Museum Artifact: General Motors “Erie Limited” Locomotive Data Card (Electro-Motive Div.), 1950s
Made By: Toby Rubovits, Inc., 127 S. Aberdeen St., Chicago, IL
On New Year’s Day, 1912, Toby Rubovits took out a large advertisement in the Chicago Tribune, promoting his services as “Printing without frills.” He was, unlike many of his competitors, offering three professional skills in one office.
Museum Artifact: Tintype Photo Medallion of Woman, c. 1910s
Made By: Columbia Medallion Studios / Columbia Portrait Co., 6616-6620 South Cottage Grove Ave., Chicago, IL
“These beautiful photo medallions are the most artistic portraits ever produced. They are mounted on non-corrosive metal specially prepared. The portrait is burnt in, same as on porcelain, and covered with heavy celluloid, making the picture strong and imperishable,
Museum Artifact: “Little Playmates” Musical Postcard / Christmas Card and “Chicago” Musical Postcard, c. 1960
Made By: Musical Postcard Company, 415 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL
Donated By: Nyla Panzilius
It’s no news to anyone that you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole. But what about playing a rectangular paper record on a round turntable? If you’re simultaneously intrigued and skeptical,
Museum Artifact: Duro “Sign Maker” Letter and Number Decals + Display Box, c. 1960s
Made By: Duro Decal Co., Inc. / Duro Art Supply, Inc. / Duro Art Industries, 1832 W. Juneway Terrace, Chicago, IL
Donated By: Jeff Levine
“Duro Letters and Numbers speed up work and are easy to transfer, making every sign a perfect job. Each character is precision made of Best Grade Black Lacquer and Gold Bronze to insure uniformity and quality.
Museum Artifact: “The Bear” Ortho-Scope 3-D Children’s Book, 1934
Made By: The Orthovis Company / Orthovis Publishing Co., 1328 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL
“The amazing illustrations in ORTHOVIS educational books give the illusion of life-like depth and atmospheric distance. Through the eyes of the orthoscope that comes with each book, animals, birds and objects seem to become alive.” —Orthovis advertisement,
Museum Artifacts: Superior Match Promotional Matchbook and Company Catalog No. 612, 1940s
Made By: Superior Match Company, 7530 S. Greenwood Ave., Chicago, IL
“Book Matches are silent salesmen, on the job for you constantly, never taking a day off, never late for work, never taking a vacation or asking for a raise in pay! . . . For just as surely as a match is used to light a cigarette,
Museum Artifacts: Motor Trend magazines (1961-1964), Report of the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy – Paperback Book (1964), “House Dope” employee magazines (1942-1945)
Made By: W. F. Hall Printing Company, 4600 W. Diversey Ave., Chicago, IL
“A deluge of paper stock, ink, glue, and all other printing supplies and equipment enters the plant of W. F.
Museum Artifact: Marvel 60 Hole Punch, c. 1940s
Made By: Wilson Jones Company, 3300 W. Franklin Blvd., Chicago, IL
Long before any Marvel superhero ever punched a villain, the mighty Marvel Hole Punch was already dispensing its own brand of justice on unsuspecting sheets of binder paper. This lever-operated “paper perforator” was originally designed by Alexander and Chesley Dom of the Samuel C.
Museum Artifact: Stereoscope w/ “World Series” Stereoview Cards c. 1905
Made By: Kawin & Company, 260-262 Fifth Avenue (850 N. Wells St.), Chicago, IL
“Kawin’s original stereoscope plan has crowded the stores of hundreds of the livest merchants in this great and prosperous country . . . Send us $1.25 and we will send you this genuine aluminum hood crystal lens stereoscope and a set of one hundred beautiful and interesting photo-colored views,
Museum Artifact: First Edition “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Illustrated Book by Robert L. May, 1939
Made By: Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc., 758 N. Larrabee Street, Chicago, IL
“Today children all over the world read and hear about the little deer who started out in life as a loser just as I did. But they learn that when he gave himself for others his handicap became the very means through which he achieved happiness.
Museum Artifact: “Blind Dates” Arcade Collector Cards, 1941
Made By: Exhibit Supply Company, 4222-4230 W. Lake Street, Chicago, IL
“One cannot mention the words ‘penny arcade’ without thinking of the Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago. For over twenty-seven years its president, Mr. J. Frank Meyer, has been engaged in his tireless task of advancing the arcade business. Today, the acorn of more than a score of years ago has developed into a giant oak tree and the Exhibit Supply Company has become the symbol of all that is fine in the line of penny arcade machines.” —Bernard Madorsky (Eastern Distributor for Exhibit Supply Co.),
Museum Artifact: No. 2745 Handy Pen-Filling Ink Stand, c. 1930
Made By: Eugene Dietzgen Co., 990 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL
“Wherever Dietzgen products go, something important is always brewing. It may be in a little office in some huge factory where a new high-altitude plane is being born on the drawing board. It may be in far-off Africa where new flying fields or military highways are to take shape amid burning sands for a new turn in war strategy.
Museum Artifact: Woodstock Standard Typewriter, Model No. 5, 1922
Made By: Woodstock Typewriter Company, 300 N. Seminary Ave., Woodstock, IL (Offices at 35 N Dearborn St, Chicago)
“The record of the Woodstock Typewriter stands out conspicuously as one of the great achievements in typewriter history. Probably no writing machine has stepped into prominence with less ado or been received with such universal favor.” —Woodstock Typewriter Co.
Museum Artifact: Addressograph Print Ribbon Tins, c. 1920s
Made by: The Addressograph Company, 915 W. Van Buren St., Chicago, IL
“If tomorrow morning the Addressograph were set down in your office, any sixteen year-old boy or girl in your employ could readily operate it and by noon be addressing envelopes, cards, statements, payroll forms, anything, everything, at the rate of 1,000 an hour.
Museum Artifact: “A Trip Through Sears Roebuck & Co.” – Set of 50 Stereoview Photo Cards, c. 1908
Made By: Sears, Roebuck & Company, 925 S. Homan Avenue, Chicago, IL
“Which company do you think has the most stores, the most customers, the most sales, the most profits – and at the same time is the most loved, the most far-flung, the most legendary,
Museum Artifacts: Franklin D. Roosevelt Pinback Campaign Button (1936), and 22 Pinbacks of Flags from Around the World (c. 1920s)
Made By: The Green Duck Company, 1725 W. North Ave., Chicago, IL
“We were as happy to be of service to the GOP as to the Democrats, and vice versa. Where politics is concerned, ‘I’m For Me’ and Green Duck is for Green Duck.
Museum Artifact: Paymaster Series X-550 Check Writer Machine, 1960s
Made By: The Paymaster Corp., 1811 W. Winnemac Ave., Chicago, IL
“The only way to have the Paymaster system when you NEED it is to have one all the time—NOW!”—tagline from 1951 Paymaster sales manual
Often kept well out of sight in the backrooms of banks and the HR departments of small businesses,
Museum Artifact: “End of the Trail” Native American Print & Wood Frame, 1925
Made By: Borin Manufacturing Company / Borin Art Products Co., 1325 S. Cicero Ave., Cicero, IL
When it comes to talented men of potentially questionable character, some folks say you must learn to “separate the art from the artist”—to appreciate their work on its own merits. It’s not clear if this same philosophy applies to the art dealer,
Museum Artifacts: QRS Player Piano “Autograph Word Roll” #340 – “Forever is a Long Long Time,” 1916
Made By: The Q-R-S Company, 412 Fine Arts Building – Factory at 4829 S. Kedzie Ave.
“Up to the advent of the Q-R-S Autograph Roll all player piano music rolls were much alike—all made the same mechanical way. . . The Q.R.S. Autograph Music Roll is hand played—it is practically a photographic record of the hand playing of an artist.
Museum Artifacts: 1933 Chicago World’s Fair Postcards (C.T. American Art and C.T. Colortone), published by Max Rigot Selling Company
Made By: Curt Teich & Company, 1733-1755 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago, IL
“If one were seeking the vernacular aesthetic of a period, the postcard is where you will find it . . . It is the least elitist form of artefact.” —Tom Phillips,
Museum Artifact: Olson Rug 75th Anniversary Calendar, 1949
Made By: Olson Rug Co., 2800 N. Pulaski Rd., Chicago, IL
No other manufacturing business in Chicago ever had a headquarters quite like that of the Olson Rug Company. From 1935 to 1965, the sprawling Olson factory campus at the northwest corner of Diversey Avenue and Pulaski Road—with its stunning man-made waterfalls, rock gardens, sculptures,
Museum Artifact: Superior “CUB” Kids Rotary Printing Press No. 8401, c. 1950s
Made By: Superior Marking Equipment Co. / SMECO (aka Superior Rubber Type Co.), 1800 W. Larchmont Ave., Chicago, IL
Research is underway on this one and a full write-up will be coming soon.
Museum Artifact: “The Lakeside News” company newsletter, July 1949
Made By: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company / Lakeside Press, 350 E. Cermak Road (Calumet Plant), Chicago, IL
Research is underway on this one and a full write-up will be coming soon.
