March’s Halloween poster
The addition of an 11×17 fold-out poster insert for The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 wasn’t going to happen unless its quality could be near (or better than) source material, so that those oh-so-tiny fonts and detailed illustrations of vintage Halloween collectibles would appear crisp and clear. Fortunately, some current archive and library tools (discussed below) are available to enable the reproduction to occur in a manner that keeps undamaged the vintage 1926 edition of Normal Instructor and Primary Plans containing that amazing “March’s Halloween Page” full-page advertisement.
Now that THR-V1 is on sale, there needed to be some manner of displaying the poster as if framed on a wall. So, this called for an appropriate haunted house vibe found on the vintage illustration of a mid-century weather house (with more on those below) to best fit the ambiance (a bit of spoofing actually on all those finely photographed interiors of ultra-clean modern websites displaying artwork for sale).
March’s Halloween Page from the October 1926 edition of Normal Instructor and Primary Plans hangs in an illustrated interior from a mid-century weather forecaster.
As for the poster content, the vintage advertisement reveals, as do other items in the article “Normal Halloween” from THR-V1, that early Halloween 1926 is celebrated across age groups. And just look at all those wonderful manufactured products by such companies as Dennison’s and Whitney! But there is more to read about such things in The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 which, in the refereed article, examines March Brothers Publishing Company and Paine Publishing Company, both of Ohio.
ARCHIVE / LIBRARY tools
So back to that bit about modern tools used to recreate the advertisement in poster format…
First, the poster is imported into the computer as a high-resolution image using a Bookeye 5 book scanner by Image Access – a really useful type of scanner that allows one to open any printed material (naturally as suits the object) and scan from the view above – with output adjusted for variables including angle correction. In this way one is not handling fragile material in a manner that could damage the spine or potentially mar pages as might occur when struggling with a flat-bed scanner.
If you are fortunate, some libraries and archives offer the use of these devices as did my local university. But for those more serious about an actual purchase, the Image Access site offers a list of distributors, and if you are in the Denver area the folks at Large Document Solutions have always been friendly and professional with inquiries about the device.
Second, (while noting that the Bookeye 5 has many image-fixing tools that come installed with the machine), the archivist/librarian here also enjoys some of the post-production tools available in Adobe software including Photoshop, and this is utilized to get a few things flawlessly straight, correct color, slightly sharpen the resolution, as well as remove some of the less desirable signs of age.
The second half of this mastering process prepares the file for a printer who manages the final output, returned here to be one of the two inserts with an official copy of THR-V1. This is a reason sales are done on an individual basis by the author via etsy – to include the poster (and the tallies), but also to examine the quality of each book to be shipped in a sturdy box.
the halloween Retrospect
As indicated The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 is where the poster now resides as an extra to the book package. The article “Normal Halloween” contains seven illustrations, as well as source references, and that poster seen above (and shown below with the book and tallies).
Here is a link to more website info about The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 (a new research-based guide on the vintage market of Halloween collectibles) and here is the link to purchase a copy via Etsy checkout.
Weather House Interiors
Okay, so back to that background of the poster above…
This author has not examined the catalog record for these weather forecasting devices which originated as folk art from Germany (and would love to know more about the mid-century plastic version from the U.S.), but did have the paper remnant (below) and one intact device marked Nu-dell (further below) available from the object archive. If there is time in future to check the catalogs for this item (even though it is not strictly Halloween), a follow-up posting will be created here with the details.
Above, first image: cardboard remnant from The Weatherman Jr. Weather Forecaster. Above, second image: loose cardboard backing was loosely attached to allow for this scan of the interior of Weather Wizard of which the entire object is shown at bottom (produced by Nu-dell Plastics of Chicago, IL) styled with some vintage Halloween collectibles – a candy container witch and some paper pulp Jack O’Lanterns.
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