Atlas Stationers
It’s pen and paper bliss in Chicago.
It’s pen and paper bliss
Orange Crate Art
Word of the day: oaktag
What it is, and where the word comes from.
“School Pencils? Pencil Cases?”
A 1953 Woolworth’s ad.
“Fascinating implements”
Visiting the seven-year-old artist Edward Penn, who lives in a room in the heated basement of his parents’ house and doesn’t go to school.
E. Bryant Crutchfield (1937–2022)
He invented the Trapper Keeper.
In search of lost art supplies
I hope Bill Griffith knows about the Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies.
An Eberhard Faber album
Here’s a short video tour of an Eberhard Faber sales-rep’s album (circa 1915). Must be seen to be believed.
No no. 2s?
A CNN teaser for a story about shortages affecting back-to-school shopping just made reference to children “stuck with the dreaded no. 1 pencil.” Not “dreaded” to my mind.
Vintage library supplies
From Smithsonian magazine: “Vintage Supplies that Kept Libraries Running.”
Alvin will return
A venerable name in supplies.
CW Pencil and
“After almost six years exclusively selling graphite, the notoriously niche CW Pencil Enterprise is soon to become a full-service office supply shop.”
Alvin & Company
As a lifelong resident in the world of “supplies,” I’ll miss Alvin & Company.
Desk organizers
You can see, right away, the difference the organizer makes, even if it’s difficult to spot the organizer.
Streetside supplies
In The Guardian: “Public furniture inspired by office equipment.”
A coach’s pencil and paper
A football playsheet is laminated. So why does Matt Patricia, coach of the Detroit Lions, carry a pencil?
Ace Gummed Reinforcements
Mysterious, shadowy. What were they doing there? And what did they want from me?
Ink, nibs, and Zip-a-Tone
“One by one, all th’ art supplies of my youth are disappearing!”
Non-metaphorical sharpening
John Dickerson: “School is starting again and I am sharpening my pencils. That’s not a metaphor. I am actually sharpening pencils.”
At the office with Louis Malle
The opening scenes of Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows (1958) are office-centric.
“Old timers”
From a history of the stationery industry: “Other ‘old timers’ most of which are now past history are Stoake’s automatic shading pens — Brigg’s glass linen marking pens — Rubber marking pens” — and on and on.
“School supplies and fun”
A 1953 Woolworth advertisement for school supplies.
Index-card recommendation
Much better than Oxford or Staples grid cards, and a fraction of the cost of Exacompta.
The supply closet
In The Boston Globe, John Segal, creative director for Crane & Co., describes a primal scene.
“Heavy, black pencils”
The tools of a copy editor, as described by Lincoln Grahlfs, a New York Times copy editor for forty years.
Coffee-and
Balzac’s writing equipment: special coffee, special paper, special pens.
“Gardening is the new stationery”
In other words, there will be supplies.
Call Northside 777 for supplies and technology
Dowdy-world office supplies and technology.
Shopping for supplies
Lorelai Gilmore: “Before anything else can happen, you need pens, you need paper, you need everything else, don’t you?”
Esterbrook erasers
Long before I bought these erasers (from a fading stationery store), they had hardened into uselessness. They’re just right for erasing nothing.
An EXchange name on screen
Also vertical files, wooden file trays, &c. From Armored Car Robbery.