Mosaic Monday #65: American Sign Museum

Our daughter has abundant talents, and one of them is her uncanny ability to discover quirky museums.  So it was that we found ourselves at the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, during our November visit to Ohio.  Get ready for some eye candy, coupled with sign trivia that you will probably appreciate, and then promptly forget!

Examples of trade signs, such as the

top hat for a men's clothing shop

Signs are the oldest form of advertising, dating back more than 5,000 years.  Throughout most of their history, signs have been symbolic and taken the shape of what is known as a "trade sign".  Trade signs are visual images - painted, but more often three-dimensional - that represent the business, product or service offered.

The use of letters in signage is actually a recent development, gaining acceptance only in the mid to late 19th century.  This era's signs assumed the character of print advertising, which became practical only through increased literacy.  At first, letters were flat-painted onto a background, but the cut-out letter soon followed.

Picture can be enlarged to read about Smalt, a texture applied to the

paint for the background of signs, improving the readability of the words

Smalt came in diverse colors

The first wall of the museum contains a condensed history of dimensional letters, with examples from each of the key eras - hand-carved and gilded letters in the 1890s; first electric signs of the Lightbulb Era circa 1910; backlit, "raised" opal glass letters from the teens; Neon Era in the late 1920s with exposed tubing mounted on raised letters; plastics prevalent in the sign industry after World War II. 

History wall - oldest letters on the right progressing to newest on the left

Plastic letter sample case.  1960s era sample case was given to sign companies by Wagner Zip-Change, Inc., of Melrose Park, IL.  Kit included a number of sample letters and a miniature, backlit reader board for displaying letters.   

Big Boy.  The late 1960s version of this famous icon has the tell-tale three-dimensional slingshot, red hair and striped pants of the early version.  Later versions either had the slingshot embossed to his pants, or more recently, had no slingshot at all, thanks to political correctness.  The modern Big Boy also sports checked pants vs. the early stripes, and brown or black hair rather than the more mischievous red.  Today's Big Boys are also not as well-fed as the original.

Showcards were a staple of commercial signshops up until the advent of digital printing in the 1980s.  They could be as simple as knockout department store "Sale" signs, or as refined as theatre posters of the 1920s-1940s with portrait-like pictorials of starring actors/actresses.  The Showcard artists who created these fine art posters were those who had a little more flair with the brush.  Unfortunately, not many of these treasures survived, for at the time, they were considered "temporary" and were tossed out once the movie had run its course.

If showcards were reserved for painters with the most flair, gold-leaf on glass was seen as the most revered technique among sign painter circles.  Gilding was "high art" and commanded great respect.  Chicago-based Rawson and Evans was known exclusively for its fancy "chipped glass signs", and the company created the large glue-chipped and gilded mahogany-framed glass signs for a cigar store owned by the Breneiser family.  The signs epitomize the height of the fancy glass signs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Lightbulb Era: 1900 - 1925.  Regal Boot.  The circa 1910 cast metal boot was originally located in Brooklyn, NY.  When acquired, the sign had been retrofitted with neon tubing.  The museum left one side with the neon, and restored the other to its original lightbulb illumination.  The flashing border was also restored.

Green and white glass backlit by lightbulbs, within a metal frame

We came all the way to Cincinnati to see a sign from Montana!  In the 1930s, this sign was in downtown Missoula.

The deco design porcelain neon sign features gilded, raised letters, a trademark of the manufacturer,

Artkraft Signs, Lima, OH.

Manufactured by the McSavaney Company of Springfield, OH, this circa 1925 "punch-out" sign is internally illuminated with incandescent lightbulbs.  Louvered "holes" are punched into the sheet metal to allow light to filter through and illuminate the letters and borders.  Background is glass smalts as is typical of McSavaney signs.

Post World War II Neon Era: 1945 - 1960

"Golfer".  An excellent example of a sign bridging the Neon and Plastic Eras by incorporating both types of illumination: backlit plastic and exposed neon.  Sign originally identified a short 9-hole golf course at a former Rochester, NY amusement park.  It originally was mounted on a pole and rotated; unfortunately, the back half of the plastic golf ball was missing when the sign was purchased.

The early 1950's porcelain enamel neon sign below originally identified a Kansas City area motel.  It is a 'transition' sign from the standpoint that it bridges the Plastic and Neon Eras - the plastic sun/moon and cloud formation are internally illuminated with neon.  This sign was donated by Jim Seelen, Shawnee, KS.  Seelen has been photographically documenting vintage neon motel signs for more than 3 decades.  He personally rescued this sign from its original site.

1963 Speedee McDonald's Sign - Huntsville, AL.  The below example of the iconic "Speedee" single-arch sign originally identified one of several franchise stores in Huntsville, AL owned by the Steve Johnson family.  The sign was threatened with destruction when the family planned to expand the store in 2008 and needed to move the sign closer to the road.  The city would not grant a variance to move and re-install the sign.  Various options were explored to keep the sign in its native Huntsville, but ultimately the Johnsons approached the museum about purchasing the sign.  A deal was made and the museum arranged to have the sign taken down - amidst much local fanfare - and transported to Cincinnati.  Total cost for removal, transportation, restoration and installation was approximately $30,000.

When the sign was acquired,  the "15 cents" had been painted over, and the "ONE" had been updated to "99".  In the museum, one side was left in that condition, while the side you are seeing was restored to its original condition.

Left: I love the intricacy of the top of the Howard Johnson's sign

Right: Vic Cassano Pizza King is a restaurant that recalls my childhood in a suburb of Dayton, OH - I don't think

we ever sat in one, but my Dad raved about the entrepreneurship of a local grocer who built a pizza dynasty

So, did you enjoy the tour?  Which sign appealed to you the most?  What childhood memories do you have of roadway signs, business signs or other forms of advertisement?  Maybe tomorrow you will take a closer look at all the signs that populate our world!

Mosaic Monday

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