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What Is Mail Art?
Mail art by George Henry Edwards, 1900 Whenever I read that mail art began “in the 1960s,” I roll my eyes. Mail art has been around as long as creative people have been mailing, and wonderful examples...
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Brewing in New York
This article was written for Syracuse New Times, July 23, 1986, and rewritten for the Song Mountain Brewfest program in 1997. * * * The Empire State’s recorded brewing history begins with the Dutch...
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The Rebus in Mail Art
Historically, postal authorities have looked upon the rebus with mixed feelings. A “rebus” uses an image to communicate a name, word or phrase. The word “rebus” came from the Latin phrase “Non verbis...
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Porte Timbres
Given my love for all things postal, you’d think I’d have heard of “porte timbres” a long time ago. But no. Porte timbres (French for “stamp holders”) were frames with a space in the center for a...
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Gene LaVerne
You say “Buffalo” and I say “Millard Fillmore! Cookie Gilchrist! Goo Goo Dolls!” But recently I learned of another reason to shout: Gene LaVerne. A professional dancer, he turned to photography when a...
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Hans Liska
This painting haunts me. I find it beautiful and fascinating. And yet the subject matter – German Stuka dive bombers returning to Greece after a mission over Crete – is, to say the least, disturbing....
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Tuck’s Paintbox Series
In the first two decades of the 1900s, Raphael Tuck & Sons, England’s foremost postcard producer, published a series of Postcard Painting Books, an introduction to mail art for children. In...
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Taglines
In my 38 years as a copywriter, I found taglines the most difficult to write. Long copy was easy. Shorter copy, written to fit a layout, a little harder. Headlines, very difficult. But taglines – in...
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Hollis Slocum
It has been said that your interest in family history begins at the funeral of the last person who could have answered your questions. So it is with me and my interest in Hollis William Slocum. I...
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Abbie
For many years, I was very lucky to have two grandmothers. Grandma Braun, my mother’s mom, loved little children, until they could talk back. When my cousin Daryl and I told her that the wrestling...
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