Last week my roommate and I went to First Friday in downtown Scranton. While I was there my goal was to find an illustration to write a research paper on for the History of American Illustration class I’m taking. The illustration has to be dated somewhere between 1900-2000 so I figured the perfect place to look for something would be at a vintage store called On&On. In the past I’ve gone there to find inspiration and references for projects so I knew they would have something there. From vintage dolls, to old records, to Polaroid cameras and old cookbooks, it seems like they have a little bit of everything.

My roommate and I ended up looking around the store for about an hour. We looked through old postcards and magazine prints for a while until I came across a pile of books that were kind of hidden. I looked through a couple of the books and was really drawn to one called The Most of John Held Jr. The outside of the book is pretty beat up but inside it contains beautiful wood cut prints, watercolor paintings, and sculptures by John Held Jr. I think what I like the most about this book is that there is such a variety and when John Held Jr. made art he was always trying new things and did not stick to one particular medium. Some of his painting actually remind me of the way Vincent Van Gogh painted using lines, curves and allowing brush strokes to show.

After looking through the book I decided to buy it and it was only $5 which I thought was a good price. I also ended up walking out with a couple postcards as well. Now all I need to do is figure out what I am going to write my paper on. After finding this book I know I have a lot to chose from. Here are a couple examples of what I found.