w.m. finck's detroit special weekly time book

william muir finck was born on june 25th, 1854 in lyons, new york, which is nearly equidistant to rochester and syracuse and north of the finger lakes. his introduction to the production of overalls and such was in 1878 through his uncle, charles fitzsimmons, a man who was considered a pioneer in the manufacturing of overalls. finck was originally hired to work as a clerk in fitzsimmons' clothing store in penn yan, new york. soon after, he was promoted to manage his uncle's overall factory that supplied the store.

under finck’s management the overalls factory flourished and soon outgrew its original location. that growth, in addition to a local labor shortage, prompted fitzsimmons to move the factory to champlain street in detroit, michigan in 1885. finck had lived in detroit between the ages of 16 and 24, working for the detroit & milwaukee railroad, so he must have been familiar with the city and its booming manufacturing community.

the move initiated finck's official partnership with his uncle and the business was renamed fitzsimmons & finck. the partnership lasted about 6 years, until 1891, when he left to direct manufacturing for hamilton carhartt & company. his association with carhartt lasted 11 years and in april of 1902 finck left to strike out truly on his own, forming w.m. finck & company.

this time book, i believe, is w.m. finck & company's first and has content that makes it my favorite. the first line of copy in the essay “finck’s facts” enthusiastically identifies with unionized labor, then continues on for a few pages to describe the perspective with which the company would operate. The page before last is an endorsement written by the president and secretary of local 47, united garment workers of america, and is dated april 5, 1902. the date and tenor of that endorsement are details that convince me this was finck’s first time book.

and then there's the illustrations on the jacket, which are excellent drawings in their own right. the front is drawn in such a way that you see the burden of hard labor in the faces of the workers leaving the factory. the detail in the overalls the gentleman on the back cover is wearing is stunning. a railroader, carpenter, housepainter, founder, mason, and blacksmith are all represented throughout the copy that introduces the company and its philosophy to the consumer.

the respect that w.m. finck had for the workers that toiled in his factories and others is clearly illustrated in this time book and the advertising that followed is just as compelling. finck's products were as "high grade" as the visual culture that was created to promote them. attention to detail throughout the manufacturing and retailing process is what differentiated finck from the throngs of other manufacturers of the time. he understood clearly, in my opinion, his place in history and knew how to innovate with respect.

i don't want to give the wrong impression here and be accused of nostalgia. finck's philosophy very well may have been a necessity for the business' success. detroit was a hotbed of unionization in the early 1900's, and the reality of the market to which finck was catering was that it was heavily organized. strikes were at an all time high nationwide and numbered 3,162 in 1902 followed by 3,494 in 1903. just over half of those strikes concerned wages, and about 2% were "sympathy strikes", an action that was ordered by a union in support of striking brothers in a different trade. However, the quality of this particular time book, with the endorsement of the garment workers union bound between its jacket, makes me feel that w.m. finck's support of labor was sincere.

the oster manf'g. company overall girl

the oster manufacturing company was founded in 1893 in cleveland, ohio for the production of pipe threaders. oster's history as told by the company itself can be found on its own website. i like old tools, but i have to be honest with you, antique pipe threaders aren't my thing. i do, however, like advertising of women wearing overalls, preferably from before 1917, when overalls started to be designed and marketed towards women. this real photo postcard is definitely from before 1917, when a woman wearing overalls would be considered racy in some way.

the image was not fixed properly during processing which probably did not matter at the time, but now it is slowly turning a silvery gray. at least it will survive digitally in this condition as long as my blog lasts.

real photo postcards

here's a few highlights from my collection of real photo postcards. the card of the boy is dated 1909 on the back, and i believe the other two are from roughly the same period of time. each one has some detail that i find interesting: the boys' overalls are matching and have a single front pocket; the four men are wearing bandannas that we would consider huge by today's standards; the seated gentleman is wearing a nice pair of balmoral style boots. i can't afford mike disfarmer's pictures, so i buy real photo postcards like these instead.

deep craft interview

there's an interview with me at deep craft. check it out if your interested in reading about my life as a maker of things.

turner, beeton & company

john herbert turner and henry coppinger beeton established turner, beeton and company in 1878. turner directed the business, which was located in victoria, b.c., on the west coast of canada. beeton was the sole agent for the business in london, england, purchasing wholesale merchandise to be resold at the company’s victoria store on wharf street. previously the business was called turner, beeton, and tunstall, but in 1878 tunstall was shot in the infamous lincoln county cattle wars. that story, my friends, is too long for my blog but definitely worth looking up. tunstall’s life would make a great movie, maybe it already is, but i wouldn’t know as i rarely watch movies.

of the two partners in the business turner is the most interesting. details about his life are easily found if you search his name but, in short, he was the mayor of victoria from 1876-81. in 1886 he was elected to the british columbia legislature, served as finance minister, premier, and then finance minister again.

turner had the “big horn” shirt and overall factory up and running sometime in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s at 506 bastion square. in 1939 hall & co. took over the label and continue on with it today, but they don’t produce anything like what the women are sewing in this real photo postcard.

i’m fond of this image for a few reasons, for one my wife grew up in victoria. the other reasons actually have to do with the image itself. i’m pretty sure that the woman in the detail is sewing buttons onto striped overalls. at first i thought she was sewing the button holes, but there are all those boxes sitting next to her that look like they are for buttons, and i think there would be more cones of thread feeding that machine if it was a buttonholer. maybe there is a singer expert out there that could verify this for me.

and then there is the sign in the background that is actually the label art for the garments. i didn’t realize that it was label art until after i scanned the image. in the past, designers worked large and then photographically reduced their deigns. it is a lot easier to draw a letter or number that is 4” tall as opposed to 1/8” tall and when the design is reduced it looks way cleaner.

lecture at sonoma state university 09/22/09

if you live in northern california and would like to see a presentation of things that i like to make, i will be lecturing there next week. the talk is tuesday, september 22nd from 12:00 noon - 12:55 pm in room "art 102", sonoma state university, 1801 east cotati ave, rohnert park, ca 94928.

photo: todd hido

custom made early american furniture

this is a great roadside snapshot of what you would see driving by my grampa's place "the putter shop". the sign is what i really like about this picture, and it tops a structure that was a sort of easily closed showcase in the chance of sudden rain. as the shop was maybe a mile from the shores of lake erie this would have been a regular occurrence. the putter shop was set back from route 20 at least 100 feet so grampa would have all his kids take the furniture to the roadside to let travelers know the shop was back there. most of what you see in the picture is sized for children.