Mail Order Adventure Gear

From 1926, a vintage ad for mail order rifles and bayonets. This kind of thing makes great filler for faux newspaper and magazine clippings. Just click through for the high resolution version.


For comparison's sake, the $15 purchase price of a Krag carbine was roughly equivalent to 70% of the average unskilled factory worker's weekly salary. At least according to the wage table in this article.

Excavated Artifact

Jay King brings us this unusual item, an excavated portrayal of a Roman functionary. That's what the official documentation says, at least. Those familiar with certain obscure myth cycles may recognize the likeness of a quite different figure.

The Second Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition

The folks over at The Goat Island Project have uncovered a stash of patches and notebooks from the second Miskatonic University Antarctic expedition. Ordering information and more pictures are available at the link.



Update: In response to some emails, although I have no involvement with this project I heartily support it. One of the unique things about Lovecraft's Mythos is that it was an open source, shared world right from the beginning. I personally like material based on the existing canon, but the post-classic era is ripe for development. Frankly, the more people playing in the sandbox, the better.

Essex County Seal

Courtesy of Raven, in a comment over here, the official seal of Essex County, home to the fictional Arkham. Just click through for the high resolution version.

The Arkham Seal, Part Deux

What does the town seal of Arkham, Massachusetts look like?

That's the question I started with yesterday, driven by a desire to add a realistic touch to prop documents from Lovecraft's famed city. I could probably just cobble something together, or adapt an existing seal from the real world, and save myself a whole lot of effort. But where's the fun, much less the defining obsessiveness of true fandom, in that?

The wonderful Town and City Seals of Massachusetts provides detailed examples of the official insignia of every major municipality in the Commonwealth. Examining the seals from cities of comparable size and history to the fictional Arkham should provide us with some helpful design cues, helping the final product look as realistic as possible. We'll start off with Salem, the place most often cited as an inspiration for Lovecraft's creation.

The official seal of Salem, Massachusetts:



Notable elements include:

- A ship under full sail behind a native of the East Indies carrying a parasol. An appropriate device for a city that made it's fortunes from trade with the east.

- The dates of the city's founding and incorporation along the circumference in Latin

- The motto "To the furthest parts of the rich East", again in Latin, displayed in a ribbon device. Another nod to the city's extensive trade history.

- The dove of peace bearing an olive branch above the central shield. Somewhat ironic considering the hundreds of vessels from Salem bearing Letters of Marque during wartime.

Next we have the city of Brockton. Here's their official seal:



Notable elements include:

- The parlay between Chief Massasoit and Myles Standish at Sachem's Rock in 1649. This marked the purchase of the land where Brockport would eventually be.

- The beehive of industry.

- The globe of education.

- The electric bulb of progress. Brockton incorporated from the former Duxbury plantation lands in 1881 and was one of the first cities in the United States to be electrified.

- The two-headed snake symbol of Thulsa Doom's cult from the movie "Conan the Barbarian", directly under the beehive. I suspect this was just a decorative flourish, but it's funny to imagine the sigil of Yig being right out in the open for hundreds of years.


Next we have the official seal of Dover:

Notable elements include:

- A plain, two story meeting house, without a steeple or religious adornment. Dover broke away from the Town of Dedham so the inhabitants could follow their own path of worship in such a building.

- On the left, the town's first school house. Behind it is the highest elevation in the township, Pine Rock Hill.

- On the right, three Native Americans, the original settlers of the area. In the background is Pegan Hill, a native gathering place.

- A plow and sheaf of wheat at the top, symbolizing the town's agricultural history.

Finally, the official seal of Falmouth:

Notable elements include:

- Nobska Lighthouse, surrounded by gulls. Probably the most identifiable geographic landmark in the town.

- A plow, marking the emphasis on farming of the first settlers.

- A three-masted ship under full sail, commemorating the huge whaling fleet that called Falmouth home.

- "Suckanesset", the native name for the area, and "1602", the date the first European visited.

- A sprig of cranberries on either side of the main design.

After looking at these, and other designs from Massachusetts, I'm definitely getting some ideas for Arkham's seal. Many of the historical events that inspired the above imagery have close parallels in the history of Lovecraft's city, which should come as no great surprise. I'm going to take a few days to let the symbolism of the real seals marinate my brain and then start looking at specific correspondences with the Mythos canon. At this point I think Falmouth's seal is a good starting point to work from, since the town's history of an initially agricultural settlement that later developed into a significant seaport matches up with Arkham quite well.

The Arkham Seal

What does the town seal of Arkham, Massachusetts look like?

That's a thought that's been occupying my brain since I began thinking of doing some Arkham municipal documents. Realistically, the city should have a distinctive seal for official documents and property just like the real small cities that fill Massachusetts. Given that, the best source of inspiration for my fictional seal would be the ones used by cities of comparable size and history to Lovecraft's legend-haunted creation.

Every town and city in Massachusetts has an official seal to serve as an authenticity marking for the various forms of official paper that governments produce in abundance. Some of them date back to designs that existed before the United States was brought into existence, but the the majority were created after independence as settlements expanded and eventually incorporated. That process reached a crescendo in 1899, when the Commonwealth legislated that every municipality was required to have one within a year.

So where do we find pictures of the hundreds of seals in use over the years? Luckily, history obsessed antiquarians are more than the protagonists of Mythos fiction. The best record of the various seals in use is probably Town and City Seals of Massachusetts, a two volume set of books by Allan Forbes and Ralph M. Eastman published by the State Street Trust Company, a regional bank, in the 1950's. Back in those bygone days the books were given away as civic-minded premiums to potential customers of the bank, so it's easy to find single copies and complete sets on Ebay and Amazon.

Tomorrow I'll have some scans of interesting and inspirational examples for the Arkham seal project.

Cthulhu Fhtagn! Stanislaus Edition

From artist Justinian Stanislaus comes this absolutely fabulous Cthulhu statuette. The adorable color scheme and playfulness of the piece is enough to make me giggle like a schoolgirl in delight. Far too many artists fail to grasp the inherent sense of fun and frivolity in Lovecraft's works.










It's cute! It's pink! It has purple flowers! It's the kind of thing you'll only see here once a year. Happy April Fools Day.