The Sign of the Mermaid Trade Stamp & The Ex-Libris Bookplate of Elsie and Dick Thomas

Bear with me on this post because I'm indulging in one of my
obsessions that doesn't really pertain to Nankin but does concern the
Detroit area. John King Books, like most reputable book stores, has free
book racks in the atrium of their colossal warehouse. After I purchased
my ephemera I partook of the offer to take as many free books as I
wished.

Within the books The King's Minion by Rafael Sabatini
(1930) and Treading the Winepress by Ralph Connor (1925) was the book trade label "The Sign of the Mermaid".

Intrigued, I did some research. It
traces to a bookshop at 1014 E. Jefferson Avenue of Detroit. The
bookstore by that same name opened on October 26, 1926 and was operated
by Doris McMillan Pittman (later Hoover), granddaughter of Senator James
McMillan, in the converted home of her late grandfather.

Detroit Free Press, October 22, 1925

Detroit Free Press, January 21, 1934

The store
relocated to 17925 Kercheval Avenue, in Grosse Pointe in 1938.

Detroit Free Press, July 20, 1938

It seems that by the following year the Stockholm Restaurant, a Swedish smörgåsbord (supposedly the first in Detroit), had taken residence there, and persisted until around 1962. In 1963 The Playboy Club opened its door and was a mainstay for a decade before moving to another location in the city. The building still remains in some business capacity.

* * *

The ex-libris label of Elsie and Dick Thomas of 5083 Yorkshire Road,
Detroit, Michigan, is pasted onto the inside front cover of Delay in
the Sun by Anthony Thorne (1934). My goal is to remove the labels from
the books (with warm water and a butter knife) but the practice has
about a 50% failure rate so I'm a bit hesitant to attempt it. If you've
never explored ex-libris book plates and are into ephemera, I highly
recommend it.

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A Dudley Randall Poem in Milestone 2

I bought this Milestone 2 poetry Magazine at a Livonia estate sale this week. Milestone was the literary publication of Wayne (State) University and this second issue dates to 1949. While I don't recognize most of the names, Dudley Randall was both a nationally known poet and the librarian for the Wayne County General Hospital at Eloise via the Wayne County Library System. The poem featured is The Southern Road which was a revised version of the completed poem from 1948 that h as a handful or two of word differences between the two. I don't know if Randall edited the poem for later collected works editions or earlier but this link features it in its likely final form in 2009. Neither version particularly enchants me but the block print in the magazine is an added bonus.

A Cabinet Card of a Dead Man Lying in Repose From Wayne Photographer Susan Doolittle

The City of Wayne, Michigan was not a large village at the turn of the 20th century so it stands to reason that there wasn't a glut of photographers practicing their trade there. As such, the 3 cabinet cards and carte de visites that I own represents roughly a quarter of the early ones. Considering that the wives of Frank Hickok and William Corlett, first Village President of Wayne, took over after Frank's death in 1892 the list grows smaller beyond those two families. Had I snagged the Doolittle dead man cabinet card I'd be even that much more Wayne-rich in photographs. Speaking of Susan Doolittle, of whom I have learned very little about, it is interesting to note that Wayne had three women photographers in an era oft dominated by men in that very field. This photograph of a corpse is a startling example of her work.

Frederick Soop: Not An Equal Opportunity Restraunteer

Detroit Free Press , March 28, 1890 If you don't want to hear a racist tale of a suburban namesake then close your eyes now. As early as 1876 Frederick Soop had left his Belleville farm once again, having done a stint at the Hawkins House in Ypsilanti during the Civil War and the City Hotel in Detroit thereafter, and ventured off to Chatham, Ontario to run the Rutley Hotel , which was conducted as a Temperance House. Detroit Free Press , August 17, 1879 In 1879 he was searching for a good restaurant or small hotel to operate. Eventually he ended up on Washington Avenue near State Street running a dining hall which he ran until around 1890. Detroit Free Press , April 16, 1890 It was in 1888 when the aforementioned racial incident occurred at his dining establishment. It was then that William H. Haynes, a black doctor, sat down with his former classmate S. W. Barkwell for dinner. The men ordered but when the food was served none was placed before Mr. Haynes who, ironically, ha...

The Nankin Township Historical Society

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