I enjoy finding vintage ads that seem peculiar or out of place - not to mention out of time. Take this Grape Nuts ad torn from an early 20th century magazine. This depicts a young man of 15 and the supposed physique he has achieved Is due to the consumption of Grape Nuts and no meat. More important- he’s not just any boy, he’s the son of Elbert Hubbard. Elbert was a well known humorist, author, publisher and founder of the Arts and Crafts movement in Aurora NY (near Buffalo). The amazing part of the story is that while researching Elbert I learn that he’s published a book about the homes of American Statesman. “I know this book.” I went over to one of my stacks of books - mainly purchased out of curiosity. There it was “Little Journeys to the Home’s of American Statesman.” One of a volume of 14 books with similar titles. note: image of Henry Clay in lower right. Elbert and his wife came to a strange end as guests aboard the ill-fated Lusitania. A witness on board the ship recounted that instead of heading to the lifeboats they came out on deck and turned around and went back in and were lost when the ship went down. A few years earlier Elbert Hubbard had written of a woman who also went down with the HMS Titanic - claiming that it was the dignified way to die. #found #history #vintageadvertising #weirdhistory #grapenuts #marketing #books #rarebooks #estatesalefinds #urbanarcheology #foundastory

I enjoy finding vintage ads that seem peculiar or out of place - not to mention out of time. Take this Grape Nuts ad torn from an early 20th century magazine. This depicts a young man of 15 and the supposed physique he has achieved Is due to the consumption of Grape Nuts and no meat. More important- he’s not just any boy, he’s the son of Elbert Hubbard. Elbert was a well known humorist, author, publisher and founder of the Arts and Crafts movement in Aurora NY (near Buffalo). The amazing part of the story is that while researching Elbert I learn that he’s published a book about the homes of American Statesman. “I know this book.” I went over to one of my stacks of books - mainly purchased out of curiosity. There it was “Little Journeys to the Home’s of American Statesman.” One of a volume of 14 books with similar titles. note: image of Henry Clay in lower right. Elbert and his wife came to a strange end as guests aboard the ill-fated Lusitania. A witness on board the ship recounted that instead of heading to the lifeboats they came out on deck and turned around and went back in and were lost when the ship went down. A few years earlier Elbert Hubbard had written of a woman who also went down with the HMS Titanic - claiming that it was the dignified way to die. #history #vintageadvertising #weirdhistory #grapenuts #marketing #books #rarebooks #estatesalefinds #urbanarcheology #foundastory

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