Tag Archives: American Sign Museum

American Sign Museum: 20 Years

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Recently, after reviewing a pair of books documenting the first one hundred years of Route 66, I published a post about my own, somewhat shorter, experience with the highway. That post is here. The origins of this post are much the same. While reading and reviewing American Sign Museum: Celebrating 25 Years, I naturally recalled my own experience with the subject of the book. As I noted in that review, I first became aware of the American Sign Museum when it opened in Walnut Hills in 2005. My memory is that I became a member soon after, but receipts indicate that might not have happened until 2010. If that’s true (and I’d like to think it isn’t), shame on me.

The picture of the ribbon-cutting at the April 28, 2005, grand opening at the top of this page is similar to a much better one appearing on page 97 of the 25-year book. The museum opened before this blog existed, and things that were not road trips appeared as Oddments. The Oddment for the 2005 opening is here. That’s the Katie Laur Band in the picture at left. While putting this post together, I found a couple of unpublished pictures from that day that I think deserve sharing. One is Katie Laur and “Mr Cincinnati” Jim Tarbell chatting as things wound down. The other is of Lenny Diaspro, to whom the 25-year book is dedicated and after whom the museum’s Lenny’ Bar is named. I remember Lenny as a tour guide and more in Camp Washington, but admit to not really being familiar with him at Essex Studios. Obviously, I should have been.

The next time the museum appears on this website is on the second day of a road fan outing called “Madonnas & Signs”. The first day of the trip was spent on the National Old Trails Road with stops at the Indiana and Ohio Madonna of the Trail Monuments. We reached the museum on the second day for a tour with Tod. The journal for this 2009 trip is here.

Sign Museum Entrance - pig and genieThis blog was added to the website in August of 2011, and in January of 2012, the ASM made its first appearance. The occasion was the last hurrah at the Essex Studio location before it was shut down for the move to Camp Washington. A reopening on the seventh anniversary of the April 28 opening in Essex Studios was the target.

The April date turned out to be only slightly overly optimistic. There was a soft opening for members on Friday, June 1, 2012, and a full opening on Saturday. For some unknown reason, even though the blog was obviously up and running, this reopening was covered as an Oddment. It is here.

Fred and Tod at Amrtican Sign MuseumThe museum had been open in its new location for less than a month when I got to show it off to visiting friends. Fred Zander, from Kansas, more or less scheduled a Cincinnati visit to follow the reopening, and the place was easily the highlight of his trip. His day in the Queen City is covered here.

Neonworks at American Sign MuseumJust about a month later, Don Hatch, from Illinois, was in town and anxious to see the expanded museum. Don had been part of the “Madonnas & Signs” group that visited the original location back in ’09. We both enjoyed our first neon tube lighting demonstration in the Neon Works shop attached to the museum. Don’s July 2012 visit is here.

It doesn’t seem likely, but I guess it’s possible that Dinner and a Movie – Cincinnati Style, near the end of January 2015, was the first event I attended at the museum in its new home. The movie was Sign Painters, directed by Faythe Levine & Sam Macon. Dinner was catered by Camp Washington Chili. What’s not to like?

On April 19, 2015, I was back at the museum to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its opening at Essex Studios, which was a little more than a week away. The next day, I attended the twentieth annual butterfly show at Krohn Conservatory. A Ten and Twenty Years in Cincinnati blog post covered both events.

I attended my first Society for Commercial Archeology conference in 2017. It was held in Cincinnati, and the zero lodging cost and almost zero transportation cost made it quite affordable. The SCA marked its fourtieth year with goetta (a Cincinnati treat) sliders at the Sign Museum.

The spring and summer of 2020 were tough on everybody, and that definitely included museums. The COVID-19 pandemic had closed them all, but by mid-summer, three of my local favorites had worked out procedures that allowed them to reopen. The Cincinnati Art Museum reopened in June. The Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Sign Museum reopened in July. I documented my visit on the day of the reopening with a Return of the Signs post. With no lines permitted inside, but hoping there might still be a need for lines, the Sign Museum used the Buma-Shave method to mark an area for a widely spaced line outside.

One of the most fantastic events I’ve ever attended was presented by the museum in June of 2022. The Signmaker’s Circus was a truly outlandish celebration of the tenth anniversary of the move to Camp Washington. Things were really falling into place to allow expansion into the other half of the building. This party took advantage of that situation and was actually sort of a step toward the expansion. The storage area was cleared, and just about every sign in the museum’s possession was hung and illuminated. An entire troupe of circus performers moved into the space so that the image at left is what we saw when the curtains opened.

In addition to the grand openings and anniversary celebrations, the museum has presented quite a number of smaller events. Some have been members-only affairs, like a series of Saturday morning “Coffee with Tod” gatherings, and others were open to all, with some even being streamed live. Here are a couple directly connected to The Signmaker’s Circus. In August 2022, after the circus gear had been cleared out, Tod used a “Coffee with Tod” session to share some of his thinking in placing signs for the event. Of course, many of those were advanced placement for the more formal extension of Main Street. A lot of wall space at the circus had been filled with authentic banners from the 1940s and ’50s. They had all been loaned for the event by David Waller of Boston. In November, while the banners were still hanging at the museum, Walker came to Cincinnati to deliver a presentation on them. I documented Walker’s presentation as Sideshow Signage. Nothing was posted on the “Coffee with Tod” session.

I don’t believe there was ever a time when all of the Sign Museum’s holdings were stored in one place, but for a while, a lot of them were stored in the unoccupied half of the building. Most was moved out for the circus and for the expansion. I had been privileged to peek inside that attached attic a couple of times over the years, and in May 2023, got A Glimpse of ASM’s Attic (detached version) with a special “Coffee with Tod” gathering. The Sign-Painter that opened that post now has a home in the museum, along with many other items seen that day.

In 2024, that expansion I’ve mentioned a time or ten was completed, and I got another ribbon-cutting picture. The ribbon was cut on Friday, July 13, at a member-only event. The bigger and better museum opened to the public on Saturday morning, and so did a Negro Motorist Green Book exhibit at the Freedom Center. I documented them together with New Stuff to Look At. In the post, I mention a preview with the Letterheads still onsite and talking with the fellow working on the Maisonette. In reading the 25-year book, I learned he had died about a year later. I had not noticed the plaque placed in the museum and shown in the book, but I sure do now.

A couple of notable visits to the museum since the expansion were Sign Museum Threefer, which happened shortly after the Frisch’s Mainliner sign was moved into the museum, and A Night at the Museum, where I picked up the book that led to this post. Now I’m all caught up—for a while.

Book Review
American Sign Museum: Celebrating 25 Years
Roberts, Grilli, Kikkert

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This book, just like its subject, is bright, colorful, eye-catching, and informative. That subject, quite obviously, is the 25-year-old American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. The three names in this post’s title are of the book’s author, photographer, and designer. I don’t think I have ever called out a designer by name before, although some books I’ve reviewed clearly benefited from a good design. Most books, I believe, are designed by the author or an employee of the publisher. Here, the designer, Kathy Kikkert, is identified as a member of the team and rightfully so. Her design added greatly to my enjoyment of the book. Technically, Sam Roberts is not identified as the author but as the person responsible for the “text”. Close enough. Natalie Grilli is the person responsible for “photography”. Short biographies in the book list the outstanding qualifications all three have for their roles.

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jim Borgman supplied the book’s foreword. As a fellow Cincinnatian, I was familiar with Borgman’s work, but was a little surprised to see his name here. Then, as I read his contribution and learned that his father had been a skilled sign painter, I realized he was the perfect man for the job.

Museum founder Tod Swormstedt provided a welcome page and an introduction, and his influence is evident throughout. It’s a given that some of the information presented in Roberts’ text came from Tod and others. To me, it seems almost as obvious that a guy so adept at organizing walls, rooms, and buildings filled with signs would have a hand in organizing sign-filled pages, and I have a strong hunch that he might have suggested a few targets for Grilli’s camera.

As Tod describes in the introduction, the book consists of three sections. The first describes what the museum is. It begins with some statistics, such as size (40,000 sq ft), oldest sign (155 years), and tallest sign (21 ft).  That is followed by “A Founder’s Vision” (written by Tod), some words about the museum’s mission and its relationship with the community, and recognition of some of the many individuals who have been instrumental in the museum’s development and ongoing operation.

The second section concerns signs in general. There is a condensed history of signs in America that starts with carved and painted signs and progresses through materials like glass and plastic. The major changes electricity brought and the development of various illumination methods are covered. The section concludes with a glossary of sign types and the techniques and materials used in their construction.

Section three begins just short of halfway through the book. This is, as the “Celebrating 25 Years” title suggests, the reason this book exists. The first two sections set the scene by providing an idea of what the museum is and some understanding of the things it contains. This section tells the story of how it got there.

I first became aware of the museum with the 2005 opening of its original Walnut Hills location. To someone not involved with the sign business in any way, it seemed to me that this wonderful new attraction had magically appeared, fully formed, in my city overnight. However, we all know that’s not how things work, and I soon learned about some, but far from all, of the work behind that magic. The first part of section three nicely covers the period between forming a board of directors in 1999, incorporating as a non-profit in 2000, and that delightful grand opening on April 28, 2005. This is also where I found more photos of Tod wearing a tie (3) than I’d ever seen before.

That first home in Essex Studios in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati was outgrown before it was occupied. Behind-the-scenes coverage continues as the current location in Camp Washington is acquired and made ready for another grand opening in June 2012. Central to “A Founder’s Vision” was the desire to not just display signs but to tell the story of American signage. Two envisioned methods for doing that were a Letter Wall showing the evolution of sign lettering and a faux street where signs were displayed in period-appropriate settings. A short Letter Wall existed at Essex, and some signs were sort of arranged as if they were on a street, but the backing was mostly plain white walls. In the new location, there was room to create proper versions of these two features. A much longer Letter Wall was constructed at the entrance to the main display area, and a Main Street was built with various storefronts lining both sides. To add another layer of realism, a diverse group of sign painters known as Letterheads descended on the museum to add signs to windows and doors to augment the big signs hanging on the storefronts and standing in the street. The store windows serve as natural display locations for items like painter kits and books.

The Letterheads and the museum have a wonderful relationship that is well documented in the book. The museum hosted the group’s 40th and 50th reunions in 2015 and 2025, and the group added murals and other features to the museum each time. When the museum expanded and Main Street doubled in length in 2024, the Letterheads returned to work their magic on the new storefronts. The Letterhead story is just one of many that show how the museum is appreciated by sign makers as well as sign fans.

There is something akin to a fourth section spread throughout the book. It is made up of things called “Sign Stories”, which are like sidebars in that they are standalone and not tied to the main flow of the book. But each is at least one full page, and some fill a two-page spread. Most describe a sign or group of signs in the museum’s collection. They typically provide a date and original location and identify the sign material and type. Then the page is filled with details about the sign’s original owner, its acquisition, or some other truly interesting aspect of the sign. I didn’t count them, but there’s a bunch. Enough to believe that some people might think the book worthy of purchase if these were all it contained.

I imagine everyone has figured out that the book is packed with pictures. Some are from the museum archives, and some from other sources, including Grilli’s personal stash from ten years of museum visits. But many are brand new, selected from the 19,179 images Grilli recorded specifically for this project. Heavyweight glossy paper and good print quality deliver the bright, colorful, eye-catching stuff. The book is available in both hard and soft cover. I have the softcover version, but I did leaf through a hardcover copy at the museum. The hardcover is clearly the sturdier of the two, but I believe the print quality is the same for both. At least for now, the book is only available through the museum and through Sam Roberts’ BLAG magazine website in Europe.

American Sign Museum: Celebrating 25 Years, Sam Roberts (text), Natalie Grilli (photography), Kathy Kikkert (design), American Sign Museum (November 15, 2025), 10 x 10 inches, 166 pages, ISBN 979-8-218-65249-4 (9798218752521 – BLAG)
Available here and here (Europe)

A Night at the Museum

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The American Sign Museum held a little party on Thursday to celebrate its quarter-century of existence. Things got underway at 5:00, which was a bit before sunset, but by the time I exited the museum and took this photo, it was full-on nighttime. I’m sure it was no accident that the members-only party coincided with an open-to-the-public Glow in the Dark event, with the external signs powered on and looking glorious in the darkness.

But first things first. After picking up a beverage in the party area, I stepped back into the museum’s Main Street to check out progress on the Frisch’s Mainliner sign. While there, museum founder Tod Swormstedt stopped to say hi, and our chat included pointing out some sign updates. Holes in the airplane body that originally held lights but were epoxied over when the lights were removed have once again been cleared, and stainless steel panels that had been more or less destroyed over the years by alterations have been remade and reinstalled. It is going to be very interesting to watch this restoration unfold.

Anyone who has visited an old school service station or workshop is familiar with collections of cups and jars holding assorted nuts, bolts, and screws gruelingly assembled from past projects and other sources. Although not officially on display, here is the American Sign Museum’s version of that seen through the currently clear windows of Loomis Camera.

The Society for Commercial Archeology offers a monthly Zoom presentation on a variety of interesting subjects. It started during the stay-at-home days of the COVID pandemic and has continued. The most recent presentation was from Andrew and Kelsey McClellan on their book The Golden Era of Sign Design. The McClellans were part of the team that saved this Ward’s Bakery sign, and its discovery and preservation were part of their presentation. I naturally sought it out on this, my first museum visit after the Zoom event. A recording of the presentation can be viewed here.

I probably should have mentioned earlier that the museum’s name for this event was Clink! and the invitation was to “Join us for cocktails and light bites as we celebrate 25 years of preserving the art and history of American signage.” Formal activities were pretty much confined to truly brief comments from Museum Director David Dupee and Tod, and those comments were pretty much confined to thanking people who made the museum and those 25 years possible.

Clink! had been scheduled around the publication and availability of a book documenting the museum’s history, and that worked out, although the timing was quite close. Those who had preordered could pick up our copies, and copies were also available for purchase. The book looks fantastic (I’ll review it soon), and getting my copy signed by Tod and photographer Natalie Grilli makes it even better.

Glow in the Dark activities included a neon bending demonstration and at least one guided tour of the big sign garden mounted on the south side of the museum building. Touring the garden at night with a guide looked very interesting, and I immediately put it on my list. But right now I have a book to read.

ADDENDUM 8-Dec-2025: The book has been read, reviewed, and recommended: 
Book Review American Sign Museum: Celebrating 25 Years Roberts, Grilli, Kikkert

Sign Museum Threefer

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I visited the American Sign Museum on Thursday. Technically, I visited it twice, once during normal hours and once in the evening for a special Tod Talk. The Tod Talk, “Acquiring and Restoring the Frisch’s Mainliner Sign”, was the reason I was there on this particular day, but I also wanted to see the freshly installed genie pictured at right and the museum’s first-ever special display. Ergo, a threefer.

The museum has owned a pair of the giant Carpeteria Genies since 2003, but one was held in off-site storage until last week. Wonderfully restored, it now stands beside the entrance to the museum’s parking lot. I failed to get a picture of the genie at the front door (which is admittedly looking a little faded these days), so I have included one from the museum’s 2012 grand opening at this location.

When the museum expanded last year (New Stuff to Look At), it was said that there was now enough space to potentially accommodate some temporary exhibits. The first such exhibit, Glow & Behold: Cincinnati’s Historic LGBTQ+ Bar Signs, is in place now. One panel supplies an introduction. Another notes that “…there were more drag queens and kings, known then as female and male impersonators, working on Vine Street in Cincinnati in the 1880s and 1890s than there are today.”

The exhibit includes photos of several businesses that no longer exist, along with retired signs (Remember where we are.) from both defunct and very active establishments. Saturday night’s “Signs & Spouses: A Sparkling Celebration of Marriage Equality” was inspired by this exhibit.

As closing time approached, I took advantage of the relatively empty museum to grab pictures of the Frisch’s Mainliner sign and its flying machine in pieces on the ground without humans milling about. I will be learning a lot more about this sign in a couple of hours.

Between the time that the Tod Talk was announced and when it actually happened, the sign was moved from the storage site to inside the museum, and so was the talk. The email announcing the move let us know that this would allow a cash bar, etc. To my surprise, “etc.” included a genuine Frisch’s hamburger from the still-operating independently owned franchise restaurant in Bellevue, KY. I had eaten during my time away from the museum, but I hadn’t eaten THAT much, and I didn’t want to appear unappreciative, so…

The talk began with Erin Holland, the museum’s Director of Education and Engagement, delivering a greatly abbreviated version of her March presentation on the overall history of Frish’s and its advertising. Then Tod Swormstedt, the museum’s founder and the Tod of Tod Talks, stepped in to share stories about acquiring and taking possession of the Mainliner sign.

The instant that hints of the Mainliner closing began to circulate, the fate of its incredible sign became a topic of concern for many locals and the ASM in particular. As restaurants closed and lawsuits opened, it wasn’t easy to learn just who owned what. It took some creative sleuthing by Erin to contact the owners of the sign. That resulted in a mid-December meeting with three men identified at the time only by their first names. Although they tried to imply that there were others interested in the sign, it was pretty obvious to Tod that not many would actually want a sign of that size, fewer still would have the means to remove it, and no one else could possibly accomplish that by the suggested end-of-year deadline. Even so, there was no additional contact until Christmas Eve, when the museum was told it could have the sign, and yes, that end-of-year deadline was real and very firm. In anticipation of that happening, Tod had sown some seeds in the ASM phenomenal community of helpers. Although the timing could hardly have been worse, the sign was taken down and transported to a museum storage area in a single day.

Every day is a big day at the ASM, but some are bigger than others. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so various projects are often scheduled for those days. Monday, May 19, saw two really big projects completed. The huge genie in the opening photo was erected in front of the museum, and the Frish’s Mainliner sign was moved inside it. Natalie Grilli, photographer for the upcoming book on the museum’s first twenty-five years, was onsite and busy bouncing between the two giants in motion. Natalie was also onsite Thursday evening. Pictures and some of the videos of the moves we saw on Thursday can be seen on the ASM’s Facebook page.

The group then moved out to where the Mainliner sign now stands, and I silently congratulated myself for taking those unblocked photos earlier. Tod now pointed out some of the sign’s features and described some of the plans for its restoration. Those plans are far from complete, but he said restoring the rotating propellers is definitely part of them. A printout of that photo displayed next to the sign was waiting on each chair, and I’ve included a scan of mine here. Note that the original chase lighting was incandescent and ran through the airplane. At some point, this was removed from the plane and converted to neon tubes on the sign body. The plugged holes can be seen in the picture of the airplane interior above. This is also something that Tod hopes to restore. The separate section with the Big Boy has been lost and will likely not be restored.

Something that may be obvious but still should be pointed out and cheered is that the restoration of this sign will take place in the middle of the museum in full sight of visitors. This will certainly present some challenges for those doing the restoration, but it is sure exciting for us mere spectators. Also in the realm of spectating, the sign can be seen at its original home during my own final visit to the Mainliner. A link to pre-order that 25th anniversary book I mentioned is on the museum’s support page

Wassup, Big Boy?

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Frisch’s Big Boy restaurants have been in the news quite a bit recently. In fact, when I sat down to write this article yesterday, a pointer to this photo essay was waiting in my email. It seems likely that the essay, like this article and my Friday outing, was inspired by not particularly cheerful reports such as this one from a few weeks ago. It was that article and other news of restaurant closings that prompted me to finally check out the museum that opened in 2018 inside Frisch’s Mainliner.

The Mainliner, Cincinnati’s first year-round drive-in, opened in 1942 and was named for an airplane. Several sources, including the Mainliner’s own signage, identify that airplane as a tri-motor but I think not. The plane that those sources are almost certainly referring to is the Ford Trimotor which was produced from 1922 to 1933. Boeing’s DC-3, which United Air Lines actually called the Mainliner when launched in 1937, would have been the most well-known passenger plane when the restaurant opened. The plane on the iconic Mainliner sign certainly looks a lot more like a DC-3 than a Ford Trimotor, and, despite the nose being a little extra pointy, I’m not aware of it ever having more than two propellers. At present it has none. I do, however, have a short video of the sign “at speed” from a few years ago. I’m sure there are more and better videos online.

The Mainliner was remodeled when the museum went in and has the latest generation of the Big Boy statue standing by the door. There are pictures here and here of previous generations on display a few miles away at the American Sign Museum. A cool mural greets customers right inside that door.

I sat at the counter and placed my order before walking over to the museum area. Only then did I realize that it contained what appeared to be some quite usable classic seating areas. There were people at one of the museum tables when I left.

In addition to the throwback seating, there are several signs and cabinets filled with artifacts in the museum. Among the artifacts was a reminder that once upon a time people might look for something to help them “dial the right number every time”.

I was probably still using a dial telephone the last time I had a Big Boy but it seemed the right thing to order today. Has corporate ownership brought a decline in quality that others say they see? Maybe, but maybe not. The sandwich was pretty much as I remember it although my memories aren’t very recent. I sensed the same slight understaffing that I feel in just about every restaurant I visit these days. No more. No less.

As I wrote this, it occurred to me that Frisch’s has been in my life longer than any chain restaurant. Although it’s no longer there, a Frisch’s restaurant sat at the edge of the seat of my home county. It was the place where, maybe once a year, the band bus would stop on the way home from an away game. When my friends and I began driving, it marked one end of our Saturday night cruising route. An A&W rootbeer stand marked the other. When I got my first co-op job in college, a Frisch’s was just about the only place within walking distance for lunch. The one at right is within walking distance of my current home and I stopped there on my Saturday afternoon walk. Rather than a Big Boy statue, this door is guarded by one of the Mr. Redlegs sculptures that were placed around the area as part of the Cincinnati Reds 150th Anniversary Celebration in 2019. Inside, a localized (Mason hosts the Cincinnati Open ATP Tournament) mural hangs on the wall. A big reason that I had not had a Big Boy in so long was not that I never patronize Frisch’s but that when I do I almost always have a fish sandwich. On Saturday I reverted to form.

I’m certainly no fan of corporations taking over privately held businesses. Maybe it was a decline in quality or some accountant’s idea of improved efficiency that led to those closures. Personally though, I’m more concerned about those missing props on the Mainliner sign.

New Stuff to Look At

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New exhibits opened at two Cincinnati museums yesterday. A major expansion at the American Sign Museum doubles the length of its sign-filled Main Street and The Negro Motorist Green Book finally makes it to the National Underground Freedom Center. The two exhibits simultaneously became available to the public when both museums opened their doors at 10:00 on Saturday. American Sign Museum members, of which I am one, were able to see the addition at a ribbon-cutting celebration on Friday evening.

While awaiting the planned ceremonies, attendees were treated to refreshments and entertained by the Rob Allgeyer Trio as excitement built. We could look into, but not enter, the newly filled space beyond the uncut ribbon.

Speeches were few and reasonably short. Executive Director David Dupeecoul and Museum Founder Tod Swormstedt spent much of their time thanking folks for their help in getting the addition funded, built, and filled. Mayor Aftab Pureval’s brief speech was, in noting what having the country’s largest public sign museum means to Cincinnati, also one of thanks.

When ribbon-cutting time arrived, Tod and Aftab were joined by ASM Board Chair Michael Mattingly. The intention was to cut the ribbon in synch with the signs being illuminated, but that turned out to be a little time-consuming, so a little watching and waiting was required.

More music awaited in the new space. The first group encountered was Jake Speed and the Freddies. I believe the fellows with the chairs are Mechlem & Ruzsa, and the couple standing is StringDaze, but it could be the other way around.

And there was more food, too. This lite bite station happens to be under the actual canopy from Cincinnati’s Famous Maisonette restaurant. Another member preview took place back in May when painters were still working on the storefronts. I chatted with the Colorado fellow who was working on the Maisonette. At that time, it looked like this. I only ate once at the Maisonette but ate several times at its sister restaurant, La Normandie. When I mentioned this to the painter, he told me that he planned to put that name on an upper window, and there it is.

I also captured these signs during that May preview. The East End Cafe sign was lit, but the area was rather empty otherwise. The Lenny’s window was painted but empty,and the Full Service was still in process with the pattern lying nearby.

The Ioka Theater marquee and all the signs around it sure look good now but it was definitely a work in process back in May. The marquee fronts a real theater that will be used for presentations.

There is a lot more to the expansion than Main Street, but that is where I found myself standing awestruck a few times Friday evening. I believe I’ve seen something new on every visit to this museum, even when nothing new had been added. Now there is a whole new section to explore, and some things have changed in existing areas as a result of the expansion. My next visit is going to be a lot of fun, and so will several after that.

The Negro Motorist Green Book was supposed to open its nationwide tour in Cincinnati in the fall of 2020. The tour was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, declared in the spring of that year, so that it is ending rather than starting in Cincinnati. On its opening day, Candacy Taylor, the exhibit’s curator, would be giving a tour to museum members, then making a presentation to everyone interested. I looked forward to hearing Taylor speak for the third time.

The members-only tour was in process when I arrived, and the exhibit, though open, was congested. I opted to fill the time by revisiting other parts of the museum and taking a few pictures.

At 11:00, Taylor was introduced to the audience for what she called “an author conversation”. Rather than delivering prepared remarks, she answered questions. Almost everyone in attendance seemed familiar with her book, and probably half, having taken part in the morning’s tour, were familiar with the exhibit. There was no shortage of good questions.

The mentioned book, for any who don’t know, is Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America, which I reviewed here. I obtained my copy when I heard Taylor speak in Indianapolis in February of 2020. That was the second time I heard her speak, but it was probably the first time we actually met. I had a pleasant chat with her today before the presentation.

I entered The Negro Motorist Green Book exhibit after the presentation. The Green Book identified places where Negro travelers were welcome, as they were decidedly not welcome everywhere. It was published from 1936 through 1967. It was not the only such book, but none of the others were anywhere near as popular or successful.

The Green Book was created by Victor Green, and its name comes from him rather than from the book’s color. Among the artifacts in the exhibit is a 1959 letter from Green soliciting listings and advertising. The earliest editions of The Green Book focused on New York but it ultimately grew to include all sorts of businesses throughout the entire nation.

The chauffeur’s hat is not directly related to The Green Book but to the Jim Crow era, which made the book necessary. I recognized it instantly from a story Taylor told in Indianapolis, which is included in Overground Railroad. Ron Burford, the man quoted, was Taylor’s stepfather.

Much of the exhibit features businesses that were listed in The Green Book. “Then and now” images often appear of those still in existence.

Road trips on Route 66 or any other highway do not generate the same sort of nostalgia for people of color as they do for others but there are a couple of Route 66 connections in the exhibit. One is an Esso quote from Route 66 historian and author Joe Sonderman. Part of The Green Book‘s success can be attributed to the fact that Esso stations carried it. The cash register is from the historic Threatt Filling Station, currently being restored near Luther, Oklahoma, on Route 66.

The Negro Motorist Green Book will be at the Freedom Center through October 13, 2024. The Main Street extension and other additions will be at the American Sign Museum forever.

A Glimpse of ASM’s Attic

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It’s not wrong to think of museums as simply organized — some much more than others — attics. Of course, almost all museums have attics of their own. It’s where they store stuff that exceeds the space available for displays but, like all that stuff in your own attic, is just too good to throw away. The American Sign Museum has always had multiple attics.

The situation became somewhat simplified when the museum moved into its current location in 2012. With the actual museum occupying about half of the approximately 40,000 square-foot building, the other half made a fine attic. I was once treated to a walk through the space when it really was an attic. I was also in the space for the incredible Signmaker’s Circus, a following Coffee With Tod session where museum founder Tod Swormstedt shared some of his thoughts on organizing signs for the Circus, and a presentation on some of the banners borrowed for the Circus (Sideshow Signage). Plans for expanding the museum were well underway when the circus came to town and the cleanup that preceded it could be considered an early step in the expansion. Most of the stuff that was in that section is now stored in other locations and a recent Coffee With Tod session provided a look at one of those locations.

Almost every available sign was pressed into service at the Signmaker’s Circus so I have seen some of the attic’s contents before. The clown and lion trashcan toppers were there. Tod has been on the lookout for the lion’s partners ever since he learned it was part of a Wizard of Oz set. The mortar and pestle hung in the museum’s main section until very recently. After leaving the attic, I stopped by to check out its replacement.

This sign from a closed New York restaurant was in the attached storage area when a retired sign painter stopped by the museum. Tod was there and took the fellow on a personal tour of the area. When they reached this sign, he stopped and stared for a long time then finally announced “I painted that”. “Made my day… my month,” Tod told us.

Letters, we got letters. We got lots and lots of letters. And walls full of neon skeleton signs, too. There are many more individual letters, some much larger than these, stacked around the area. Only about a fourth of the wall of skeleton signs is in the picture.

A couple of long tables were filled with billboard tags. Although I instantly recognized the name Lamar as something I’d seen on billboards, it had never occurred to me that it was something separate from the billboard or that it was collectible in its own right. Guess I never realized that there were so many companies painting billboards, either.

Tod is especially fond of items used by individual sign creators. Here he is showing us a couple of quite old and wonderfully personalized painters kits.

Tod also likes self-promoting signs. This one has the added attraction of being an example of bad design. It includes examples of pretty much every style of lettering the painter is capable of but picking out the painter’s name is quite a challenge and the curious spelling of “windos” makes one wonder if Mack didn’t really plan ahead.

The “ROOMS” and “I.O.O.F” signs are both backlit by candles. Tod opened each of them to show the candle holders but I was at the back of the crowd at the time and missed out on a picture. I am very confident that these unusual pieces will have a home in the museum’s new area.

Most people know that Mohammed Ali’s birth name was Cassius Clay but not everyone remembers that there was a “junior” at the end. The champion boxer’s father was a successful sign painter in Louisville, Kentucky. Cassius Clay, Sr. painted the sign that Tod holds.

Our last stop was outside at three bas-relief sculptures. They and an identical set were once part of Cincinnati Gardens sports arena. The arena was demolished in 2018 and the museum once had the letters from the arena’s name mounted outside the museum. They were removed in preparation for the expansion and will eventually reappear along with this, boxer, basketball player, and hockey player.

Much remains to be done before a completion date for the expansion can be determined. There are expectations that it will be this year and even hope that it might be around summer’s end but no one is foolish enough to make any promises or place any bets. Whatever the date, it’s pretty phenomenal to think the museum will soon double in size and will instantly be almost full. And there will still be an attic.

Sideshow Signage

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Those who read through the comments on my The Signmaker’s Circus post already know that old circus banners were an important part of that American Sign Museum event earlier this year. Others will have just learned that. Some thirty hand-painted banners from the 1940s and ’50s hung from the walls of the area set up for the celebration and added considerably to the event’s authentic circus feel. An event devoted entirely to those banners took place at the museum on a recent Tuesday.

I arrived at the November 1 event a few minutes early and, knowing where the banners were hanging, headed directly there. Along with a few others, I happily snapped photos of the eye-catching wall hangings until I heard applause coming from elsewhere in the museum. I can only assume that the applause was triggered by the introduction of museum founder Tod Swormstedt because when I reached the real event Tod was telling the story of the banners and The Signmaker’s Circus. The banners were hanging in an empty warehouse that also belonged to their owner. They weren’t really on display but had been hung “just because”. Tod saw them, immediately envisioned them at his museum’s upcoming anniversary party, and asked. Told that, yes, he could borrow them, Tod drove to the Boston area with a helper, rolled up the banners on an upper floor of the warehouse, carried them down a fire escape, and hauled them to Cincinnati. He had been fielding questions about them ever since but not tonight. Tonight he introduced the banners’ owner, David Waller.

David began by telling us that there was almost always some deception in the banners. He made his point with a photo of a woman who was certainly quite small but not nearly as small as depicted on the canvas that identified her as the “world’s smallest mother“. He then claimed that similar deception had occurred tonight. Most of us had been drawn to the event, he said, expecting to hear an expert on circus banners. Instead, we would hear from a mere collector of such banners. Maybe that was an attempt at real deception but few were fooled as David proceeded to prove himself an expert on the banners as well as their creators and subjects.

I guess the title of tonight’s event was a little deceptive but I’ve no doubt it was unintentional. Although promoted as “Under the Big Top: Circus Banners of the 1940s and 1950s”, the event concerned banners advertising sideshow attractions that rarely, if ever, appeared in a ring in the Big Top. Many were people with deformities that attracted the curious. Today that naturally leads to thoughts of exploitation, and no one doubts that was sometimes the case, but sideshows provided income to many who would have had a tough time otherwise. When exploitation was mentioned, Otis the Frog Boy, who owned a car modified so he could drive it, wondered if people would prefer he was on welfare. Sylvia, the Big Footed Girl, made a good living for many years although, unable to wear shoes, she balked at appearing in the cold north. Many sideshow performers padded their paychecks by selling postcards and other items. Part of the spiel about Johann Petursson, the Viking Giant, was that he wore rings the size of napkin rings. He sold copies of his rings as souvenirs. Sometime after one of these rings came into Waller’s possession, he met a buddy’s new girlfriend from Iceland. When the conversation turned to circuses, she told of having a giant for an uncle and produced a childhood picture of her sitting on Johann’s lap. Waller gave her the ring.

Clearly, many of these banners made preposterous claims and stretched truth to the max. Many of the attractions were complete fakes that used mirrors, trick lighting, and other gimmicks. It might be a little hard for some of us to believe that people were that gullible just a few decades ago but what may be even harder to believe concerns an attraction that was 100% real and involved no trickery whatsoever. Once upon a time, tattooed women were so rare that people paid money to see them. Betty Broadbent retired in 1967.

The Signmaker’s Circus

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The Signmaker’s Circus took place last night at the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. The picture of Zoltar was not taken there which I realize might not seem quite proper to some. It was taken last week at Uranus, Missouri, but not used in the journal entry for the stop. I liked it and jumped at the chance to use it here when I realized it was a pretty good match for the event’s Save the Date card. The event is subtitled “A Decade of Camp” since its reason for being is to celebrate the museum’s first ten years in Camp Washington. The permanent full-time opening was on June 23, 2012, but two preview days occurred three weeks earlier. This blog was still fairly new then, and I had not yet stopped creating oddments. I did post a blog entry here that includes a link to the oddment and the oddment can be reached directly here.

All the rest of the pictures are from the circus, and there’s a bunch. I arrived about ten minutes before the scheduled start time and found a fairly close parking spot on the street. The museum’s parking lot was being used for valet drop-off and fire juggling. A line that had formed in the lot moved quickly to — and almost as quickly through — the doors when they opened.

The museum looked extra festive and drinks were available at multiple bars. A young lady (blurrily seen here) circulated through the crowd in a dress bearing cones of popcorn. The Burning Caravan provided music to party by from in front of the Rock City sign.

I knew from a Friday Facebook post that something would be revealed from behind a red curtain but I had no idea what. By the luckiest of coincidences, I was walking by the curtain when the ringmaster began his countdown. A proclamation from Mayor Pureval was read making today “American Sign Museum Day” in Cincinnati then the curtains parted. Others had paid better attention to the clues and some had been involved in the preparations. I was gobsmacked when I saw the great neon-illuminated space on the other side and we were invited to pass through the balloon arch.

I recall going to exactly one circus as a child. At ten or so years of age, I was naturally in awe of the exotic animals, people, and costumes as I watched the entrance parade from my bleacher seat. There were no elephants or tigers present last night and I’m over six decades more worldly and jaded than I was then, but I wasn’t watching a distant parade from bleachers last night. With carnival music accompaniment, I was doing the marching past exotic people and costumes. And there was neon everywhere. I did not magically feel ten years old but I was at least as awe-struck when I walked into that room as when those elephants entered the big top all those years ago.

The Burning Caravan played throughout the evening inside the museum while DJ Mowgli provided music for the circus. I’m pretty sure this is as close to a rave as I’ll ever get. People with turbans and tails chatted casually as people with neither lined up to confer with a real live Zoltar.

The ringmaster continued working and introducing acts both on and over the stage. Photos from later points in that on-stage performance can be seen here, here, here, and here.

A sign museum can always be counted on to have just the right marker for everything and that includes pointing to the two food trucks parked right outside the building.

I didn’t get my fortune told but I did get a tee shirt airbrushed. This was free with the purchase of an event shirt. The shirt was dropped off at the painting booth then picked up later when it was completed. The artist and the fellow who took down the instructions had a disagreement over whether it was “DEnny” or “DAnny” so the name was left blank until I returned. This gave me an opportunity to get a snapshot of the shirt getting its final touches.

What a wonderful way to celebrate the museum’s first decade in Camp Washington. I certainly enjoyed myself though I expect someone will ask, “Who was that bearded lady I saw you with last night?”

Taste of Memory

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I don’t have a dog. Don’t need one. I can eat my own homework. I went to three different events yesterday with the intent of including all three in this post. I’m still going to do that despite the sad fact that they will not be as well documented as I planned. However, before I can even start talking about the three planned activities, I have to tell of my arrival home at the end of the day.

I took quite a few pictures throughout the day and popped out the memory card containing most of them as soon as I reached home. One of the day’s events had been Taste of Cincinnati with 36 restaurants and 18 food trucks. There is no reason anyone would be even slightly hungry after attending such a gathering and I really wasn’t. Nonetheless, I grabbed a few snack crackers from an open box when I walked by it on the way to my laptop. I popped one into my mouth and munched it as I picked up the laptop and headed to the table. I popped in a second one but it didn’t munch so well. It failed to crumble on the first bite so I bit it again before realizing something was terribly wrong. As I juggled laptop, memory card, crackers, and some mail I’d retrieved from the mailbox, the memory card somehow ended up in the hand with the crackers and then in my mouth. Something in it had snapped on that second munch attempt. One bite equals 68,719,476,736 bytes.

My first thought after accepting that the pictures were gone was to post something canned this week. But I had taken some pictures with my phone and those survived. There were enough, I decided, to do a stripped-down version of the three-event post I had planned. Here goes.

Coffee With Tod got the day started at the American Sign Museum. This was the second Saturday morning that museum founder Tod Swormstedt spent sharing some of his knowledge with museum members. During the first one, he picked a few special signs and told about their history, owners, and acquisition. Today he spoke about how “Signs of the Times” magazine has been an inspiration for and something of a predecessor of the museum. “Signs of the Times” is a sign industry trade magazine that Tod’s family was involved with from its beginning and which they owned for most of its life. In the photo, Tod is holding a hardbound copy of the very first issue from 1906. The tenth anniversary of the museum’s move to this building will be celebrated next month with an open-to-all Signmaker’s Circus.

Next up was the Taste of Cincinnati which was first held in 1979 and is now the longest running culinary arts festival in the country. Like many festivals, this one did not happen in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. As mentioned, 36 restaurants and 18 food trucks are participating in this year’s event. I took pictures of many of them and made sure to snap a photo of each one where I made a purchase. Those are all gone and the picture at left is out of sequence. It was taken after I’d done my eating and was ready to leave.

Before the festival is opened to the public, first, second, and third place offerings are picked in four categories. I limited my purchases to the four number ones. In the Soup/Salad/Side category, that was Bulgogi French Fries from YouYu. The Waygu Meatball from Council Oak Steak and Seafood placed first in the Appetizer category. Both were served from the same booth as the two restaurants are part of the Hard Rock Casino.

The only picture on my phone of the Entree winner was my failed attempt to get it and the Procter & Gamble towers in the same picture. I got half of the towers and the side of the container holding Alfio’s Veal Short Rib Ravioli. Pompilio’s Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cannoli won the Desert category and fared much better than the ravioli in the picture department.

Once I’d finished my selective sampling, I walked about a block from the festival and hopped on the streetcar to reach Washington Park. There a number of sculptures made entirely of Duck brand duct tape are on display. Named “Knock It Out of the Park”, the exhibit is all about baseball. I believe I took at least one photo of every sculpture but very few were on my phone.