bad banana blog

Mary's Meadow Gold

 

Meadow Gold Dairy recently announced the closing of their 101-year-old plant located just two blocks from where I am sitting right now. It's a sad end to a local success story. The dairy operation that would eventually become Meadow Gold got its start a few miles south of here, in Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1894. While still known as Beatrice Foods, the company forged a unique partnership with a freelance artist fresh out of the Disney studios.
    Mary Blair had worked as an artist on Disney masterpieces such as Song of the South, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. In 1953, she left to pursue a career as a freelance illustrator and graphic artist. The artwork above, for calendars and packaging, was created in the mid 1950s. I remember the character being used into the 1980s.
    Mary would go back and work with Walt Disney, most notably bringing her unique style to the It's a Small World attraction for the 1964 World's Fair (later moved to Disneyland and replicated in other parks). You can also see her work in many Golden Books, still in print today.

Images via grickily.

Shocking

Illustrations from the 1931 electric safety book Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern. Twenty seven more vintage electrocution illustrations here (thanks to Bre Pettis).

Via Martin Klasch.

Visit the U.S.S.R.

Details from a brochure for the U.S.S.R. Pavilion at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels.

Via Grain Edit.

Excite Them!

Classic movie poster for The Dirty Dozen from 1967. Artist: Frank McCarthy.

Via Martin Klasch.

This is Cape Canaveral

A 1963 title from the "This is..." series, illustrated by Miroslav Sasek. You can read more about this book and the entire series here. More about Sasek here. (Love those palm trees!)

Via Rich Ernst's tumblelog.

Peelabanana!

Couldn't resist this one. Illustration from an ad for the United Food Company in the December, 1957 issue of Good Housekeeping. The ad also had recipes for Holiday Banana Quick Bread and, ahem, Banana Nog. Check out the Mid-Cent Xmas set on Flickr for more retro design goodies.

Homar's Bats

Los Renegados: Bats by Puerto Rico born artist Lorenzo Homar. Woodcut, 1963.

Via BibliOdyssey.

L'Art Arabe

In 1798, Napoleon assigned a group of artists to accompany him on his campaign against Egypt. Their job was to illustrate the art treasures of rare architectural treasures, paintings, carpets, and illustrated texts. After Napoleon failed in Egypt, the artists dispersed throughout Arab lands. It took French art historian Prisse d'Avennes more than twenty years to find those artists and compile their work. He later published the plates in 1869. Gorgeous. View more here.

Via BibliOdyssey.

Zonk! Foooo!! Splonk!

Check out this fun Flickr set of vintage comic book sounds (with an international flavor, no less).

Via Design Fckr.

The Industrial Body

In the early 20th century, Fritz Kahn created a series of illustrations and books on the workings of the human body using visual metaphors drawn from industrial society. It's just one small part of an extensive and fascinating online exhibit from the National Library of Medicine.