Mel Kadel and Travis Millard share a sketch book they found from 1913!
Mook and Fudge present,
LOST: 1913 / FOUND: 2006

So we found this treasure in a box of trash at the flea market that we like to show to friends who come over. But this thing is so unique and rare, Mel and I decided to shoot it and post this for all the Fecally Faced.

Basically Mel found a book in a box of random junk titled "The Conspiracy" © 1913. When we first started flipping through, it seemed like a rare misprint. The first 12 pages is printed with the text, and the rest of the book is 300+ pages of beautiful oxidized old-ass blank paper; good for drawing. But someone had already beaten us to that idea... and by that i mean, as we flipped, we discovered about 40 pages of ink drawings from a man living in Chicago in 1913. This is a totally lost sketchbook from almost 100 years ago, found randomly by Mel and I, and we'd like to share it with you folks. We don't know who it belonged to because there's no signature or markings of ownership anywhere, but we've poured over these pages many times, and we have some theories about who it belonged to. I'll try and point out some clues along the way... -Mel Kadel & Travis Millard

The following is the section of lost drawings we found as they appear in the book...

This is one of two loose pages that have fallen out of the spine. The digi-pics wash out how ancient and rare this book is to hold, so I scanned this to give you a better idea of the paper quality...

The book has been closed for so long, the ink has transferred a mirror image to the facing page on some of these.

The drawing reads, "Part of Chicago's EFFICIENT Police Dept." Throughout this sketchbook, the man seems like he's drawing from his daily existence in a comic sense, and through that you get an idea of what life looked like for him, like the light pole, or the cop and bobby stick.

This is obviously a self portrait of the man at his job. We know he waited tables.

The next set of drawings seem like a short series based on this character and his day. The text reads "JONES GOES OUT FOR A SWIM."

This reads, "IT IS A HOT SUNNY DAY."

reads: "A GOOD SWIM."

reads, "OF COURSE A SUN BATH."

reads, "AND A CANOE RIDE."

reads, "HOMEWARD BOUND"

reads, "A PLEASANT DAY AT THE OFFICE"

Now, forgive me if i'm reaching, but it seems like that above drawing and this one suggest he's doing some part-time commercial work too. This drawing looks like a sketch for a Macy's ad maybe?

some nice bathing suit action...

This one is the most cryptic and inspiring drawings to me in the book. It reads, "Some things i have seen...." This is also one of the other loose drawings fallen from the spine. We scanned it more closely too...

"I WORK IN A EATS HOUSE. A FEW SKETCHES---", maybe some bored sketches on the job?

"A friend of mine who attends the school". ...so we figure he was attending a Chicago school.

This page is confident evidence of time and place for this book. The text reads, "Aug.16 1913, PERRY CARNIVAL. Chicago. MISS BROADWICK LEAPS 2000 FEET"

"THE HYDROPLANES ATTRACTED ATTENTION"

Now here's where our theories get fuzzy, ...with only a few drawings left, they all seem to become somewhat militaristic. Men in sailor suits, ruminations on military generals, the onslaught of WW1, and this reads, "THERE ARE LOTS OF SAILORS IN TOWN".

"THE NOBLE OFFICERS ARE HANDSOME YET STERN"

"THE 'NIAGRA' LOOKED SOMETHING LIKE THIS."

"THE FIRE BOAT"

"THE ARMY COOK AND THE REASON WHY HE DOES NOT NEED ANY EXPERIENCE."

This is the last drawing from the sketches, save for a few very light gestural pencil renderings. The text starts in ink and fades to pencil reading, "THE ELEVATED R.R. GUARD... ALL ABOARD FOR RAVENSWOOD. LET'EM OUT PLEASE! WATCH YOUR STEP AN' MAKE UT JUST A LITTLE LIV'LY! WATCH YOUR STEP!"

and that's it. From there it pretty much goes blank to the end. So where does this leave us? Well, to give a little context to these drawings, ...in 1913, Robert Johnson, of the Mississippi Delta Blues, was 4 years old. Windsor McKaye's "Nemo in Slumberland" had run in the New York Herald from 1905 - 1910, (this being perhaps the 1st popular comic strip in the United States). World War One officially began in 1914. Woodrow Wilson was president. This is 7 years BEFORE the act of prohibition was passed.

Pretty nuts huh? If you make it over to the cabin some night, we'll drink beers over this. And since this is a Fecal blog, how can we resist some drunk party shots? i mean, it can't all be a pretentious art history lesson right??? But, in keeping with the "history" aspect of this posting, i decided to dig up some old flicks of a frat party me and some friends crashed one night in Kansas, 1994. We posed as the "Party Pic Guys".

-Mel Kadel & Travis Millard {moscomment}