The American Sign Museum in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, preserves, archives, and displays a collection of signs. The museum also displays the equipment utilized in the design and manufacture of signs. Tod Swormstedt began working on the museum in 1999. It opened to the public in 2005.Lisa Cornwell.
Museum showcases 'sign garden'
. ''USA Today''. February 25, 2008. Retrieved on February 5, 2010.

Background

Swormstedt's family owns the signage industry trade journal ''Signs of the Times'', which has been published since 1906.Steven Rosen. "Cincy museum salutes signs of the times". ''Denver Post''. March 13, 2005. T10. Swormstedt's grandfather, H.C. Menefee, was the first editor of the publication, and purchased it for himself in 1911.Dave Hoekstra. "Signs stand up, say it loud". ''Chicago Sun-Times''. April 16, 2006. Travel, C1. Swormstedt had been working at the journal for over twenty years before becoming inspired to start a sign museum in 1999. His family provided $1 million for the project, and figures from the signage industry gave donations of their own. The museum was founded as a nonprofit corporation. Swormstedt considered building the museum in

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, St. Louis, Memphis, and other sites, but eventually settled on Cincinnati, the base of operations for ''Signs of the Times''.

Collection

Over 200 signs and other objects are on display at the museum, and over 3,800 items are cataloged.Meghan Mongillo (reporter).
American Sign Museum Moving
". FOX 19 News. Cincinnati, Ohio. January 21, 2010. Retrieved on February 6, 2010. The collection ranges from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s. Highlights of the collection include samples of gold leaf lettering on glass, a

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space progra ...

-like plastic orb from an Anaheim shopping center, a rotating neon windmill from a

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

donut shop,

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showcards, and a fiberglass Frisch's Big Boy statue with a slingshot in his pocket. (The slingshot was omitted from later models of the Big Boy statue.) One can also find signs from businesses such as Big Bear Stores,

Howard Johnson's Howard Johnson by Wyndham, still commonly referred to as Howard Johnson's, is an American hotel brand with over 200 hotels in 15 countries. It was also formerly a Chain store, restaurant chain, which at one time was the largest in the U.S., wit ...

, and Earl Scheib. Over the museum's entrance, visitors are greeted by a fiberglass genie from a

carpet company. In 2008, the museum acquired a single-arch 1963

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

sign from

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. The sign features McDonald's Speedee character, who was phased out in favor of Ronald McDonald in the 1960s.Steve Doyle.
McDonald's sign moving to Ohio
". ''Huntsville Times''. April 23, 2008. Retrieved on February 6, 2010. In 2009, the museum added a neon sign from Johnny’s Big Red Grill, once a popular restaurant among

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

students.

2007–2012: Growth

Many signs owned by the museum were too large to fit the original exhibit space. To better accommodate the collection, the museum began purchasing a property in Camp Washington, Cincinnati, in 2007. The new location is part of the Oesterlein Machine Company-Fashion Frocks, Inc. Complex, a

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

building.Cliff Radel
Sign Museum plans bigger home in Camp Washington
. ''Cincinnati Enquirer''. January 30, 2007. Retrieved on February 6, 2010. The museum opened in its new home in June 2012,About the Museum
. American Sign Museum. 2010. Retrieved on February 6, 2010. and the building displays about 500 signs and artifacts,Mike Harden.

. ''Columbus Dispatch''. February 22, 2009. Retrieved on February 6, 2010. many of which are on a faux streetscape in a town called "Signville". Neonworks of Cincinnati moved its business into the museum's new location and features a live exhibit showing visitors how they restore neon signs.

References

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External links

American Sign Museum
Official site Museums in Cincinnati Mass media museums in the United States Design museums in the United States Signage Industry museums in Ohio Neon lighting Museums established in 1999 1999 establishments in Ohio

Background

Collection

2007–2012: Growth

See also

References

External links