlit plastics. Their collective brilliance is truly awesome, but there was also something special about seeing them unplugged, including the various details that are only visible this way.
With museum founder and curator Tod Swormstedt, checking out some of the details on the huge Howard Johnson's sign that is a centrepiece of the museum's Main Street exhibit.
Sign shop salespeople used these portable sample kits to show the variety of colours that can be achieved by combining different glass coatings with either neon or argon (and mercury) in the tubes.
Signs, signs, signs on Main Street, and every alley that comes off it.
Main Street Details
The flagship exhibit at the museum is the Main Street installation. This blends original signs with complementary shopfronts and displays from contemporary craftspeople. The exhibit was completed in two phases: 2012 for the opening at the current Camp Washington site, and 2024 (profiled in BLAG 06).
The Main Street Reunion Project (2012) on YouTube.
My visit was enriched enormously by getting to spend time on Main Street with some of those that had the vision and the skills to realise it. These were museum founder and curator Tod Swormstedt, the architect Paul Muller, construction maestro Sean Druley, and David & Suze Butler, who brought together and managed the teams that customised each individual shop.
Window panel for the jewellers by Noel B. Weber, Elaine Wallis' Snapper's Tavern mural, and concave gilded letters behind glass by Jeff Lang for the tailors.
The windows in the shops are then filled with a huge array of smaller items from the museum's collections. These range from DIY sign kits, to point-of-purchase signs, to fun stuff like toys.
The Blitz Beer point-of-purchase sign is animated by a rotating disc set behind the outer ring.
Justin Green
In the same display as the toys and games are original drawings from Justin Green's 'Sign Game' series. Sadly I never got to meet Justin on my 2015 visit, but I did see his widow Carol Tyler on this trip. I also passed by some of his work, and the ghost sign that he talks in front of in Sign Painters. (Check out Married to Comics to learn more about Justin, Carol, and their relationship.)
From the hand of Justin Green at Shake It Records and the Blue Jay Restaurant.
Lights, Camera, Action!
While the whole book team was in town, a local TV station came in to do a live broadcast from the museum. Each of us was interviewed, and of course the signs made the perfect backdrop for shooting.
Going live with Jen on Local 12, and the book team. From left: Erin Holland, Natalie Grilli, Ioanna Paraskevopoulos, Jen from Local 12, Kathy Kikkert, and some guy in a Manning Signs t-shirt. Behind us is Bob, the West Coast name for Frisch's iconic 'Big Boy' sign, right in the middle of Main Street.
Local 12 interviews American Sign Museum book photographer Natalie Grilli for the morning show, at 25:00 on YouTube. Also available here.
Kathy Kikkert and yours truly talking signs and the book for Local 12, at 49:05 on YouTube. Also available here.
When Better Letters Met Jenna Homen
Jenna Homen has been involved with BLAG since the very beginning, and in addition to sub-editing each issue, she now writes the regular 'Shop Talk' column. When I told her about the trip, she hinted that she might try to come along for some of it, and I was chuffed when she followed through on the idea.
Jenna was first out of the blocks with her write-up of her visit, which you can read in full here, including a look at my first ever taste of Cincinnati's famous Chili. It was lovely to hang out, and to do so in such an inspirational location, so thank you for coming Jenna!
Behind-the-Scenes
I have no idea how the museum's founder and curator Tod Swormstedt decides what is included in the public displays, and what gets left outside. (In fact, it's a question I'll be putting to him for the book!) As part of the visit, I was lucky to get to see some of the stuff that isn't on general display.
Paint, brushes, and metal leaf. The weight of that tin of Dutch Boy white lead was quite something.
By the time you read this, the inside of Main Street's sign shop may be open to the public. These are some of the pieces in the extensive display of Mike Stevens' showcard and lettering work which now fills two walls. We'll be profiling Stevens and his showcards in BLAG 07.
Support Your Local Library
Not surprisingly the museum has a vast library with over a century of publications straddling all aspects of signs and sign making. This includes a full set of bound Signs of the Times magazines dating back to the first issue from 1906. The library was where I set up for the week, and it can be visited by appointment, which I highly recommend.
Aside from some of the classics like Atkinson's Sign Painting and Strong's Book of Designs, this book caught my eye. It was published in 1941 by the Ohio State Conference of Sign and Pictorial Artists' Local Unions to "improve, extend, and develop more business for the benefit of our craft". There are echoes of the 1935 Modernize Main Street publication, although this more recent book contains a series of technical illustrations in the back pages.
One box I opened had a number of flipbooks inside. These were the 1922 'Instructograph' series, which claimed to be "The First Employment of Moving Pictures in Teaching Show Card Writing". The eight flipbooks, which were later published as a chunky compendium, covered paletting, the basic strokes, and the construction of the letter 'A' shown here.
The Instructograph series was published by the American Show Card School in Toronto, Canada.
All Play and No Work
The week was a brilliant way to immerse myself in the museum ahead of knuckling down to write the book. Sometimes work doesn't feel like work, and I'm excited about the next stage of collaborating with the wonderful team that the museum has brought together for this special publication.
The American Sign Museum: Celebrating 25 Years will be out in the Autumn/Fall, and is now available for pre-order.
Enjoying my work with photographer Natalie Grilli and designer Kathy Kikkert at the Mom 'n 'Em cafe near the American Sign Museum. Photos: Mom 'n 'Em staff.
More Places
Better Letters