Focus on The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door and explain the Signatures.
Approximately 25 autographs had been identified and connected to their respective owners by the time the University of Texas obtained the door in 1960. As of 2021, only 47 of the 242 total signatures remained unidentified. Two individuals, Laurie York Erskine and Don Marquis, signed the door on two separate occasions, and a handful of signatures are from fictional characters. During research for the 2011 exhibition historians separated the known signatures into five major groups: writing, publishing, visual arts, performance, and social groups. Many names are featured in more than one category, as day jobs overlapped with hobbies and social groups that all intersected at Frank Shay's Bookshop.A wide selection of those involved in the 1920s literary scene in New York City and beyond signed The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door. Many worked as publishers, librarians, booksellers, and both magazine and book editors. Signatures included in the writing category consist of those of poets, historians, translators, critics, fiction and travel writers, playwrights, humorists, journalists, and screenwriters. Many of the individuals in this category had their writings censored by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, an organization that claimed to supervise public morality.The performance category of signatures includes theater directors, stage actors, those employed in the early film industry, and members of theater troupes like the Provincetown Players and the Washington Square Players. Visual artists who signed The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door included architects, sculptors, cartoonists, photographers, industrial designers, illustrators, typographers and more. Both the Art Students League and the 1913 Armory Show are represented by a handful of signatures.At least one member of the following social groups signed The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door: Skull and Bones, Three Hours for Lunch Club, Algonquin Round Table, and the Bohemian Club. Several politicians, teachers, seafarers, and Greenwich Village business owners also signed the door. Additionally, thirty-two signatures have been identified as belonging to men who served as soldiers or war correspondents in World War I.
censored magazine Three Hours for Lunch Club Greenwich Village industrial design New York Society for the Suppression of Vice Art Students League typographer critics theater directors University of Texas Laurie York Erskine travel writers public morality Washington Square Players book editor Bohemian Algonquin Round Table theater troupes cartoonist theater director Armory Show Bohemian Club Skull and Bones Don Marquis 1913 Armory Show Signature Provincetown Players war correspondent World War I typographers