Wall Dog Murals

On North Mill Street in Pontiac, Illinois, the International Walldog Mural & Sign Art Museum preserves the murals, hand painted advertisements, and the history of the artists who painted them. 

It all started in the late 1880’s when it became very trendy to paint advertisement on the brick wall of a building, old barn, or early billboards. There have been artists who engaged in advertising painting and sign making for centuries, however, the artists who painted on buildings and barns would by 1900 become known as “Wall Dogs.” Some researchers attribute the name to the vast amount of hours that the artists would spend painting from ladders and scaffolding. Hence, “working like a dog!” It would not be long before an entire cottage industry of roaming artists traveling from town to town painting signs, buildings, and barns grew up from the trend.

Around 1895, the President of Coca-Cola Company, Asa Candler, hired a small army of artists to fan out throughout the United States and pay businesses and citizens to paint the familiar Coca-Cola logo on the sides of their buildings and barns. According to most documentation, Coca-Cola Company would continue this pay-and-paint advertising program until the late 1950’s. Many of these hand painted logos can still be found scattered throughout America and, to a small but growing group of preservationists, the faded logos have become roadside attractions.  Starting in the early 1990’s, a movement began to restore and repaint the famous Coca-Cola logos.

In 1935 John G. Carter, the owner of the roadside attraction called “Rock City” at Lookout Mountain, Georgia, had his famous logo, “See Rock City,” painted on the sides and roofs of barns. He contracted sign painter and Walldog legend, Clark Byers to deliver a few “See Rock City” logos on barns. Byers, who was being paid by the barn, painted 900 barns in 19 different states.

Coca-Cola and See Rock City are the most prevalent of the early Walldog works, and however faded, these antique advertising paintings can be found on buildings in nearly every town incorporated before 1950.  Historians are now trying to locate and document Walldog advertising from around the United States. There are literally thousands of hand painted ads including hotels, furniture stores, drug stores, car dealers, and livery stables.

Over the years I have photographed and kept dozens of these murals in small towns wherever I go. I never knew there was a particular genre of mural artist called wall dogs, but that makes it even more interesting. I have quite a few examples of these murals on my photo blog that you can visit HERE. Scroll through the photos and you might get a better feel for the historical interest that they have.

Interesting Math Trick

Saving Pieces of the Past

Andrew Stauffer is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Virginia, as well as the Director of the University’s NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship) program. NINES peer reviews and digitizes books from 1770-1920, as well as creates software tools to facilitate research and critical analysis of the material. 


Stauffer’s NINES program also sponsors a crowd-sourced, web-based project called Book Traces. This fascinating project asks participants to collect and document instances of library books in wide circulation published before 1923 that have writing in the margins or ephemera inserted. From the Book Traces website,

”Thousands of old library books bear fascinating traces of the past. Readers wrote in their books, and left notes, pictures, letters, flowers, locks of hair, and other things between their pages. We need your help identifying them because many are in danger of being discarded as libraries go digital. Books printed between 1820 and 1923 are at particular risk.  Help us prove the value of maintaining rich print collections in our libraries.”

My wife and I have found a real treasure trove of ephemera in various old books over the last few years. Among the more valuable items were a ribbon from a reunion of the Berdan Sharpshooters from the Civil War which we sold for a mid six figure price. Also a collection of frakturs, Pennsylvania German folk art from the early 19th century which sold for a similar price to the ribbon. We have found old letters, postcards, advertisement pamphlets, and dozens of other interesting pieces of history. We never buy an old book without checking for treasure between the pages.

Learn more about Book Traces at their website.

Camera Phone Hack

Presidential Facts

1. 8 Presidents of the U.S. never attended college:…Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, and Cleveland.

2. 14 Presidents served as vice president of the U.S:… J. Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson, Arthur, T. Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Nixon, L. Johnson, Ford, and George Bush.

3. 8 Presidents died in office:… W. Harrison, Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, F. Roosevelt, and Kennedy.

4. 32 Presidents served in the United States Military. Only one has received the Medal of Honor, Theodore Roosevelt.

5. 7 Presidents were born in Ohio: W.H. Harrison, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, B. Harrison, McKinley, Taft, Harding.

6. 2 Presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery: William H. Taft, John F. Kennedy

7. 44 Presidents have had pets in the White House. Goats, cows, dogs, cats, birds, and hamsters have graced the Presidents home.  The strangest of these have been, Jefferson’s Grizzly Bear, John Quincy Adams’s Alligator, Hayes’s Siamese Cat (the first in America) and Coolidge’s Raccoon.

8. James Buchanan was the only bachelor President of the U.S. His niece, Harriet Lane Johnson moved into the White House at the age of twenty-six to act as his official hostess. Most historians believe that Harriet was the first, “First Lady” by name.

9. Abraham Lincoln issued a pardon to the family’s pet turkey so it could not be killed and eaten during holidays.

10. William H. Harrison was the first sitting U.S. President to have his photograph taken.

11. William H. Taft was the first President to play golf and own a car.

12. Calvin Coolidge is the only U.S. President to be sworn in by his father.

13. Millard Fillmore changed the White House when he, added a cook stove, added a bathtub and built the first White House library.

14. Andrew Jackson was the first U.S. President to be born in a log cabin. (Waxhaws, South Carolina, March 15, 1767)

15. James Polk created the Department of the Interior on March 3, 1849. His last act as President.

16. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826. Jefferson died first, however Adams was unaware of this fact. His dying words: “Thomas Jefferson survives!”

17. James Garfield had amazing writing abilities. He could write in Latin with his right hand while writing in Greek with his left hand.

18. Gerald Ford was the only U.S. President to have not been elected as President or Vice-President.

19. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only U.S. President elected to 4 terms

20. Abraham Lincoln was the tallest U.S. Presidents, standing at 6’-4” tall.

21. James Madison was the smallest of all of the U.S. Presidents. He stood 5’- 4” and weighed 100 lbs. He was also the first President to serve ice cream in the White House.

22. William H. Taft was the first U. S. President to throw out a “First Pitch”, 1901.

23. James Monroe is the only President to have a foreign country named for him: Monrovia.

24. The “Teddy Bear” was named for Theodore Roosevelt.

25. John Quincy Adams enjoyed daily swims in the Potomac River.

26. Andrew Jackson once received a 1,235 pound block of cheese from loving admirers.

27. Zachary Taylor never voted in a presidential election.

28. James Madison had two Vice Presidents die while he was in office: VP George Clinton, VP Elbridge Gerry. Both died of heart attacks.

29. Grover Cleveland was the only U.S. President to serve two inconsecutive terms. #22 & #24. His whole name was Stephen Grover Cleveland.

30. Theodore Roosevelt renamed the “Presidential Mansion” to “The White House” in 1901.

31. William H. Harrison gave the longest inaugural speeches in U.S. history at a brutal 105 minutes. In the rain. He contracted a cold and died after only 31 days in office. As a point of mention, three U.S. Presidents served during the year of  1841. Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler.  

32. Andrew Jackson was the first sitting U.S. President to ride a train. (1833)

33. William McKinley was the first sitting U.S. President to ride in an automobile when he was transported by an electric ambulance after being shot by Leon Czolgosz September 5, 1901.

34. George Washington would bow to guest of the White House because he disliked physical contact. Thomas Jefferson implemented the handshake as the formal White House greeting.

35. The “S” in Harry S Truman doesn’t stand for anything; therefore, there is no period after his middle initial. The “S” in Ulysses S. Grant also doesn’t stand for anything. The “S” was a mistake on his West Point application. It stayed with him until his death.

36. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were once arrested together for taking a carriage ride in the countryside of Vermont on a Sunday, which violated the laws of that state.

Desert Island

Nancy Hart, Revolutionary Heroine

Nancy Ann Morgan Hart was born in 1735 in the Yadkin River Valley of Western North Carolina. Not long after her family moved to the Broad River Valley in Elbert County, Georgia. She was married at a young age to a Benjamin Hart from a prominent family. Among his descendants are Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. Senator from Missouri, and Kentucky Senator and orator, Henry Clay.

Although little is known about her early years in the Georgia frontier, it is known that Nancy, in adulthood, was a hardened frontierswoman, an excellent shot, feisty and hot headed. She stood nearly six feet tall and was severely scarred from a bout of smallpox. One early account of Nancy Hart states that she possessed, “no share of beauty—a fact she herself would have readily acknowledged, had she ever enjoyed an opportunity of looking into a mirror.”

When the American Revolution came to Elbert County, Nancy, a Whig and ardent patriot was already being referred to as “Wahatche” or, “War Woman,” by local Native American tribes. She felt it was her duty to eradicate British sympathizers and Tories from the region. With her husband fighting for the Georgia militia, Nancy would often disguise herself as a man and wander into British encampments to gather information regarding troop movements and battle plans. She is also thought to have been an active participant in the Battle of Kettle Creek on February 14, 1779. 

In one account of her heroism, British forces descended upon her home demanding food. She sat the six soldiers down and began to feed them. During the meal, Nancy caught the troopers by surprise and took all six captive. Turning the prisoners over to Whig officials, she demanded that they be summarily hung for stealing her food. A subsequent discovery, in 1912, of six skeletons, thought to be over one hundred years old near the site of her former home may substantiate this fabled tale.

Nancy Hart continued to live in the Georgia frontier with her husband and eight children, six sons and two daughters, until the death of Benjamin in the late 1790s. A few years later, around 1803, Nancy’s oldest son John Hart moved the family to Henderson County, Kentucky. Nancy Hart lived out her remaining years there, passing away in 1830.

In the years that have followed her passing, Nancy Ann Morgan Hart has been recognized by Georgia officials as a major figure in the state’s history and has been memorialized numerous times by the state and individual organizations since her death. The Hartwell Dam and Hartwell Lake, created in 1962 and located north of Augusta, Georgia, are both named in her honor. The neighboring county to the north of Elbert County, was renamed Hart County, in honor of Nancy Hart. She is also found memorialized in name by Hart State Park and the Nancy Hart Highway, or Georgia Route 77. The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Milledgeville, Georgia chapter is the Nancy Hart Chapter. In 1997, Nancy was inducted into Georgia Women of Achievement, which recognizes and honors women of Georgia who have contributed to the state’s development.

12,000 Year Old Skeleton May Answer Question About Native American Migration

Scientists have long been somewhat confounded by a mystery of how the Americas were first settled. The first people who walked across the Bering Strait from Asia around 20,000 years ago are the ancestors of Native Americans, yet modern people look rather different from those first immigrants. A theory that explains this difference is that other migrations took place afterward, and the different waves of immigrants interbred. DNA evidence from a skeleton found in an underwater cave now sheds some light on the question.

Between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago, a 15-year-old girl wandered into a cave now called Hoyo Negro (“black hole”) on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and died, apparently from a fall in the darkness of the cave into a 150 foot hole. Then the Ice Age glaciers melted and the cave was filled with water. In 2007, divers discovered her skeleton on a ledge, her skull at rest on an arm bone. Ribs and a broken pelvis lay nearby. Her upside-down skull with intact teeth caught the eye of a man in scuba gear.

The divers contacted archeologist Pilar Luna of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, and with support from the National Geographic Society they continued to explore the pit and document the fossils at the bottom, including two saber-toothed cats, six bears, three cougars and two ground sloths.

A series of delicate measurements followed. Scientists examined material scraped from the surface of the bones, and used multiple techniques to probe one of Naia’s molars. They estimated the age of the skeleton at 12,000 to 13,000 years old.

Tests on mitochondrial DNA taken from Naia show that she had a genetic marker common today across the Americas, one that scientists say evolved in a prehistoric population that had been isolated for thousands of years in Beringia, the land mass between Alaska and Siberia that formed a bridge between the continents during the Ice Ages.



Thus, according to the report published in the journal, Science, the Native Americans and the Paleoamericans are the same people, descended from the same Beringia population. They just look different because of recent, relatively rapid, human evolution, and not the result of subsequent migrations of peoples into the Americas.

“This is truly an extraordinary discovery,” said Yemane Asmerom, a geochemist at the University of New Mexico who co-wrote the report. He compared Hoyo Negro to the Awash Valley of Ethi­o­pia, the site of the 1974 discovery of “Lucy,” an early human ancestor.

Most scientists have assumed that the first humans to come to the Americas traveled from Eurasia across the Bering land bridge that existed before the oceans rose after the Ice Ages. But there is great debate about whether this represented a single migratory event or multiple pulses of people from different parts of Eurasia and via different routes, including a coastal migration.

Adding to the mystery is that the Paleoamericans, such as Naia, didn’t look like later Native Americans. Naia had a small, projecting face, with narrow cheekbones, wide-set eyes and a prominent forehead. Native Americans of later millennia tended to have broader, longer, flatter faces, and rounder skulls, said James Chatters, an independent researcher and the lead author of the paper.

The distinct morphology of the Paleoamericans is most famously found in the “Kennewick Man,” a 9,000-year-old skeleton discovered two decades ago along the Columbia River in Washington state. Facial reconstruction resulted in someone who looked a bit like the actor Patrick Stewart (“Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “X-Men”). Scientists theorized that he could have been related to populations in East Asia that spread along the coast and eventually colonized Polynesia. Under that scenario, more recent Native Americans could be descended from a separate migratory population.

Chatters said in an interview, “For 20 years I’ve been trying to understand why the early people looked different. The morphology of the later people is so different from the early ones that they don’t appear to be part of the same population.”

He went on: “Do they come from different parts of the world? This comes back with the answer, probably not.”

One of the co-authors of the paper, Deborah Bolnick, an anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin, said the new genetic tests support the hypothesis of a single ancestral population for Native Americans.

“It’s a lineage that we see across the Americas,” she said, “and a variety of different studies, different lines of evidence over several decades — archaeological studies, genetic studies, morphological studies — all suggest that Native Americans can be traced to a Beringian source population.”

Douglas Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and a leading expert on the Kennewick Man, cautioned that the new study is based on “a sample of one.” He said he hadn’t read the paper — titled “Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton and
mtDNA Link Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans” — and would like to see more genetic evidence to bolster the report’s central hypothesis.

When there is a rapid change in the appearance of a population, he said, “I have to think you’re talking about migrations and people coming in.”

But, he added, “I think it’s a great discovery.”

The Cost of Bottled Water

Frederick Douglass Quote