How to manage your miffed Valentine: a lesson, with O'Gara and Wilson

Since we only update the blog once every two weeks now, I totally missed Valentine's Day. Did you also miss Valentine's Day? If so, then this is the blog entry for you! You will learn all about some gifts you can give your lover to make up for your unbearable faux pas. What expresses love better than crass materialism? I ask you.

Let's start with this week's Collector's Item: great for the man in your life, assuming the year is 1926 and your man really likes Benjamin Franklin.



Let us begin with a Valentine-relevant quotation from a "Beau Magazine" watch advertisement:

Choosing your woman (to employ the phrase of our national arch-beau, Benjamin Franklin) is only the beginning of your adventure: to hold her (if hold her you must) you must have become skilled in that most delicate of all the social arts -- the art of selecting the proper gift for the proper occasion.

Now the "Beau" is an inveterate believer in this pleasant form of bribery. Gift giving is the oil of the social machinery, the only form of flattery which women have not yet learned to suspect, and therefore to be pursued with a certain amount of assured success.

Well, I've certainly learned to suspect it now. So maybe you shouldn't buy this book for your lover ... maybe, instead, you should buy it and hide it from them such that they never learn its secrets.

You will also be concealing many other delights: for instance, a reprinted letter (purportedly from 1745) from Benjamin Franklin to a friend on "Choosing Your Woman". Franklin urges his friend to select an older woman for a mistress for eight reasons, one of which starts with "Because when they cease to be handsome, they study to be good." Do we really? These and other pieces of advice come to $75.00 -- discuss 1926 romantic mores with your lover (or alternatively, hide these insights from your lover) to your heart's content.

Perhaps you and your partner pen a lot of love letters? In that case, you can use this week's Favorite to write a historically accurate one, World War 2-style:



V-mail (short for "Victory mail") was a form used entirely by soldiers on the front during World War 2. They would write in special ink ...



(here we have two facets of the ink box ...)



... on special forms ...



... and their letters would be applied from paper form, to microfilm. The original forms would then be destroyed and big bags of microfilm sent overseas, to be reconstituted into letters for mopey loved ones. As noted by the National Postal Museum: "The 37 mail bags required to carry 150,000 one-page letters could be replaced by a single mail sack. The weight of that same amount of mail was reduced dramatically from 2,575 pounds to a mere 45."

I am sure that a military history buff would find a love letter written V-mail style to be the most romantic thing ever. Indulge them: a box of forms and a box of special V-mail ink -- Quink! -- is only $25.00 and provides dozens of letters!

(And before we move on to the next items, a quick message from Doug: "Before there was e-mail, there was v-mail!" Hilarious.)

Last but not least, gentle readers: an Affordable and Interesting way to relate to your loved one.



You may have heard of the Kama Sutra, an ancient Indian text on physical love. Well, I am here to tell you that there are many, many editions of the Kama Sutra out there, and we've got a bunch of them here at O'Gara and Wilson. The one presented above takes what I think of as the "academic and cultural approach" -- tasteful cover featuring a pretty Indian painting, restrained script, all promoting the scholarly value of this tome, and all for $15.00!

Then there's this approach!



This I consider the "scandal" approach. Published in 1963, it emphasizes the mind-blowing debauchery therein. The photo of Greek statuary totally fails to respect the original Kama Sutra's cultural context. Yours for $7.50.

And here's the third and last in my "Kama Sutra marketing through the ages" series:



Not cultural, not academic, but not scandalous either: this one's all about long walks on the beach, soft-lit candles and romantic dinners. $12.50.

That should pacify your partner, gentle readers! Don't say I never do you any favors ... and oh yeah, happy belated Valentine's Day!

Black History Month 2009 is upon us! Also, Soviets.

February, my gentle gentle readers, is upon us in all its snow-laden glory. On the bright side, February is Black History Month! Most of this blog entry shall regale you with many amazing items of African-American historical value ... but not all of it. Why, you ask? Well, because this week's Affordable and Interesting item was supposed to be picked up by Doug when he went home to Indiana for the evening ... but then, a stunning amount of Indiana snowfall kept him in Chicago for the night.

So, before we continue on to Black history, dear readers, allow me to show you these Affordable and Interesting pins:

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The above pins were produced in the former Soviet Union between the late 1960s and the early 1990s -- they were badges for all manner of occupations, clubs, and organizations. Our regular Jon characterizes them as "bright, sprightly, and lots of fun" and reports that he gave one to his friend Olga, who translated its slogan as "Society to Fight for Sobriety". When she picked herself up from rolling around of the floor laughing, she added, "I need some more for my friends."

These pins are a bargain at $3.00 apiece; I'd consider buying the Stalin one myself, but I want to be able to take airplane flights.

Now let's move on, away from my hasty insertion of those pins and towards this week's Favorite:



Fisk University was one of the first African-American Universities -- established in 1867. It is now open to all races, but has historically served Black history very well -- one notable instance being the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The Singers started touring in 1871, and they did a lot to preserve African-American musical traditions and further the acceptance of those traditions in popular culture.

We have a number of 1910s-1920s Fisk University magazines here at the shop, showcasing various interesting historical angles:



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The Fisk magazines vary in price from $20.00 to $25.00 -- or act now and you might be able to snag the 1916 Fisk Alumni Quarterly for only $10.00!

Last, but certainly not least, we arrive at this Collector's Item, which includes an amazing and touching story:



This, ladies and gentlemen, is a real live tintype of Mr. and Mrs. Watham, who were once enslaved in the southern United States. In the second half of the 1800s, the Wathams were freed, and they struck off to make their fortunes by participating enthusiastically in the Oklahoma Land Rush. These two Black pioneers established an Oklahoma homestead that served their families well until their descendants sold it off in the 1950s, at which point one trunk full of the Watham's heritage was saved.

That trunkful of history is now here, at O'Gara and Wilson! Its contents include -- but are not limited to -- two cotton bonnets, a blue polka-dotted parasol, a spyglass, two leather baby booties, a corncob pipe, a thimble, and two six-sided dice. We're selling this collection for $750.00, and we encourage all and sundry to come by and examine it before someone takes it home. All these objects come together to create a lovely picure of the lives of two pioneers of the American West. They're really fun to look through!

Black History Month seems like a particularly inspiring time right now, with our first Black president assuming power. (I know I've been mentioning that a lot lately, but cut me some slack, gentle readers -- I live in Obama's very neighborhood!) Let that inspiration warm you against the frigid February weather.

Alan refers to us as an "increasingly inaccurately named bookstore"

Sometimes we joke around the store about how we barely even sell books here -- we are so inundated by other amazing historical material. One great example are these fabulous, semi-insane Affordable and Interesting Victorian marketing cards. I had a really hard time choosing just six of them to show you, gentle readers -- we've got a whole boxful! Fortunately (or perhaps un), a recent customer already bought up all the ones that featured little children dressed up as insects and snails.



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I can't even begin to imagine what the Victorians were thinking when they decided to use some of these images to advertise their businesses. I mean, I'll accept that quasi-demonic children drowning cats in ink is a fabulous promotion for dye! But what does a pig frightened by firecrackers have to do with dentistry? And do you realize that those two clowns are eyeing each other over a pot full of "meat extract"? These cards are $3.00 apiece, which I consider a low price to pay for the opportunity to raise our eyebrows yet again at those crazy Victorians.

For this week's Collector's Item, let's move on to something saner, like Don Quixote:



We've got a set of four beautiful porcelain tiles showing Don Quixote at his best! My personal favorite is this one, with a windmill ....



I find that frequently, the phrases I use require extensive explanation (for instance, I recently really confused some friends by saying, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"). I mention this because there is a wonderful phrase -- "tilting at windmills" -- that means "attacking imaginary enemies". It derives from the Quixote scene above, and even if you have not read the book you can probably figure out what happens in that scene. Ah, Quixote ... you taught us farce. Celebrate Don Quixote with these tiles: $150.00!

Our last non-book objects for today feature one of Doug's Favorite pieces of racial commentary:



We've just gotten in a number of amazing prints, now hanging all about the store in various positions! Doug is particularly in love with a large, broadside-style printing of Gwendolyn Brooks' "We're The Only Colored People Here". Brooks, a Chicagoan through and through, was a well-known African-American poet whose works gained international fame. This piece is an especially touching bit about the way the world was as it was desegregating, and yet its inhabitants were still a bit uncomfortable when they mixed. In the 1930s, Paris-based Black Sun Press issued a series of large poster-type printings of very short fiction -- including a very nice 12" x 15" version of "We're The Only Colored People Here".

The Gwendolyn Brooks is $40.00. The rest of these prints vary in price from $35.00 for a lovely engraving of Marie Louise looking benevolently cross-eyed, to $300.00 for the below print:



Apparently -- at the end of the Civil War -- Jefferson Davis mistakenly threw on his wife's raincoat as they were trying to flee capture by Union soldiers; when caught, he was widely mocked for supposedly "dressing as a woman" in an attempt to escape. Above is just one of the political cartoons that resulted!

I'm inspired by those Victorian cards -- I think I'll go home and find some cats to dye! Never claim that the media doesn't affect your children, gentle readers.

Let's put this inauguration in its historical context!

Here we have a special edition of the O'Gara and Wilson Store Blog! In honor of Barack Obama's inauguration, we are featuring a collection of items from two previous historical inaugurations -- those in 1941 and 1945, for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (His first vice president was Henry A. Wallace; his second, Harry Truman.)

We have all kind of materials here, from invitations to inauguration tickets to programs, etc. etc. etc. ....



Here's the 1941 official program for you ....



... and the list of ceremonies, complete with adorable tri-color ribbon!



If you'd attended in 1941, you would have presented this ticket.



There's the back of the ticket.



And if you were lucky, you'd have been invited back in 1945!

There are other things included in this little group, too -- all told, there are nine (count them, 9) pieces of Roosevelt inauguration ephemera. Celebrate inaugural history by purchasing this great collection for $250.00!

Here ends O'Gara and Wilson Special Bulletin for today! I have to venture outside now, but at least it's a whole 20 degrees or so.

Barack Obama, we hardly knew ye!

Ah, gentle readers ... the travails of living in Barack Obama's neighborhood! Occasionally I must display legal identification to the police in order to reach my home; the excellent local restaurant Medici now requires all its wait staff to wear shirts that say, "Obama eats here". Let's hope Obama rises above the record set by previous Chicago politicians such as Rod Blagojevich. (What's your favorite Blagojevich quote? Mine is, In a Nov. 11 conversation, Blagojevich acknowledged that Obama wanted an unnamed "Senate Candidate 1" for the seat but "they're not willing to give me anything but appreciation. [Expletive] them.")

This week we learn that Blagojevich is in a fine, established legacy of evil. For instance, let's look at this Affordable and Interesting item:



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This little book-shaped matchbox-holder was used to promote P.J. Carr in his 1926 campaign for Sheriff. "If elected Sheriff," the matchbox-holder promises, "I will make all of the highways of Cook County absolutely safe for every man, woman and child." Highways? What did a 1926 Chicago highway look like, I wonder? Carr is mentioned in a study by Carroll Hill Wooddy, "The Chicago Primary of 1926" (click here to read it on Google Books), which thoroughly explains that he was just another small cog in the corrupt machine we love so well. $12.50 buys you evidence of Chicago's grand old tradition ... and a cool place to keep your matches, to boot!

Our Collector's Item is rather more informative and straightforward than that little matchbox:



This scarce First Edition "history of Chicago crime and politics" was written in 1952, and the Preface notes, "From the 1951 fall election returns, it was evident that everywhere in America the people were revolting against criminal-political alliances. ... Generally overlooked, however, was the fact that these conditions are not of recent development." Now there's a lesson of which we could remind ourselves today. This copy of the book belonged to Raymond J. Hederman (who was once Chief Clerk in the Circuit Court of Cook County), and I wonder if he would agree with my immediate reaction to the title -- "What a funny editorial choice, to separate crime and politics into two different concepts like that!" They do say that power corrupts. Learn how much, for only $70.00!

This week's Favorite goes a bit afield from our subject: it is not specifically related to corruption in Chicago. Still, it does at least have a section on the Chicago World's Fair, and I bet there's lots of information on general wickedness:



"This book aims to present as many opinion poll results as possible, in a convenient and useful form. The material presented has been collected from 23 organizations in 16 countries and covers the period from 1935, when George Gallup and Elmo Roper began publishing results obtained by this sampling method, through 1946." If that sounds large in scope, well, that's because it is. Look at the index section around the Chicago World's Fair:

Chemistry, technical. See Synthetic products.
Chiang Kai-Shek. See Persons.
Chicago -- World's Fair, 1933-34. See Exhibitions.
Chickens. See Poultry.
CHILD LABOR ... page 97; see also Hours of labor, Labor supply, Agricultural, Wages.

I opened to a random page and found sections for Habeas Corpus and Happiness:



Then I opened to another random page and found the Black Market section! I love this bit:

13. (Denmark, Nov. 12 '44.) Have you ever bought anything directly or indirectly from the black market? -- Yes: 10.3%. No: 89.7%.
14. (Denmark, Nov. 12 '44.) Have you any sympathy for any form of black-market transactions? -- Yes: 7.3%. No: 92.7%.

One wonders what that 3% of people thinks of themselves -- you know, the ones who have had black-market transactions but don't sympathize with them. These and many other intriguing questions come up every time I flip through this book, which you -- yes, you -- could own for $60.00. Hours of entertainment, and a remarkable historical snapshot to boot!

As our first Black President, Obama has already shattered one stereotype. I'm rooting for him to break with Chicago's legendary corruption, too! Let's keep history in mind as we watch his presidency. I can't wait to see what happens!

Malfunctions everywhere, nor any drop to drink

Oh, dear, my dear dear readers.

We officially apologize for not having a blog entry, this past week. Helena, who was due to write it, was delayed in her Chicago visit by three days due to the inconstant weather's effects on air traffic.

I tried to take a picture of a really cool antique book-shaped matchbox cover to show you guys today, just to tide you all over until our next blog entry ... but the store's digital camera refuseth to connect to the computer. Any computer. Reinstallations accomplish naught.

So my dear readers, technical difficulties afflict us to an extent too large for our poor little blog. But we'll be back! Expect us on the next slated blog entry date, which -- since we schedule them every two weeks these days -- shall be the Wednesday after this coming Wednesday.

Take care, all, and happy New Year!

Atoms are our friends; Blagojevich is not. Are P.T. Barnum's sideshows?

Fun Book Hour with Lydia once again, dear readers. Looks like I'm pretty much back in the saddle for regularly writing the blog; my plans to depart have briefly been derailed. (I can't say I'm too depressed about that, when I work in such a wonderful place as this!) But I have a treat coming up for you in two weeks: our prodigal daughter Helena will write that blog entry! She moved to the West Coast earlier this year, but she'll be back for Christmas, and she contacted us saying that she actually wanted to use part of her holiday break working at the good old bookshop. So she'll be covering the place while many of our employees scatter to the four winds for vacation, and she'll write the next blog entry.

Why Helena would want to return to Chicago, city of vice, for her holiday is her business. Recent events with Governor Blagojevich have hurled Illinois once again to top the list of Dens of Sin. Our history -- partly encapsulated in this week's Favorite -- has always been thus:



"The Light" was apparently a regular magazine that considered itself the "official organ of the American Purity Foundation"; this is the 1911 issue, which had a special feature on vice in Chicago. Specifically, the article is titled "The Social Evil in Chicago", and begins with an amazing rundown of recommendations -- firstly, the appointment of a Morals Commission, and secondly the establishment of a Morals Court. Many proposed ordinances follow! Other articles of note include "The Prevention of Insanity" (including a subheader: "The Relation of Alcohol to Insanity") and "The International Conference Relative to the Repression of the Circulation of Obscene Publications". I wonder if the American Purity Foundation's solutions could be applied today? For $75.00, I suggest that you purchase this fine magazine, study it, and let me know. Maybe together we can prevent another Blagojevich.

Blagojevich is not our friend. But this Affordable and Interesting book can tell us who is:



That's right -- the atom is our friend, and in 1956 Walt Disney produced a book to tell us so! Author Heinz Haber writes at the beginning that although "we all know the story of the military atom, and we all wish that it weren't true," and although "so far, the atom is a superb villain", "it is up to us to give the story a happy ending" -- to "make a hero out of a villain". It's "a story with a straightforward plot and a simple moral"!

This vintage paperback is basically a history of the scientific discovery of the atom, but it's noteworthy both for the chipper "Hey kids, aren't atoms great?!" tone and the fabulous 50s graphics. At $5.00, it makes the perfect gift for anyone interested in both 1950s nostalgia and the history of science. I wonder how common people like that are.

People without arms are not common. And least common of all are people without arms like the one pictured in this Collector's Item:



Ann E. Leak was a remarkable woman: born without arms, she simply learned to do everything with her feet. Really. Everything. Look closely at the (regrettably a little faded) photograph above, then read the back:



"This is a specimen of toe-writing," proclaims the calligraphy. Miss Leak sold these cards while traveling both on her own and as part of P.T. Barnum's circus -- toe-writing all the while! She even published an autobiography, describing good times roaming America and Australia. Interestingly, she believed she was born without arms because her father, an alcoholic, came home from the pub with his coat thrown over his shoulders without his arms in the sleeves, and her mother saw this image while pregnant with Ann (click here). We are selling this photograph of Miss Leak for $250.00, but we certainly have no idea why she was born armless. If you do, please leave a comment!

Hyde Park is probably quite charming over Christmas, but I won't know because I'll be away. Welcome Helena next week, gentle readers, and I'll see you in January!