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Wills's Cigarettes "Heraldic Signs & Their Origin" series of 25 large sized cards issued in 1925
#5 The Lymphad (Viking Raiding Ship)
I love sharing vintage ephemera, especially children’s art. Please feel free to copy, cut and paste any of these vintage images. I would also love to see any finished work that you have done. Best Wishes, Shelece
I love sharing vintage ephemera, especially children’s art. Please feel free to copy, cut and paste any of these vintage images. I would also love to see any finished work that you have done. Best Wishes, Shelece
self-portrait
bg stock: in the name
All rights reserved: Spoken in Red/ Jennifer Rhoades Photography
My work is protected by copyright and may not be altered, posted, published, or used without my expressed consent and authorization.
I recently acquired this in an auction box lot. It's a typewritten draft of what seems like a short piece for a magazine. My hunch is it was never published. I also suspect that the true author is Charlotte G. Moulton; her contact info is furnished at the end of the piece and her middle name is Glidden. Ms. Moulton was for several decades the UPI wire correspondent covering the Supreme Court. She was among the very first to report some momentous decisions in the 20th century, among them Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, and the Miranda case.
Here's a transcript of the article:
Moteling — 1955
By Susan K. Glidden [probably a pseudonym of Charlotte G. Moulton]
To those who have never moteled may I say that in this pursuit, as elsewhere in life, it’s the little things that count.
Motel owners please note.
Having just returned from a grand circle vacation tour of the United States, where three of us located for a night in 16 different motor courts and three cabins in national parks, I speak with the voice of experience — not bitter but pretty well seasoned.
Of course after a daily 350 miles or so of dusty wayfaring, any modest billet with a clean-sheeted bed looks like a corner of heaven.
Cabins in national parks are designed to rent as cheaply as possible and naturally have to be rustic, with no fancy extras. The government now hopes to embark on an ambitious development program to meet the needs of an ever-increasing tourist load.
But the better motels go all-out for the motorist’s comfort. Wall-to-wall carpeting is usual, with gay draperies, easy chairs, radio and/or TV (usually the “insert a coin” type), immaculate tiled shower and air-conditioning. One motel clerk asked us to select either foam rubber or inner spring mattresses. All for prices ranging from $7 to $10 a night.
But, as I said, it’s the little things that count. And we soon had our own list of small desirables. After a few days on the road it became a standing joke to them off on arrival to see how the night’s stopping place met the test.
A shelf in the bathroom and a hook on the inside of the door headed the list. It’s right difficult to dispose of your toothbrush and toothpaste, lotion, soap flakes, pajamas and robe, soiled undies and other accessories when the bathroom offers no place to hang anything or set anything down. When even the toilet seat lacks a cover, it’s downright frustrating.
A wastebasket in both the bathroom and bedroom is also a help. We were always walking from one room to the other with crumpled paper or other rubbish in search of that essential article.
Small nightly laundry is highly important to the traveler but apparently seldom enters the thinking of motel designers. Bathroom basins are usually small, with no rim to hold wet garments between washing and rinsing. After the laundry is finished there is no place to hang it up to dry.
A shower curtain rod is a life-saver. But the trend in showers appears to be toward glass doors rather than curtains. Stretch clotheslines are obtainable at department store notion counters, but motels seldom provide any convenient appurtenances between which the line can stretch.
So bedtime usually found nylons panties draped on doorknobs, socks dangling from uplifted covers of vanity cases, and T-shirts on wire coat hangers balanced on door frames.
Many motels provide water glasses wrapped carefully in crisp little paper bags labeled “sterilized for your health and safety.” We had added this fine idea to our list until we observed the “sterilizing” being effected in something less than a super-safe manner. But even after that the little bags with their reassuring message made us feel protected anyway.
There were other acceptables — nice but not necessary. They included a real closet, instead of a clothes rack, a separate dressing alcove with a shelf for toilet articles, etc. (seldom found), and more than one luggage rack.
Frequently a room with two double beds would boast only one rack for a suitcase. The only other out-of-the-way space was often between wall and bed or even under the bed. Access to the bag’s contents could be had most conveniently by lying flat across the bed on the stomach.
Most motor courts had their own ideas of the “little extras” a traveler likes. A bottle-opener attached to a door jamb was a virtual certainty. Also small cakes of soap and bath mats, either cloth or fiber. Ice cubes were usually readily available, frequently in enormous quantity in a freezer in either the motel office or outside in the patio.
About a third of the motels provided face cloths along with the towels. Some had paper cups and facial tissue. One had a couple of super-fine quality tissues in envelopes inscribed with the management’s compliments. Another supplied two tough-fiber utility cloths for bathroom use which we used on the car for three weeks afterwards.
Free post cards bearing a picture of the motel were common. A few supplied stationery. In one or two we found packets of instant coffee for an early bracer. One advertised a continental breakfast of coffee and sweet roll for a quarter. And one even offered hot coffee and a doughnut “on the house.”
We seldom found a telephone in our room but there was always one in the office or in an outside booth.
Free reading matter included newspapers, the Bible and the Book of Mormon. One motel office offered borrowers an assortment of recent magazines.
Eating is always a travel problem. Some motels also operate cafes, with fairly good food at reasonable prices. But restaurants that would be considered A-1 in New York or Chicago simply don’t exist in small cities and towns. The motel manager directed us to the nearest eating place and we hoped for the best.
In first-class motels, serious defects are virtually nonexistent. In one place, however, the bathroom fixtures came off at the slightest encouragement. Sometimes the faucets dripped. A rodent gnawing away in the woodwork overhead caused one wakeful night.
We never realized how many systems there are for turning a shower on and off. But we always solved the mystery after a few tries. Soundproofing in all but one instance was excellent.
Of course we had to take in stride the afflictions suffered by the local residents themselves. For instance, as we approached one court in Oklahoma, we saw the manager pacing back and forth menacingly, with fly swatter in hand. It turned out that a horde of king-size crickets, different from the reassuring Eastern chirpers, had descended on the town, invading stores and homes. We found only one in our room, which we promptly dispatched.
Because motels must be on highways, we were sometimes disturbed at night by traffic noises. But this disadvantage was more than offset by the convenience of driving in and obtaining comfortable accommodations in less than five minutes.
Sometimes we didn’t even have to get out of the car. The manager came out to meet us, determined our needs and directed us to a room. Later we registered at the office, stating name, address, license plate and make and model of car.
From there we were on our own. Motels offer no bellboy service. Managers offered in a half-hearted way to carry our bags but they never insisted.
Names of motels run to a pattern. The country is dotted with Knotty Pines, Sunsets, Skylines, Westerns, Holidays and Trail’s Ends. Many owners concentrate on the atmosphere of their own region — El Rancho, Sea Breeze, Coral Sands, Plantation, Westward Ho, Desert Inn, etc. But some go to great expense to be different. One owner was importing blue spruce trees from another state so his patio would justify the name Blue Spruce Motel.
We soon became expert at telling from the outside what the inside of a motor court would look like. The safest bet is to choose one recommended by the American Automobile Association or some other reputable travel agency. That way you can’t go wrong.
[END]
Charlotte G. Moulton
Falls Church, Virginia
Doll I was commissioned for by a customer on Etsy. She came up with the concept, I made the doll.
"Ephemera smiles a lot and likes to people watch. Curious but shy, she will follow those who get lost in the woods and secretly guide them back to the right path. She is waiting for the day when someone will notice her."
Doll: Spectra, rerooted in white
Clothes: Cloak by Catzilerella (you can find her on Etsy here: www.etsy.com/shop/catzilerella)
Dress by Melovegrangles and altered by me. Vest-Spectra altered by me. Shoes customized by me.
Herbert Bayer (1900 – 1985)
Carte postale / Postcard © 1988 Gebr. König Postkartenverlag Serie 142 Bauhaus Utopien
A snapshot of Plymouth Rock at Pilgrim Memorial State Park in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The historic rock is "the traditional site of disembarkation of the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in December 1620," as Wikipedia describes it.
Although the sand, bars, and stone walls visible in the photo make the rock's enclosure seem rough and stark, it's actually surrounded by a grand granite portico designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White. For a view of part of the portico, see People Posing at Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of historic sites.
I love sharing vintage ephemera, especially children’s art. Please feel free to copy, cut and paste any of these vintage images. I would also love to see any finished work that you have done. Best Wishes, Shelece
Canned clear air is sold by Mrs. Irving Nadelhaft to raise funds for the Pittsburgh Citizens Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP). Sales soared recently when air pollution in Pittsburgh reached emergency levels.
UPI Photo.
American Medical News, February 9, 1970
The Deutsche Werkbund propagated functional design and was clearly against useless decorative elements. Why then is all text on this poster underscored? Not only it is useless, it is even counter-productive because underscoring undermines the visibility of descenders, thus causing poor legibility.
This arrived in a tattered old geography school book. The little hand drawn gem you see here appears to be a student assignment, hand drawn with compass and pen.
Wills's Cigarettes "Heraldic Signs & Their Origin" series of 25 large sized cards issued in 1925
#19 The Napoleonic Eagle
Found in folder "Signs and Notices," Ephemera Collection (Record Series 9900-01), Seattle Municipal Archives.