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What is the Institute? A good question. It began as a repository for odd things I scanned - and by “scanned,” I mean I took pictures with a video camera, and used a frame grabber to get the images. Cheap scanners didn’t exist.
As time went on, anything that was “vintage” or “retro” and could be gently mocked went into the Institute.
The Gallery of Regrettable Food. The classic from 1997, it spawned two books. Still updated - with a huge addition in 2019, and more coming in 2021.
Interior Desecrations: bad interior design of the 60s and 70s.
The Gobbler: the Grooviest Motel in Wisconsin. Redone in 2019.
The Art of Art Frahm : the effect of celery on underwear elastic.
The Permanent Collection of Impermanent Art : what if we treated advertising illustration with the same pretentious analysis we use for museum art?
Yes, I'm taking on the entire century. Except for the 90s. This has been ten years in the making, and the 50s site - the pinnacle of the project, perhaps - debuts this year.
The Twenties . Updated in early 2021. There's magazines covers, and a rather significant selection of movie ads from Film Daily magazine, and some spicy - but SFW - publications.
The Thirties. More new items coming in 2021 as well.
Sears 1934: 100 pages from the catalog, scanned, color-corrected, and annotated.
Magazine ads . I don’t know how many, exactly. Lots.
Bygone hooch . A site devoted to brands that have passed from memory.
Magazine covers.
Music . Playlists of the hits of each year.
The 1933 World's Fair . Yeah, we need another site about this - but it has some stuff you might not have seen. Also - the 1939 World's Fair!