Well, mostly male cheerleaders!
Some nice cover illustrations featuring Yale’ male cheerleaders below:
Male Cheerleeders
May 15, 2013Yale Men
May 1, 2013We were thumbing through a Yale Guide from 1931 and was taken by how often advertisements referred to “Yale Men.”
Although it admitted women to its graduate programs since 1892 it wasn’t until 1968 that Yale admitted women to Yale College.
Bernhardt Wall Lithography
April 15, 2013Bernhardt Wall is an illustrator and lithographer who lived from 1872 to 1956. He was born in Buffalo, New York and also lived in Texas and California. He did many illustrations and etchings of cowboys, Indians and western scenes. He was known as the “Postcard King” as many of his works were done on little cards. The lithography below was done by Wall in 1905 and features a collegiate scene.
There is a poker game in progress with a collegiate student wearing a Harvard sweater and behind the table are Harvard and Yale pennants.
The lithograph sold at auction recently for $150.
F. Earl Christy College Postcards
April 1, 2013F. Earl Christy was an American Artist who lived from 1882-1961. His oeuvre includes many works of art relating to early college football, with a particular emphasis on the Ivy League. This post we feature his beautiful postcards.
F. Earl Christy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1882. The “F” is believed to stand for “Frederic”. At 17, he painted originals for the Boardwalk Atlantic City Picture company, with many of his early works published by the J. Hoover and Sons Calendar Company of Philadelphia. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts from 1905-1907.
Christy practically invented the illustrated image of the “All-American Girl,” at least for the Ivy-League set. His early works glorified the society college girl – always beautifully dressed at football games, golf and tennis tournaments, riding in automobiles or playing instruments. His first College Girl postcard series was published in 1905 by the U.S.S. Postcard Company. When the college girl fad had run its course, he went on to paint more mature men and women, movie stars and political figures, still romantically idealized.
We have many nice Christy items on our website:
Farmland for Sale in Greenwich, CT from $3,000 per acre!
March 15, 2013We love looking through vintage college football programs to get a sense of the period in question. Looking at a Yale-Brown 1941 program we came across this gem which advertises land for sale in Greenwich, CT for $3,000 per acre.
The land is owned by Yale and is on 1,400 acres of “rolling hills and pleasant valleys.”
According to Outhistory.org the land came into Yale’s ownership by a gift from John Sterling, one of the named partners in the elite law firm of Shearman & Sterling. Sterling was an 1864 graduate of Yale, he left them a bequest in his will worth $15,000,000.
Originally known as the Sterling Estate the name was changed to Yale Farms no doubt to better market and maximize its sale value. The land is some of the most beautiful in the country is encompass parts of Greenwich, CT and North Castle in Westchester County, NY.
Uhm, the land is no longer farmland, and its worth a bit more than $3,000 per acre now. Those who bought it did just about as well as those Dutch traders who bought Manhattan from the Indians!
Early College Football Cheering Flags
March 1, 2013Early college football games brought crowds that are in general much better dressed than those that attend the games today. Case in point is the cover of the Harvard-Yale Game from 1903 pictured below. Also of note in the program are the early football cheering flags pictured. These silk flags are highly collectible.
Below is a vintage Yale silk cheering flag which measures 17″ x 12″ and rolls up and fits into a tube with brass cap ends that is 14 1/2 inches long. You pull the flag out and insert the end of the flag pole into the tube. The flag stored measures 14 1/2″ long. Once pulled out and inserted the pole measures 26 3/4″ long
A Dartmouth flag is pictured below:
We have a selection of these rare flags on our website:
Harvard Wedgwood
February 15, 2013Wedgwood produced a series of twelve plates for Harvard University in 1927, the first of many such sets produced by Wedgwood. The Library is pictured above. The plates features a transfer printed in blue on a 10.25 inch diameter plate. Each with a fruit and flower border . Approximately 5,000 sets were produced.
The set was later reproduced in 1941 in red as well as blue and again reissued in 1952. Though not the same, both of these sets were similar to the original 1927 set with some minor changes. Harvard Hall is pictured below in the red design:
Wedgwood also produced a set of demitasse cups for their tercentenary in 1936:
This lovely punch bowl was also produced for the tercentenary in 1936:
This unique tile was issued by Wedgwood in 1907 and has a calendar on the rear. The front commemorates the opening of the football stadium:
We have a nice selection of Harvard Wedgwood on our website:
Having a Bad Hair Day? or a Bad Hair Decade?
February 1, 2013There were many things forgettable about the 1970s. The oil embargo, the cold war, a disgraced president resigning. But perhaps the worst thing about the ’70s were the hairstyles.
Thumbing through a 1973 Princeton v. Cornell Football Program recently we were reminded of how bad they really were:
Every decade wasn’t this bad. Generally through the early 1960s the kids were clean cut with short hairstyles. The 70s unleashed some pretty shaggy looking looks, although some of the afro’s are pretty impressive!
We have a nice selection of 70s football programs on our website:
College Whoopie Car – Louis Marx & Co
January 15, 2013“Whoopie Car” made by Louis Marx & Company. Marx’ was a toy company which did business in the United States between 1919 and 1978. Marx’s toys were sold at five and dime stores and also higher end retailers such as Sears and Montgomery Ward. Made of tin, it is a wind up toy.
The car has a nice collegiate design and Princeton and Yale pennants are lithographed onto the rear wheels. The trunk on the rear has college decals for an eclectic group of colleges: NYU, CCNY, Vassar, UVA, Univ of Wisconsin and Michigan?
The original box that the car was sold in is seen below:
Driver is wearing a fur coat, as are the two art deco ladies sitting on the trunk at rear.
The top of the windshield says “Whoopee” as does a sticker on the trunk. Oddly, the box calls it a “Whoopie” car, spelled with an “i” rather than with an “e”.
Two art deco style ladies are sitting on the trunk wearing fur coats
A variation of the toy without the art deco ladies on the back says “Louis Marx & Co.” on the bottom of the suitcase strapped to the front of the car.
Fly Me to the Moon
January 1, 2013As Frank Sinatra most famously sings, Fly Me To the Moon:
Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On a, Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold my hand
In other words, baby, kiss me
This Yale v. Brown 1969 Football Program reminded us of this with it’s unusual lunar-themed cover:
The game was played at Brown and the brilliant cover illustration was done by Frank Lanning.
