Atlas Stationers
It’s pen and paper bliss in Chicago.
Harts, Keen’s, WIsconsin
An EXchange name on a restaurant letterhead.
Greta Gerwig’s luxury item(s)
From Desert Island Discs.
“Therapeutic and neuroprotective”
“The whole ritual of buying a new pencil case can be both therapeutic and neuroprotective.”
Phil’s Stationery
I was surprised and delighted to see Phil’s Stationery make a brief appearance in “How to Track Your Package,” the final episode of How To with John Wilson.
“School Pencils? Pencil Cases?”
A 1953 Woolworth’s ad.
“A Pantomime Pen Talk”
Store-window automatons with fountain pens.
“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.
Recently updated
The F.H. Knapp backstory, a possible future, and crowds watching an automaton at work.
F.H. Knapp
A NYC stationery store window, 1914.
日本の電報
Japanese telegrams.
“Smart girls writing something”
How can I not post a passage about stationery supplies and a Bloom scheme to sell them?
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.
Orange Crate Art: Schoolboyish
Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Antibes, 1931, indulging in stationery.
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.
Analog rising
“Sales of stationery and cards are actually up among younger and youngish people”: so says Marketplace Morning Report.
Streetside supplies
In The Guardian: “Public furniture inspired by office equipment.”
A pencil box, not Lassie
Joe is disappointed when he learns that the surprise in store for him is not Lassie.
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!”
A mystery supply
The mystery item in this photograph is a household object of sorts that I turned into a “supply” — something at home in the world of stationery and office supplies.
From Beware of Pity
So much depends upon “the so-called ‘chancery double.’”
“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.
“Tools of the Trade”
A poster’s worth of supplies.
“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.