Posted 5 months ago
Belltown
(152 items)
This is a curious little item. It's a 6x9-inch card version of a poster David Singer created for the 1979 SF Marathon. Apparently the runners were supposed to wear these during the race, and then at the end an official would fill out their position and time on the card's back.
The Killer Mobile Device for Victorian Women
If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
Bizarro Beauty Products, from 1889 to Now
Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Pin-Up Queens: Three Female Artists Who Shaped the American Dream Girl
Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
Tokens for Sweethearts, in Times of War
American Picker Dream, Part I: Mike Wolfe On His Love Affair With Bikes


The design motif is an interesting mix of Meso-American and Greek symbolism. The center design is a triskeles, which is known from Greek antiquity and I believe may still be use on the Isle of Man, while the surrounding figure appears to be a Mayan (messenger, maybe?). I think the outer designs in the corners may be American Indian thunderbirds, but I'm not certain.