Present Tense?

WHEN THE PRESENT is stressful, people often long for or retreat to the past. Maybe that’s why I like visiting the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, the city where I live and work. In July the museum opened its Main Street expansion and doubled the exhibit experience, so if you’ve never visited, now you have twice the reason. And you don’t have to take my word for it.

The museum is quite popular — a place where people from all walks of life, sign folks and civilians alike, come to appreciate signage from the past. While there last month, I noticed more than ever the sound of the flashing incandescent-lighted signs from the early 1900’s. The sound was clearer than before because of research into our archives I’d recently done for our second feature.

I found an interesting tale with a twist about E.R. Dull of the Reynolds Dull Flasher Co. (Chicago), who had introduced flashing technology at the first electrical industry expo in 1906. Mr. Dull was both a contributor to and advertiser in Signs of the Times January, 1909, the issue that has received the most in-depth examination, more than we have paid to other archive finds in “A Look Back,” our last-page feature.

Any time you’re looking for a break from the present and you’re unable to visit the American Sign Museum, or any of the other terrific sign museums, spend some time in the Signs of the Times archives. You can view the oldest issues dating back from the first in April, 1906 to December, 1921 at signsofthetimes.com/archive.