Motor Wonders

This Thomas Nelson gift book for children dates from 1924 and has a remarkably vibrant set of colour illustrations. The definition of a motor is extended to include any form of transport from motor cycles to zeppelins or battleships to fire appliances, that involves internal combustion.  They are pictures from a perfect world from which all the random untidiness of the streetscene has been removed.  While the sun shines on every scene the technology on display is the most advanced of its time.  It was a time when there was a much less complicated relationship with the idea of progress and continuous improvement.  Calculating the full environmental costs of new technologies has undermined public expectations of a future of endless advance to the frontiers of science.  On the cover is an illustration signed by Hugh Williams and some of those inside are signed by T W Holmes (1872-1929) - an illustrator of children’s annuals and magazines for boys, specialising in transport subjects.

 

Disasters Narrowly Avoided

Another series of trade cards issued by Palmin, manufacturers of coconut oil products – this time from the 1920s on the subject of children and road safety. An interesting group of scenarios featuring careless children and reckless road users - also a demonstration of corporate social responsibility on the part of business. Anything more than a marginal impact on human behaviour would appear unlikely but nobody could disagree with objective of improving public safety. Vulnerable youngsters in parlous situations are frequently depicted on these cards and reflect parental anxieties common to all cultures. Although the illustrator has thrown the unfortunate victims in all directions, care has been taken to avoid upsetting the audience with excessively graphic content. Follow this link for more hazards to children.

Big Macks

Mack Trucks were assiduous mid-century advertisers, not only in the business press like Fortune but also in general interest, consumer magazines like Life and Saturday Evening Post. It made sense to reach out to the captains of industry in an age when vehicle leasing was in its infancy. The case for consumer advertising is less direct but seems to have been about brand awareness and building strong community associations in the public consciousness. In the fashion of the times they employed hyper-realist illustration to glamorise the vehicles and portray the higher calling of community service. The company symbol of the bulldog with its four-square stance and barely controlled aggression made regular appearances. First responders race through the city streets in bright red Mack fire-trucks while in the nation’s small towns, volunteer crews rush to the neighbourhood fire station where another Mack is prepared for a rescue mission. Life without Mack trucks would be inconceivably insecure is the message. In its prime, the Mack was an all-American brand with the power and standing of, say, Harley-Davidson or Levi Strauss but since 1990 it has been owned and operated by AB Volvo. As of March 2017, Mack truck’s US market share was 10.4%.

Most of these examples carry the signature - Woodi - which tells us it’s the work of Woodi Ishmael (1914-95). Woodi was an illustrator who never graduated to the upper echelons of the profession but had the ability to make a decent living working to his strengths – which included a high degree of technical finish, a flair for well-observed figure compositions and an eye for idealised Americana, perhaps best seen in the image of scrubbed-up, shiny faced schoolchildren crossing the road under the avuncular eye of the neighbourhood cop. This post concludes with four ads for another of Woodi’s major clients, Mathieson Chemicals. According to this source, Woodi was the official courtroom artist when Jack Ruby went on trial for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963.