Beth's Ruler Collection

A few of my favorite things

I love rulers, I love blotters, and I especially love blotters with rulers on them. So, I made some of my own, to use as "business cards" for special occasions. These are printed on actual blotter paper, which is pretty hard to find these days, and certainly not at chain stationery/office supply stores. The five sheets I bought (A4 size) came from the Isle of Wight!

Unprinted blotter paper: Purchase (etsy) --  Bob, from Tiltwell

Images from a variety of etsy.com stores; ruler template[s] from Jessica of JLaurieStudio, also on etsy

Coming soon

This blotter is the second in my collection of this specific type of entertainment promotion, in this case a give-away advertising promotion for the play Bought and Paid For, by William Broadhurst. The blotter itself is undated, but the text refers to the play's run of over one year (Sept. 26, 1911-Oct. 5, 1912) at Broadway Playhouse Theatre, New York, so I'm guessing that this blotter promotes a second run at the same theater, 1921.

According to Wikipedia, "George Howells Broadhurst (1866-1952) was an Anglo-American theatre owner/manager, director, producer and playwright. His plays were most popular from the late 1890s into the 1920s."

Purchase --"blotterguy" = S. Morton Zweig, Rancho Mirage, CA -- received 6 May 2023

1949 ad with a measurement theme

This advertisement for Bell Telephone Systems Long Distance Service appeared in the November 5, 1949 issue of Collier's magazine, and I find it pretty funny on many levels. Starting with the image of the telephone! Long distance service was very different 74 years ago: according to this ad, it took the phone company two minutes to set up a call ("made to your measure") for its customers.

Purchase (ebay) -- "iluv2golf" = Ron Dettmann, Blaine, WA -- received 5 May 2023

Silent Automatic Oil Heat

This unused ink blotter has a ruler along just part of the top, which is as unusual as are the rounded corners. The photos and text help date it to the late 1940s or 1950s (my guess). A member of my family worked for Timken, in Pennsylvania, many many years ago, which gives this new blotter added significance.

Pictured below the blotter is a snip from an ad from the Boston Globe, 11 November 1945.

Purchase -- "blotterguy" = S. Morton Zweig, Rancho Mirage, CA -- received 5 April 2023

 

 

Square Deal

This beautiful can label has great graphics, and more than enough rulers on it to fit right into my ruler collection. I have other sizes of labels already--mostly crate labels--but this is my first can label size. The person I bought it from, who knows more about labels than anyone else I know, estimates the date as 1915.

Purchase (etsy) -- "LABELBROKER" = Robert Booth, Yucca Valley, CA -- received 25 March 2023

 

Springtime beauty

Inspired by the beauty of the spring flowers at Mount Auburn Cemetery, here in Cambridge, I made these four new rulers last weekend so I can enjoy the springtime any time of the year. Please come visit! The grounds are especially beautiful this year.

https://www.mountauburn.org/visit/

Acronyms

What better new accession for a collector of paper rulers who is also a retired librarian? None. Except for the fact that it's from N-e-w Y-o-r-k, this ruler is perfect. (Red Sox rule; just saying.)

Purchase (ebay) -- "oftpc1" = Babette and Tim, Cambridge, MA -- received 24 April 2023

You should buy AMERICAN

Balls, Bats, Mittens, etc. I forgot that baseball mitts used to be called "mittens"! This very cool new ruler blotter is now almost 125 years old, and is in excellent condition. It came to my ruler collection as a gift from my husband, Tom, who bought it from ephemera dealer Scott Brasseur at the annual fair of The Ephemera Society of America, in March of this year.

There are many things to love about this blotter, and even more things to love about The Ephemera Society of America.

Gift -- Thomas A. Horrocks -- 19 March 2023

We still ah

This year is the tenth anniversary of the Marathon bombing, and if you want to read sometime truly touching, see President Obama's remarks at a memorial service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, in Boston. Today's Boston Globe Magazine hard copy ran a story by Obama speechwriter Terry Szuplat about the crafting of that speech, and it moved me to tears.

For the full remarks of Obama's speech, I was able to read this NYT article without a subscription: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/us/obamas-remarks-at-boston-service.html

 

Easter/spring 2023, #2

The second of two batches of paper bookmark rulers I made to help celebrate the spring season, including Easter.